Model routing | 4 min
Try Model Routing Before Buying GPUs
Private inference can be powerful, but routing and caching often expose faster savings with less operational risk.
Self-hosted inference is attractive when a company sees a large API bill, but GPUs are not automatically cheaper. Utilization, staffing, reliability, model quality, and latency all matter.
Model routing usually comes first because it preserves optionality. A routing layer can send simple requests to smaller models, keep hard requests on frontier models, and give the team data about which workloads are actually candidates for private inference.
Once the data is clear, private GPUs become a targeted decision instead of a reaction. That is where the economics can become very strong.
Want this applied to your own usage?
TokenShred turns these principles into a concrete audit of your model mix, routing paths, prompt budgets, and private inference economics.
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