Blog
Routing, verification, and cost.
Explainers and comparisons on how LLM routing actually works, what it can and can’t save you, and where the honest limits are. Written by the team building llm11.
September 21, 2026
LiteLLM vs OpenRouter: which one do you actually need
LiteLLM is a self-hosted proxy you run yourself. OpenRouter is a hosted API in front of hundreds of models. They get compared constantly in passing and almost never head to head. Here is the actual decision.
- comparison
- infrastructure
- routing
September 21, 2026
The routing cost nobody puts on the invoice: losing your prompt cache
Provider-side prompt caching gives large discounts on repeated calls to the same model. Route that request to a different model instead and you lose the cache hit, which is a real cost that most routing savings figures simply don't count.
- caching
- cost
- routing
- honesty
September 21, 2026
What is LLM routing, and when does it actually save money
A router sends each request to the model that can handle it for the least money. The idea is simple. The part everyone glosses over is how the router decides, and why that decision is harder than it looks.
- explainer
- routing
- cost