Weave Router vs LiteLLM: router or gateway, which do you need?
LiteLLM gives your platform one API for 100+ LLM providers. Weave Router decides which model each coding prompt actually deserves, inside Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor. They solve different problems, and many teams run both. Here's the full breakdown.
Weave Router routes each prompt to the best quality-per-token model inside Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor. LiteLLM is an open-source AI gateway: one OpenAI-compatible API in front of 100+ providers, with load balancing, fallbacks, and cost tracking, that you host and operate yourself.
Teams typically choose Weave Router when the goal is cutting coding-agent token spend with zero infrastructure. Teams typically choose LiteLLM when a platform team needs to standardize LLM access across many applications. The two are complementary, not competitors.
At a glance
How Weave Router and LiteLLM compare
Compare
Weave Router
LiteLLM (litellm.ai)
Core approach
Learned routing: every prompt goes to the best quality-per-token model
Unified API gateway with config-based routing and load balancing
Routing signal
Prompt difficulty vs. model capability, per prompt
Rules, weights, and availability, not prompt content
Where it runs
Inside Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor, no infrastructure
Self-hosted proxy you deploy, typically with Postgres and Redis
Ops burden
None: nothing to deploy or maintain
You run, scale, and maintain the gateway yourself
Time to value
5-minute setup; free to start
Deployment and configuration, plus ongoing operations
Pricing
Free to get started; source code available
Free open source; enterprise tiers from about $250/month, plus your hosting
Model coverage
Frontier and efficient models across major providers
100+ providers behind one OpenAI-compatible API
Best for
Cutting coding-agent token spend for engineering teams
Platform teams standardizing LLM access across applications
What is Weave Router?
Weave Router is the prompt router that doubles your token runway. It routes each prompt to the best quality-per-token model, right inside the tools your engineers already use: Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor. Easy prompts stop paying frontier prices and hard prompts still get frontier models, so the same token budget ships roughly twice as much work. There is nothing to host: setup takes about five minutes, the source code is available, and it's free to get started. Weave Router is built by Weave, the engineering intelligence platform trusted by 500+ organizations.
What is LiteLLM?
LiteLLM (litellm.ai), by BerriAI, is an open-source AI gateway: a Python SDK and proxy server that lets you call 100+ LLM providers through one OpenAI-compatible API, with virtual keys, spend tracking, guardrails, load balancing, and an admin dashboard. It has the widest provider coverage and one of the largest communities in the space, free under an open-source license with enterprise tiers from roughly $250/month. It's excellent infrastructure. But a gateway standardizes access to models; it doesn't decide what quality each individual prompt deserves.
The key difference
A gateway standardizes access. A router decides.
LiteLLM's approach
LiteLLM puts one endpoint in front of every provider, then routes by the rules you configure: weights, fallbacks, load balancing, and budgets. Every prompt hitting the same config gets the same treatment, whether it's a one-line docstring or a gnarly concurrency bug. And the proxy, its database, and its uptime are yours to operate.
Weave Router's approach
Weave Router looks at each prompt and routes it to the model with the best quality-per-token for that specific piece of work. Easy prompts go to efficient models, hard prompts get frontier ones, automatically, inside Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor, with no proxy to deploy and nothing to maintain.
Many teams run both: LiteLLM as the gateway for their applications, Weave Router where the coding tokens actually burn.
Why Weave Router
Why teams choose Weave Router over LiteLLM for coding spend
Per-prompt intelligence
Config rules treat every prompt the same. Weave Router scores each one and matches it to the model with the best quality-per-token for that work.
Zero infrastructure
No proxy, no Postgres, no Redis, no pager duty. Weave Router works inside your coding tools with nothing to deploy.
Built for coding tools
Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor don't route through your gateway. Weave Router lives where those tokens are actually spent.
Doubles your token runway
Load balancing spreads cost; it doesn't reduce it. Quality-per-token routing takes the same budget roughly twice as far.
Source code available
Like LiteLLM, Weave Router isn't a black box: the source is available for your team to inspect.
Free to start, no sales call
Sign up at router.workweave.ai and route your first prompts today, in about the time it takes to read a helm chart.
When LiteLLM might be the better fit
We'd rather you pick the right tool than just pick us. If a platform team needs one standardized API across many applications, with virtual keys, guardrails, spend tracking, and self-hosting for compliance, LiteLLM is the most mature open-source gateway there is, with the widest provider coverage and a huge community. Nothing about Weave Router replaces that. But if the spend you're trying to fix is the tokens your engineers burn in Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor, a gateway can't see those prompts. Weave Router can, and routing them is all it does.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a router and a gateway?
A gateway like LiteLLM standardizes access: one API, many providers, routed by rules you configure. A router like Weave Router makes a decision per prompt: which model delivers the best quality for the tokens it costs. Gateways manage traffic; routers optimize it.
Does Weave Router replace LiteLLM?
No, they do different jobs. LiteLLM standardizes LLM access for your applications; Weave Router cuts token spend inside your engineers' coding tools. Plenty of teams run both.
Do I need to host anything to use Weave Router?
No. There's no proxy to deploy and no database to run. Weave Router works inside Codex, Claude Code, and Cursor, and setup takes about five minutes.
How much can Weave Router save my team?
Weave Router routes each prompt to the best quality-per-token model, which roughly doubles how far a token budget goes on typical engineering workloads. Try the savings calculator on the Router product page for an estimate based on your usage.
Is Weave Router open like LiteLLM?
Weave Router's source code is available, so you can inspect exactly how routing decisions are made, the same transparency you're used to from open-source tooling.
Source code available. Start taking your token budget twice as far.
Get started in 5 minutes or book a demo with our team.
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