AI API Gateway vs AI API Aggregator vs Direct Model APIs

Production teams usually have three choices:

Option	Best for
Direct model APIs	One provider, vendor-native features
AI API aggregator	Fast access to many models
AI API gateway	Routing, fallback, logging, usage, cost controls

On 2026-07-02, Crazyrouter was tested with:

Base URL: https://cn.crazyrouter.com/v1
GET /v1/models: HTTP 200
Model count returned: 165
POST /v1/chat/completions:
  model: gemini-3.1-flash-lite
  response_id: chatcmpl-202607021011348008847081owgGzoV
  output: AI gateway decision test OK

The main production lesson: do not choose based on model count alone. Validate visible output, finish reason, usage fields, latency, error envelopes, and fallback behavior.

Full article: https://crazyrouter.com/blog/ai-api-gateway-vs-aggregator-vs-direct-model-apis?utm_source=qiita&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=ai_gateway_vs_aggregator_20260702&utm_content=qiita_ai-api-gateway-vs-aggregator_20260702__canonical&utm_term=AI%20API%20gateway