When Your 1B Model Can Handle 80% of Queries: The Mathematics and Architecture of LLM Routing
Production LLM deployment faces a fundamental cost-performance dilemma. A single model handling all requests wastes resources on simple queries while struggling with complex ones. The solution: intelligent routing systems that match computational resources to query requirements. The 80/20 Rule of LLM Workloads Analysis of production workloads reveals a striking pattern: approximately 80% of queries can be handled by smaller, cheaper models. The remaining 20% require more capable models—but they consume disproportionately more resources. Static model deployment ignores this distribution, leading to: ...