Architecture7 min read
OpenRouter AI API: Multi-Model Routing Guide
Use OpenRouter's AI API to call many models through one OpenAI-compatible endpoint — pricing, keys, and when aggregators beat direct vendor accounts.
Topic
Architecture
Design patterns for AI-powered systems: provider abstraction, streaming, caching, retries, and evaluating API providers for your stack.
12 articles
Architecture8 min read
AI Agents API: Tools, Loops & Billing
AI agents API patterns for developers — tool calling, multi-step loops, token costs, and why agent traffic breaks naive API budgets.
Architecture7 min read
Grok AI API & xAI API for Developers
Grok AI API and xAI API overview: access, pricing shape, use cases, and how Grok compares to OpenAI and Gemini for product integrations.
Architecture8 min read
Groq, Together & Azure AI API Compared
Groq AI API, Together AI API, and Azure AI API — speed, hosting, pricing models, and when each beats default OpenAI or Google paths.
Architecture8 min read
AI API Rate Limits Explained: RPM, TPM, and "Unlimited" Plans
Why no AI API is truly without limits, how rate caps work, and how flat-rate fair-use differs from pay-per-token throttling.
Architecture8 min read
Can I Use Multiple AI APIs to Save Money?
A hybrid AI API strategy: route tasks to the cheapest suitable provider, manage keys and latency, and know when one flat-rate key is simpler.
Architecture8 min read
Can I Run AI Models Locally Without Paying Monthly?
Yes — run open-weight LLMs on your own hardware with Ollama and similar tools. Learn costs, limits, and when a flat-rate cloud API is still cheaper.
Architecture9 min read
Open Source AI Models vs Paid APIs: Which Should You Use?
Compare self-hosted open-weight models with paid AI APIs on cost, quality, ops burden, and privacy — with a decision matrix for teams.
Architecture7 min read
AI API Error Handling and Retries: A Production Playbook
Handle rate limits, timeouts, and malformed streams from AI APIs — with exponential backoff, idempotency, and user-facing fallbacks.
Architecture10 min read
RAG Architecture for Startups: A Minimal Stack with an AI API
Retrieval-augmented generation without overbuilding: chunking, embeddings, vector search, and when a simple FAQ index is enough for v1.
Architecture7 min read
AI API Streaming Explained: Server-Sent Events vs WebSockets for LLM Apps
When to use SSE, WebSockets, or plain HTTP for AI API streaming — latency, proxies, reconnection, and what most chat products implement today.
Architecture9 min read
Building Production-Ready AI Features in SaaS Applications
A guide to architecting AI-powered features that are reliable, scalable, and maintainable — from initial integration to running in production at scale.
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