Cost-Aware Routing
Cost-aware routing automatically sends each AI request to the lowest-cost model that meets the quality bar and policy set for it, without changing application code.
Most applications hard-code one model for every request, so a support-ticket summary pays the same list price as a hard reasoning task. Cost-aware routing moves that decision out of the application and into the control plane: a routing rule looks at each request (the task, the team, the tier, the policy that applies) and sends it to the cheapest model that still meets the quality bar you set. Frontier models stay reserved for the work that needs them.
Because the choice happens where the request passes through, applications keep calling one endpoint and the routing rules change without a redeploy. The same rules can enforce policy, not just price: a team that is only approved for certain models is routed within that list.
The savings depend on the mix. Workloads heavy on classification, extraction, and summarization have the most headroom; workloads that genuinely need frontier reasoning have less. Across use cases, routing to cheaper models can lower model costs by up to ~30%, depending on use case. That is a range, never a guarantee.
How Behest does it
Cost-aware routing is the optimization capability of Behest, the control plane for enterprise AI. It runs alongside AI Token FinOps (the cost-control layer) and AI Governance, so every routed call is attributed to a user, project, and session, checked against its budget, and kept inside the model allowlist for that team. Routing covers OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, and others. Cost-aware routing is included on the Business and Enterprise plans; see pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Can Behest reduce our AI costs?
Yes, in two ways. Attribution and hard budgets stop waste and overruns before the invoice arrives, and cost-aware routing sends each request to the cheapest model that meets your quality bar, for up to ~30% lower AI costs depending on use case. Because Behest is a flat SaaS license rather than a percentage of spend, the savings stay yours.