Does an LLM Gateway Add Latency?

Any extra hop adds some time. The question is how much, compared with the seconds a model takes to answer, and what you get back.

Quick answer

A gateway adds a network hop, which is usually small next to model generation time. Caching and routing to faster providers can lower total latency.

Where latency comes from

Network to the gateway and on to the provider.
Model queueing and time to first token.
Generation time, which grows with output length.

How a gateway can make things faster

Routing to the provider with the best current latency.
Failover away from slow or failing providers.
Cached answers that skip the model entirely.
Prompt caching, which can reduce time to first token on long prompts.

What to measure

Compare p50 and p95 time to first token and total time, with and without the gateway, on the same requests. apicuts runs on Cloudflare's global network and reports latency next to cost in your dashboard. See reliability.

Frequently asked questions

How much latency does an LLM gateway add?

Typically a small network hop, measured in milliseconds, against model times measured in hundreds of milliseconds to seconds. Measure it on your traffic.

Can a gateway reduce latency?

Yes, through caching, failover and routing to faster providers.

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