Model Selection Strategies

Model selection strategies let you customize how the AI Gateway chooses which model to use for requests. Using CEL (Common Expression Language) expressions, you can filter, sort, and prioritize models based on performance metrics, cost, features, and custom metadata.

When to use selection strategies

Selection strategies are useful when:

Clients use ngrok/auto or omit the model field
You want to prefer certain models over others
You need performance-based routing (lowest latency, lowest error rate)
You want cost optimization (cheapest models first)
You need feature-based filtering (only models with tool calling)

Basic configuration

Define strategies in your Traffic Policy:

on_http_request:
  - type: ai-gateway
    config:
      model_selection:
        strategy:
          - "ai.models.filter(m, m.provider_id == 'openai')"
          - "ai.models"

How strategies execute

Strategies execute in order until one returns at least one model:

model_selection:
  strategy:
    - "ai.models.filter(m, m.provider_id == 'openai')"   # Try first
    - "ai.models.filter(m, m.provider_id == 'anthropic')" # Try if first returns empty
    - "ai.models"                                          # Fallback to all models

If a strategy returns no models, the gateway tries the next strategy. Always include a fallback strategy (like ai.models) to ensure requests don’t fail.

Client model priority

When clients specify models in their request, selection strategies act as filters only:

Strategies can filter OUT models but cannot ADD models the client didn’t request
The client’s preferred order is preserved (model field first, then models array entries)
If strategies filter out all client-specified models, the request fails with an error

This ensures clients get predictable behavior—if they ask for gpt-4o, they won’t unexpectedly get claude-3-5-sonnet even if your strategy prefers Anthropic.

Common patterns

Provider priority

Prefer a specific provider, with fallbacks:

model_selection:
  strategy:
    - "ai.models.filter(m, m.provider_id == 'openai')"
    - "ai.models.filter(m, m.provider_id == 'anthropic')"
    - "ai.models"

Cost optimization

Prefer cheaper models:

model_selection:
  strategy:
    - "ai.models.filter(m, m.id.contains('mini'))"
    - "ai.models.sortBy('price')"
    - "ai.models"

Performance-based

Prefer low-latency, reliable models:

model_selection:
  strategy:
    - "ai.models.filter(m, m.metrics.global.latency.upstream_ms_p95 < 1500 && m.metrics.global.error_rate.total < 0.01)"
    - "ai.models"

Feature-based

Only models with specific capabilities:

model_selection:
  strategy:
    - "ai.models.filter(m, 'tool-calling' in m.supported_features)"
    - "ai.models"

Geographic filtering

Only models in specific regions:

model_selection:
  strategy:
    - "ai.models.inCountryCode('US')"
    - "ai.models"

Metadata-based

Use custom metadata for filtering:

providers:
  - id: "openai"
    models:
      - id: "gpt-4o"
        metadata:
          tier: "premium"
          approved: true
      - id: "gpt-4o-mini"
        metadata:
          tier: "budget"
          approved: true

model_selection:
  strategy:
    - "ai.models.filter(m, m.metadata.tier == 'budget')"
    - "ai.models"

Known models only

Reject unknown pass-through models (only allow models in the catalog):

model_selection:
  strategy:
    - "ai.models.filter(m, m.known)"

This prevents clients from requesting arbitrary model names that get passed through to providers.

Available functions

Filtering

Function	Description	Example
`filter(predicate)`	Filter by condition	`ai.models.filter(m, m.provider_id == 'openai')`
`only(ids)`	Include only specific models	`ai.models.only(['gpt-4o', 'claude-3-5-sonnet'])`
`ignore(ids)`	Exclude specific models	`ai.models.ignore(['gpt-3.5-turbo'])`
`onlyProviders(ids)`	Include only specific providers	`ai.models.onlyProviders(['openai', 'anthropic'])`
`ignoreProviders(ids)`	Exclude specific providers	`ai.models.ignoreProviders(['google'])`
`onlyAuthors(ids)`	Include only specific authors	`ai.models.onlyAuthors(['openai'])`
`ignoreAuthors(ids)`	Exclude specific authors	`ai.models.ignoreAuthors(['meta'])`

Geographic

Function	Description	Example
`inRegion(code)`	Models available in region	`ai.models.inRegion('us-east-1')`
`inCountryCode(code)`	Models available in country	`ai.models.inCountryCode('US')`

Cost

Function	Description	Example
`underCost(type, max)`	Models under price threshold	`ai.models.underCost('text.input', 1.0)`
`sortBy('price')`	Sort by price (cheapest first)	`ai.models.sortBy('price')`

Selection

Function	Description	Example
`random()`	Select one random model	`ai.models.random()`
`randomize()`	Shuffle model order	`ai.models.randomize()`
`[index]`	Select by index	`ai.models.filter(...)[0]`

Lookup

Function	Description	Example
`get(providerId, modelId)`	Get specific model	`ai.models.get('openai', 'gpt-4o')`
`getMetadata(key)`	Get metadata value	`m.getMetadata('tier')`

Available model variables

When using filter(), these variables are available on each model m:

Variable	Type	Description
`m.id`	string	Model identifier
`m.provider_id`	string	Provider identifier
`m.author_id`	string	Model author identifier
`m.display_name`	string	Human-readable name
`m.known`	boolean	Whether this model is in the catalog (false for unknown pass-through models)
`m.custom`	boolean	Whether this is a custom-configured model
`m.metadata`	object	Custom metadata from config
`m.input_modalities`	list	Input types (“text”, “image”, etc.)
`m.output_modalities`	list	Output types
`m.supported_features`	list	Features (“tool-calling”, “coding”, etc.)
`m.max_context_window`	number	Maximum context window size
`m.max_output_tokens`	number	Maximum output tokens

Metrics variables

Access performance metrics via m.metrics:

# Global metrics (all ngrok traffic)
m.metrics.global.request_count
m.metrics.global.latency.upstream_ms_avg
m.metrics.global.latency.upstream_ms_p95
m.metrics.global.error_rate.total
m.metrics.global.error_rate.timeout
m.metrics.global.error_rate.rate_limit

# Account-scoped metrics
m.metrics.account.request_count
m.metrics.account.token.provider_input
m.metrics.account.token.provider_output

# Endpoint-scoped metrics
m.metrics.endpoint.request_count
m.metrics.endpoint.latency.upstream_ms_avg

CEL operators

Operator	Description	Example
`==`, `!=`	Equality	`m.provider_id == 'openai'`
`<`, `>`, `<=`, `>=`	Comparison	`m.metrics.global.latency.upstream_ms_avg < 1000`
`&&`	Logical AND	`m.provider_id == 'openai' && m.id.contains('gpt-4')`
`\|\|`	Logical OR	`m.id.contains('mini') \|\| m.id.contains('turbo')`
`!`	Logical NOT	`!m.custom`
`in`	List membership	`'image' in m.input_modalities`

String functions

Function	Description	Example
`contains()`	Check substring	`m.id.contains('gpt')`
`startsWith()`	Check prefix	`m.id.startsWith('gpt-4')`
`endsWith()`	Check suffix	`m.id.endsWith('-turbo')`

Complete example

on_http_request:
  - type: ai-gateway
    config:
      providers:
        - id: "openai"
          metadata:
            cost_per_1k_input: 0.03
        - id: "anthropic"
        - id: "google"
      
      model_selection:
        strategy:
          # Prefer fast, reliable OpenAI models
          - "ai.models.filter(m, m.provider_id == 'openai' && m.metrics.global.error_rate.total < 0.01)"
          # Fall back to any fast model
          - "ai.models.filter(m, m.metrics.global.latency.upstream_ms_p95 < 2000)"
          # Fall back to any model
          - "ai.models"

Next steps

CEL Functions Reference - Complete function reference
Model Filtering Example - More examples
Metrics Reference - Understanding metrics

SDKs

Concepts

Guides

Custom Providers

Observability

Examples

Reference

When to use selection strategies

Basic configuration

How strategies execute

Client model priority

Common patterns

Provider priority

Cost optimization

Performance-based

Feature-based

Geographic filtering

Metadata-based

Known models only

Available functions

Filtering

Geographic

Cost

Selection

Lookup

Available model variables

Metrics variables

CEL operators

String functions

Complete example

Next steps

SDKs

Concepts

Guides

Custom Providers

Observability

Examples

Reference

​When to use selection strategies

​Basic configuration

​How strategies execute

​Client model priority

​Common patterns

​Provider priority

​Cost optimization

​Performance-based

​Feature-based

​Geographic filtering

​Metadata-based

​Known models only

​Available functions

​Filtering

​Geographic

​Cost

​Selection

​Lookup

​Available model variables

​Metrics variables

​CEL operators

​String functions

​Complete example

​Next steps

When to use selection strategies

Basic configuration

How strategies execute

Client model priority

Common patterns

Provider priority

Cost optimization

Performance-based

Feature-based

Geographic filtering

Metadata-based

Known models only

Available functions

Filtering

Geographic

Cost

Selection

Lookup

Available model variables

Metrics variables

CEL operators

String functions

Complete example

Next steps