What's LiteLLM? The Universal AI Gateway

After rolling out ChatGPT 3.5, you might experience how hard AI engineers work, the model rolled out today is a yesterday model, another AI vendors will roll out another model the day after.

Usually, switching providers means rewriting code, breaking features, and wasting weeks of development time.

That’s the reason that we’re rolling out Zeabur AI hub, A unified Models solution for every developer.

LiteLLM is the underlying proxy for Zeabur AI hub and self hosted on Zeabur as well.

What is LiteLLM?

Think of LiteLLM as a Universal Travel Adapter for Artificial Intelligence.

Thinking of this scenario, When you travel, you don't rewire your laptop for every country's power outlet; you can simply just use an adapter. LiteLLM works the same way for your software. It sits between your application and the AI models.

It turns AI models into interchangeable commodities. You can switch from GPT-5 to Claude 4.5 opus in seconds, not weeks.

---

Why You might Need an AI Proxy Server

For a solo developer, an AI API key is enough. But for a company, you need control. This is where the LiteLLM Proxy comes in.

Instead of giving every developer on your team direct access to your company credit card and API keys (a security nightmare), you set up this central hub.

What Can LiteLLM Do For Me?

Beyond simply routing traffic, LiteLLM acts as a comprehensive technical toolkit. It handles the "boring" but difficult infrastructure logic so your team can focus on the actual application code.

1. The "Universal Translator" (OpenAI Format)

This is the killer feature. LiteLLM standardizes 100+ LLM providers into the OpenAI Input/Output format.

• How it helps: You don't need to learn the SDKs for Anthropic, Google Vertex, Azure, or Bedrock. You can simply use the standard OpenAI Python/Node.js library for everything. Changing models is literally changing one line of configuration string.

2. Smart Caching

LiteLLM can automatically cache responses using Redis.

• How it helps: If a user asks a question that has already been answered recently, LiteLLM serves the result from the cache. This means 0ms latency and $0 cost for that request.

3. Automatic Fallbacks

You can define a "Safety Net" logic in your configuration.

• How it helps: You can tell LiteLLM: "Try OpenAI GPT-4 first. If that errors out, try Azure GPT-4. If that fails, try Claude 3 Opus." This ensures your app never crashes just because one provider is having a bad day.

4. Load Balancing

If you have high traffic, you can provide LiteLLM with multiple API keys or multiple deployment endpoints (e.g., Azure East US, Azure West Europe, and OpenAI Direct).

• How it helps: It automatically spreads the traffic across these keys, preventing rate limits (HTTP 429 errors) and ensuring maximum throughput.

---

Build vs. Buy: The Zeabur AI Hub Advantage

Once you decide to use LiteLLM, you face a new decision: How do we run it?

Option A: Self-Hosting

You can run LiteLLM on your own servers.

• Pros: Total control.
• Cons: It requires engineering maintenance. You need to manage updates, security patches, scaling for traffic spikes, and server uptime.

Option B: Zeabur AI Hub

Zeabur AI Hub offers the best of both worlds. It provides the full power of the LiteLLM engine, but managed as a turnkey service.

Why you should choosing Zeabur AI Hub:

• Speed to Market: Deploy a production-ready AI Proxy in one click. No complex DevOps setup required.
• Global Performance: Zeabur optimizes the network connection, ensuring your AI responds fast, regardless of where your users are located.
• Cost Efficiency: Unlike "middleman" services that charge a premium on every AI request, Zeabur lets you use your own API keys directly. You pay for the infrastructure, not a "tax" on your usage.

---

Summary: The Comparison

If you are evaluating how to orchestrate your AI strategy, here is the landscape:

Feature	Self-Hosted LiteLLM	Zeabur AI Hub
Best For...	Large engineering teams with DevOps resources.	Startups & Enterprises wanting speed & control.
Data Privacy	High. You own the pipe.	High. You own the infrastructure.
Setup Time	Days (Configuration & Testing).	Minutes (One-Click Deploy).
Maintenance	High (You fix it if it breaks).	Managed (Zeabur keeps it running).

Conclusion

There’s plentey of other Models in the market, you shouldn’t block by the subscription with particular AI vendors. LiteLLM provides that separation.

Nonetheless, Zeabur AI Hub allows you to leverage the industry-standard power of LiteLLM immediately, ensuring your team spends time building features, not managing servers.