About Apache APISIX
Apache APISIX is an open source gateway that sits in front of APIs and routes their traffic. It is an Apache Software Foundation top-level project and also offers features for LLM traffic.
What it does
APISIX handles routing, load balancing, authentication, rate limiting and observability for APIs and microservices. It is built on NGINX and etcd, and configuration changes apply without restarting the server. The AI Gateway features proxy requests to LLM providers, balance traffic across models, fail over to a backup model and apply token-based rate limits.
Key features
- Dynamic routing with hot-reloadable plugins
- Authentication and rate limiting
- Load balancing across upstreams and LLM providers
- Token-based rate limits for AI traffic
Who it's for
- Platform and DevOps teams running microservices
- Teams routing traffic to LLM providers
Pricing and good to know
Apache APISIX is licensed under Apache 2.0 and is free to download and run. The project lists more than 100 open source plugins. Running it in production means operating etcd alongside the gateway, so plan for that operational work.
Highlights
- Dynamic routing with hot-reloadable plugins
- Authentication and rate limiting
- Load balancing across upstreams and LLM providers
- Token-based rate limits for AI traffic
