Fallback Model

A fallback model is a secondary model that a system automatically routes requests to when the primary model is unavailable, throttled, or exceeds its latency budget. Fallback logic may cascade through a priority-ordered list: for example, a large capable model at low load, a faster smaller model under pressure, and a cached generic response as a last resort. Implementing fallbacks requires the model gateway to abstract provider differences so the application layer sees a uniform interface regardless of which model actually serves the request.