LLM Gateway vs API Gateway: Where the Inspection Targets Diverge and Why You Need Both
API gateways inspect HTTP requests against rate limits, authentication tokens, and schema validation. LLM gateways inspect the prompt body, the response body, the identity carrying the request, and the policy bundle bound to the AI route. The inspection targets differ. The two run side by side in a production deployment. This piece walks through the inspection targets each gateway covers, the decisions each commits at request time, the audit record each produces, and the topology where the two compose.