> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://phaseo.app/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

> ## Agent Instructions
> Phaseo Gateway base URL: https://api.phaseo.app/v1. Send `Authorization: Bearer $PHASEO_API_KEY` with every request.
> Model IDs look like `provider/model`, for example `openai/gpt-6-astra`. Do not guess IDs: list them with `GET /v1/models` or check https://phaseo.app/models. `phaseo/free` routes to an available free model and needs no wallet balance.
> For new text integrations prefer `POST /v1/responses`. `POST /v1/chat/completions` (OpenAI format) and `POST /v1/messages` (Anthropic format) suit existing code.
> The full API contract is https://phaseo.app/docs/openapi/v1/openapi.yaml. Official SDKs: `@phaseo/sdk` (TypeScript) and `phaseo` (Python), plus Go, C#, PHP, Ruby and Rust.
> Search these docs over MCP at https://phaseo.app/docs/mcp, and install Phaseo skills with `npx skills add https://phaseo.app/docs`. If a page is wrong or out of date, report it with the MCP `submit_feedback` tool.
> Manage Phaseo accounts with the `phaseo` CLI (`npm install -g @phaseo/cli`, then `phaseo login` or `phaseo login --device-code`), the `/v1` Management API or the MCP server at `https://mcp.phaseo.app/mcp?access=manage`. Do not send users to the dashboard for account tasks. A person is still needed for sign-up, approving a sign-in, paying the first top-up on the checkout link that `phaseo credits add` returns when no card is saved, confirming each saved-card top-up from the emailed link, and account security (password, MFA, passkeys). Create API keys with `phaseo keys create --name <name> --json`; never guess one. Credit top-ups need `phaseo login --scopes billing:write` first. Task map: https://phaseo.app/docs/v1/developers/manage-from-an-agent.md.

# How Providers Earn Traffic

> How default routing splits a model's traffic between providers, and which changes win an endpoint a larger share.

When several providers serve the same model, default routing ranks them by
expected cost per successful answer and shares traffic by that ranking: the
lowest cost wins the largest share. This page is for providers who want to
understand that ranking and win more of it.

## What the ranking measures

For each endpoint, Phaseo measures:

* **Effective price.** What a typical request for the model costs on your
  endpoint, using the model's real prompt and output sizes and the share of
  prompt tokens you actually serve from cache. A low input price does not help
  if output or cache reads cost more.
* **Time to first token**, counted from when Phaseo sends the request.
* **Output speed**, measured across the whole response, first token included.
* **Errors you cause**, such as `5xx` responses and streams that fail partway.
  These carry a heavy penalty.
* **Rate-limit rejections** (`429`). These carry a smaller penalty.

Waiting time is converted to dollars at the model's typical price per second,
so a faster endpoint can charge more and still rank first.

## Try it

The sliders set your endpoint against three other providers of the same model.
The curve shows how traffic falls away as your cost per answer rises above the
lowest.

**%**

## How traffic is shared

* Providers within about 30% of the lowest cost per answer share most of the
  traffic. Being slightly behind costs only slightly.
* Beyond that band, share falls quickly.
* Every routable endpoint keeps a small share, so recoveries and improvements
  are noticed without any action from you.
* A conversation that is reading from your prompt cache usually stays on your
  endpoint while it remains healthy.

Requests that name a provider order, or ask to sort by price, latency or
throughput, do not use this ranking. See
[Routing and fallbacks](https://phaseo.app/docs/v1/guides/routing-and-fallbacks.md).

## What earns more traffic

* Lower the price of a typical request, including output and cache reads.
* Serve repeated prompts from cache.
* Return the first token sooner and stream faster.
* Avoid errors and rate-limit rejections, and add capacity before demand
  reaches your limits.


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