Most AI coding platforms let you pick a model and stick with it. That single choice ends up being a tax: use a frontier model like Claude Opus for everything and you overpay on every doc update, boilerplate refactor, and trivial bug fix. Use a cheaper model to save money and you risk dropping the ball on the tasks that actually need depth. Factory Router is Factory's answer to that dilemma -- an automatic model dispatcher that routes each Droid session to the right model for the job, without any manual intervention.
The problem no one wants to admit
Engineers are defaulting to the most performant models out of fear of losing performance. Simple questions, mechanical refactors, documentation updates, small bug fixes, and search-heavy investigations all end up on the same premium path as work that truly needs frontier capability. The result is a budget that burns fast with no clear increase in output. A higher token bill does not mean more engineering work is getting done.
The AI coding tools market has bifurcated sharply. On one side, products like Cursor, Windsurf, and GitHub Copilot target individual developers with fast-response code completion. On the other, enterprise-focused platforms like Factory focus on autonomous, long-horizon tasks that span multiple repositories, systems, and days of wall-clock time. At that scale, model choice compounds into a real cost center.
How routing actually works
Factory Router automatically picks the best model for each Droid session, drawing from a diverse pool of frontier and efficient models. If the selected model struggles to complete the task, Factory Router moves the session to a more capable model to reliably ensure high-quality outcomes. The key word is
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