# Route to External Providers

A reachable inference endpoint, composed per replica or created manually for external providers.

Source: /models/model-endpoint/

**API:** [`modelplane.ai/v1alpha1` · ModelEndpoint]({{< ref "/reference/modelendpoints" >}})
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A `ModelEndpoint` is a single reachable inference endpoint that a
[`ModelService`]({{< ref "model-service.md" >}}) can route to. Modelplane creates
one for each of your replicas automatically, but you can also create one by hand
to point at an inference endpoint Modelplane doesn't run, most often a SaaS
provider like Together or Baseten. A service treats both the same, so you can
front your own replicas and an external provider behind one URL: send overflow to
the provider when your fleet is busy, or fail over to it as a break-glass option.

## Routing to an external provider

Create a `ModelEndpoint` with three things:

{{< manifests "concepts/model-endpoint.yaml" >}}

Then point a [`ModelService`]({{< ref "model-service.md" >}}) at it. Selecting
`modelplane.ai/external-provider: together` routes to the provider; adding a
second entry for a deployment fronts both behind one URL, so traffic can spill
over to the provider alongside your own replicas:

{{< manifests "concepts/model-service-external.yaml" >}}

The provider must speak the OpenAI API, since that's the contract a
`ModelService` exposes. Anything OpenAI-compatible works; `url` and `rewritePath`
are all that change between providers.
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