Deployment Modes

AISIX AI Gateway can run as a self-hosted gateway or as an AISIX Cloud managed gateway.

In both modes, AISIX serves AI traffic from a running gateway. What changes is where gateway resources are authored and how those resources reach that gateway.

The following diagram shows the main difference:

Self-Hosted Gateway

In self-hosted mode, you run and operate the gateway directly.

The proxy listener serves application traffic, and the admin listener accepts Admin API writes. Startup configuration comes from the local config file. Dynamic resources are written through the Admin API, stored in etcd, and loaded by the gateway through the watch path.

This mode keeps deployment topology, admin access, etcd, credentials, networking, and upgrades under your control.

AISIX Cloud

In AISIX Cloud mode, AISIX Cloud is the control plane and the AISIX gateway runs in your environment.

The Admin API is not available locally. You manage resources in AISIX Cloud, and Cloud sends environment-scoped configuration to the gateway.

The gateway still serves live AI traffic from your environment. AISIX Cloud adds managed resource scope, certificate bootstrap, usage reporting, and budget workflows.