Choosing an LLM provider is not a one-time decision. Prices, features, regions and risk profiles change. If you cannot switch providers without major rework, you are locked in. An exit strategy reduces that risk without slowing delivery.
Start with the reasons exits happen
Most exits are triggered by one of four forces:
- Risk. Security findings, policy changes, or unacceptable incident patterns.
- Capability. Another provider becomes clearly better for your workloads.
- Commercial. Unit economics or contract terms no longer work (see FinOps for LLMs).
- Regulation. Residency or compliance requirements shift (see compliance audits).
Architect for portability
Portability is mostly an architecture choice. Common patterns include:
- A thin provider abstraction with consistent request/response logging.
- Versioned prompt templates and test suites per critical intent.
- Routing that can switch models during outages (see routing and failover).
Use benchmarks as your migration compass
When switching, you need an objective baseline. Maintain a benchmark suite that reflects your real scenarios and tracks not just accuracy, but latency, refusal rate and tool correctness (see enterprise benchmarking).
Plan a dual-run migration
For high-impact workflows, run two providers side-by-side for a period:
- Route a small percentage of traffic to the candidate provider.
- Compare outcomes against your baseline metrics.
- Keep a fast rollback path if quality or risk signals degrade.
Put exit clauses into vendor selection
Exit strategy starts at procurement time. When evaluating vendors, include data export, retention expectations, region support, and notice periods as first-class criteria (see evaluating AI vendors and choosing LLM providers).
A good exit plan does not mean you will switch. It means you can switch when you need to, without panic.