Gateways Vs. Orchestrators: What’s the Difference?

Livepeer uses two core node types—Gateways and Orchestrators—that work together to provide real-time AI video compute at scale. Although closely connected, they serve entirely different purposes. This page breaks down how they differ and why both roles matter for a decentralized compute marketplace.

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Overview

Role	Function	Performs GPU Work?	External-Facing?
Gateway	Job intake, pricing, routing, capability match	❌ No	✅ Yes
Orchestrator	GPU compute, inference, transcoding, BYOC	✅ Yes	❌ No

Gateways coordinate.
Orchestrators compute.

Together, they form the backbone of the Livepeer AI video pipeline.

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Gateway Responsibilities

Gateways act as the front door to the network:

• Receive jobs from applications
• Determine required model, pipeline, or GPU
• Select the best orchestrator based on performance and pricing
• Route the workload with low latency
• Return results to the client
• Publish marketplace offerings (models, pipelines, cost per frame, etc.)

Gateways provide service intelligence, not compute.

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Orchestrator Responsibilities

Orchestrators are GPU operators who run:

• Real-time AI inference
• Daydream / ComfyStream pipelines
• BYOC containers
• Traditional transcoding

They provide:

• GPU horsepower
• Model execution
• Deterministic and verifiable output
• Performance guarantees

They do not expose external APIs directly—Gateways handle that.

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How They Work Together