AI Dictionary › AI Fundamentals
Round-robin is a rotation-based distribution strategy: a list of resources, servers, models, API keys, queue items, is cycled through in order, giving each one a turn before starting again from the first. It is the simplest load-balancing algorithm there is: zero computation, zero priorities, every element receives exactly the same share of work. The first request takes the first resource, the second takes the second, and when the list runs out it wraps around to the start.
How it works in practice: a counter tracks the last position served; each new request advances the counter by one, and when it reaches the end it returns to zero (modular arithmetic). There are weighted variants (weighted round-robin), where larger resources receive more turns, and variants that temporarily exclude failing resources.
In modern AI, round-robin is everywhere: LLM gateways use it to spread requests across multiple providers or API keys and avoid rate limits; multi-model platforms alternate instances of the same model to cut latency; in multi-agent orchestration it hands tasks to available agents in turn. Beyond AI, it is the heart of process scheduling in time-sharing operating systems (since the 1960s, with systems like MIT's CTSS), of round-robin DNS rotating a site's IP addresses, and of the round-robin tournament format, where every team plays every other team.
The name has a curious history: it comes from the French "ruban rond" (round ribbon). In the 17th and 18th centuries, sailors and petitioners signed collective demands with the signatures arranged in a circle, hiding who had signed first, and shielding the ringleader from punishment. Hence the sense of "taking turns, with no first": exactly what the algorithm does with resources.
Grace uses round-robin on the AI Jobs board: job listings are shown by rotating through companies, so no employer monopolizes the top positions and every source gets the same visibility.
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