LLM Gateway
Knowledge base

API Keys

Create, limit, and control API keys for authenticating with LLM Gateway

The API Keys page is the main place to create, secure, and operate the keys your apps use to authenticate with LLM Gateway.

API Keys

Use this page to:

  • Create project-specific API keys
  • Set all-time and recurring spend limits per key
  • Set an expiration (TTL) so a key disables itself automatically
  • Track usage for each key, including the active recurring window
  • Rename keys and enable or disable them without deleting them
  • Roll a key's secret in place if it may have leaked
  • Configure IAM rules for model, provider, and pricing access

API keys are shown in full only once, immediately after creation. Copy and store them securely before closing the dialog.

Creating an API Key

Click Create API Key and configure:

  • Name: A label such as production, staging, or ci
  • Expiration (TTL): An optional time-to-live after which the key disables itself
  • All-time usage limit: An optional lifetime spend cap for the key
  • Recurring usage limit: An optional spend cap that resets on a schedule

Recurring limits support:

  • Minimum window: 1 hour
  • Maximum window: 12 months
  • Units: hour, day, week, or month

This is useful when you want a key to stay below a fixed budget per hour, day, week, or month, while still keeping a separate lifetime cap if needed.

Expiration (TTL)

Turn on Set expiration (TTL) when creating a key to give it a limited lifetime. Choose a value and a unit — minutes, hours, or days — and the key is disabled automatically once that time passes. Leave it off for a key that never expires.

Expired keys show an Expired indicator in the list and move to the Inactive tab. To use one again, reactivate it and pick a new future expiration:

  • Activate an expired key and you'll be prompted to set a fresh TTL before it comes back online
  • Keys with no TTL, or whose TTL is still in the future, can be enabled and disabled without setting a new expiration

This makes TTL keys ideal for temporary access — short-lived demos, CI runs, or contractor keys that should not linger.

Usage Limits

Each API key can enforce two independent limit types:

Limit TypeWhat it does
All-time usage limitStops the key after it reaches a lifetime spend threshold
Recurring usage limitStops the key after it reaches the budget for the active window

Examples:

  • $50 all-time for a temporary integration key
  • $10 / 1 day for a development key
  • $500 / 1 month for a production service key

If a key hits either limit, requests using that key are rejected until the key is updated or, for recurring limits, the next window begins.

How recurring windows work

Recurring usage is tracked separately from total lifetime usage.

  • The dashboard shows the key's Current Period usage
  • The active window also shows when it resets
  • When the configured window expires, usage for that window resets automatically
  • Updating the recurring limit configuration resets the current window and starts a new one

Usage includes both LLM Gateway credits and requests routed through your own provider keys when applicable.

API Keys List

Each key in the list shows:

FieldDescription
NameThe label you assigned to the key
API KeyA masked preview of the key
StatusWhether the key is active or inactive, plus its expiry if set
CreatedWhen the key was created
UsageTotal tracked usage for the key
Current PeriodSpend in the active recurring window, if configured
LimitsAll-time and recurring limit summary
IAM RulesWhether model/provider/pricing access controls are configured

Actions

The actions menu on each key offers:

  • View Statistics: Open a dedicated analytics page for that key (see below)
  • Manage IAM Rules: Restrict which models, providers, or pricing tiers the key can use
  • Rename Key: Change the key's label without touching its secret or history
  • Activate / Deactivate Key: Pause usage without deleting the key (reactivating an expired key prompts for a new expiration)
  • Roll Key: Generate a new secret for the key and invalidate the old one (see below)
  • Update limits: Change all-time or recurring limits
  • Delete: Permanently remove the key

The auto-generated playground key is managed for you: it cannot be renamed, rolled, deactivated, or deleted. Members with the developer role can only modify keys they created themselves.

Rolling a Key

Roll Key replaces a key's secret while keeping the key itself. The name, usage history and statistics, all-time and recurring limits (including the current period window), IAM rules, and expiration all stay exactly as they were — only the secret changes.

This is the fastest fix when a secret leaks into a commit, a log, or a shared environment: you cut off the exposed value without recreating the key or losing its spend tracking.

  1. Open the key's actions menu and choose Roll Key
  2. Confirm in the dialog
  3. Copy the new secret and update every client using the old one

The previous secret stops working immediately, and the new one is shown only once. Requests still using the old secret fail with 401 Unauthorized.

Per-Key Statistics

The View Statistics action opens a dedicated page scoped to a single API key, so you can see exactly what that key is doing without filtering the whole project.

Per-key statistics

The page respects the shared date-range picker and shows:

  • Summary cards — the key's cost, tokens, requests, and error rate for the selected range.
  • Cost by Model — a horizontal bar chart ranking the key's models by cost, requests, or tokens.
  • Cost by Model Over Time — a stacked area chart of the same metrics, with a Mappings / Canonical toggle.

These are the same breakdowns as the project Analytics page, narrowed to the one key — useful for confirming a key is healthy and spending on the models you expect.

IAM Rules

IAM rules let you narrow what an API key is allowed to access.

Supported rule types include:

  • Allow/Deny models
  • Allow/Deny providers
  • Allow/Deny pricing
  • Allow/Deny IP ranges (CIDR) — Enterprise plan only

Use IAM rules when you want a key to be valid, but only for a specific subset of models or providers. For a deeper explanation, see the API Keys & IAM Rules feature page.

Org admins can additionally set member-level IAM rules on the Team page. Those act as a ceiling for every key the member creates: key rules can only narrow access within them, never expand it. The IAM page shows a notice when organization-level restrictions apply to your keys.

Plan Limits

The page also shows how many API keys you are using relative to your plan allowance. The cap counts active keys across every project in the organization, so deactivated and deleted keys do not count against it.

  • Free: Standard API key count limit
  • Pro: A larger allowance
  • Enterprise: Custom limits

Owners and admins can also set a per-member key cap on the Team page, which applies on top of the organization-wide allowance.

If you reach the limit, the Create API Key button is disabled until you delete or deactivate unused keys, or upgrade.

How is this guide?

Last updated on

On this page

Ready for production?

Ship to production with SSO, audit logs, spend controls, and guardrails your security team will approve.

Explore Enterprise