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Overview

The following guide is designed to help you create your first LLM key on Aptible. The Aptible AI Gateway is a single API to access Anthropic, OpenAI, and Amazon Bedrock, with security and compliance guardrails built in (e.g., encryption, audit logging), and an easy-to-use interface to manage keys, control model access, and use LLMs securely. The following guide is designed to help you create your first LLM key on Aptible. The following guide is designed to help you create your first LLM key on Aptible. LLM keys are how you authenticate requests to the Aptible AI Gateway — a managed proxy that gives you secure, auditable access to leading AI model providers without needing to manage provider credentials directly in your apps. For a full overview of the AI Gateway, see the AI Gateway documentation.

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Create an LLM Key

1

Sign up and start your trial

Sign up for (or sign in to) your Aptible account. Once you are signed in, visit the AI Gateway page to activate your trial.
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You’ll receive $10 of LLM credits to get you started, which can be used with any models that we support. If you want to upgrade to a paid plan for more credits, contact Aptible Support.
For those processing PHI: You will need to execute a BAA before you can start processing PHI using the AI Gateway.
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2

Create an LLM key

Click Create LLM Key on the AI Gateway page. You’ll start by creating an Environment, which is how keys and resources are organized in Aptible. This will help you apply model access controls and other permissions to your keys.
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Then, create your key. Give it a descriptive name so you can identify its usage later when reviewing costs and request history. Note that you can’t send PHI through the gateway until you have a BAA with Aptible; let us know if you’d like to set one up.
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Make sure to copy the key on the next screen — you won’t be able to see the key again once you close this window.
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3

Connect to the gateway

First, select the model you want to use. You can see the available models in the key details page; copy your desired model string and use it wherever you use your LLM key.
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You will use this single endpoint to connect to the gateway for all models:
        https://llm-gateway-api.aptible.com
Specific configuration requirements will vary by AI tool. Here are instructions for setting up Claude Desktop to use your key:
  • Enable Developer Mode: Open Claude Desktop and go to Help > Troubleshooting > Enable Developer Mode.
  • Access Inference Settings: A new “Developer” menu will appear after Claude restarts. Click Developer > Configure third-party inference.
  • Enter the Gateway base URL: Select “Gateway” as your connection type, and use https://llm-gateway-api.aptible.com.
  • Set your Gateway API key: paste your Aptible LLM key here, and set the Gateway auth scheme to “bearer”.
  • Save and Restart: Click Apply locally, then fully quit and restart Claude Desktop to load the new settings. You can also use LLM keys with any OpenAI-compatible client:
        import openai

        client = openai.OpenAI(
            api_key="YOUR_AI_GATEWAY_KEY",
            base_url="https://llm-gateway-api.aptible.com",
        )

        response = client.chat.completions.create(
            model="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
            messages=[
                {"role": "user", "content": "Hello world!"}
            ],
        )

        print(response)
4

See and manage key usage in the Aptible UI

Once your key is in use, you can monitor its activity from the key details page in the Aptible dashboard. View per-key costs for the current billing period, request history for the past week, and token consumption per request.
Llm Key Details
5

Activate your plan

When you’re ready to start using the AI Gateway, contact Aptible Support to activate your plan. Note: this will require having a payment method on file.