User Onboarding Guide
A step-by-step guide to help admins onboard users to your LiteLLM proxy instance and help users get started with their API key.
For Administrators​
Step 1: Create a User Account​
You can create a user account via the Admin UI or using the API.
Admin UI​
- Go to the (
/uiendpoint) - Navigate to the Internal Users section
- Click "Add User" and fill in the required details
API​
curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/user/new \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"user_email": "user@example.com"}'
Step 2: Grant Access & Permissions​
- Assign the user to a team (optional)
- Set budgets, rate limits, and allowed models as needed
- Generate an API key for the user (via UI or API)
Generate API Key (API Example)​
curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/key/generate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <admin-key>" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"user_id": "<user-id>", "max_budget": 100}'
For End Users​
Step 3: Validate Your API Key​
Before making LLM calls, validate your key works by calling the /v1/models endpoint:
curl -X GET http://localhost:4000/v1/models \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>"
- If your key is valid, you'll get a list of available models.
- If invalid, you'll get a 401 error.
Step 4: Hello World - Make Your First LLM Call​
curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <your-api-key>" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "gpt-3.5-turbo",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
}'
Troubleshooting​
- If you get a 401 error, check with your admin that your key is active and you have access to the requested model.
- Use the
/v1/modelsendpoint to quickly check if your key is valid without consuming LLM tokens.