Smart API Key

Choose a routing strategy for the models available to your account.

A Smart API Key uses automatic routing across groups available to your account. You still send an exact model ID; the key does not choose the model for you.

Create and configure

  1. Open API Keys and choose Create Smart API Key.
  2. Name the key and choose Balanced, Stability first or Low price first. Configure its expiration, quota and IP restrictions as needed.
  3. Save the key and use the same base URL and authorization header shown in Quick start.

Routing strategies

Routing considers groups available to your account that can serve the requested model. Strategy names describe the ordering policy; they do not guarantee a particular latency or success rate.

  • Balanced starts from the middle of the eligible price range, tries higher-priced groups, then lower-priced groups.
  • Stability first orders eligible groups by group multiplier from high to low.
  • Low price first orders eligible groups by group multiplier from low to high.

Check the route and charge

The final serving group determines the applicable billing rate. Check the resolved group and routing strategy in request logs; changing the strategy can change the route and price.

Smart keys follow account model access and do not use a separate model allowlist or manually ordered fallback list. Key quota, expiration and IP restrictions still apply.