Portkey works with any tool or application that supports OpenAI-compatible APIs. Add enterprise features—observability, reliability, cost controls—with just 2 configuration changes.

Quick Start

Find your project’s OpenAI settings and update:

Base URL: https://api.portkey.ai/v1
API Key: Your Portkey API key

That’s it! Your app now routes through Portkey.

All requests appear in Portkey logs

You now get:

✅ Full observability (costs, latency, logs)
✅ Access to 250+ LLM providers
✅ Automatic fallbacks and retries
✅ Budget controls per team/project

Why Add Portkey?

Enterprise Observability

Every request logged with costs, latency, tokens. Track usage across teams.

Multi-Provider Access

Switch between OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and 250+ models without code changes.

Production Reliability

Automatic fallbacks, retries, load balancing—configured once, works everywhere.

Cost & Access Control

Budget limits per team. Rate limiting. Centralized credential management.

Setup

1. Add Provider in Model Catalog

Go to Model Catalog → Add Provider
Select your provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.)
Choose existing credentials or create new by entering your API keys
Name your provider (e.g., openai-prod)

Your provider slug will be @openai-prod (or whatever you named it).

Complete Model Catalog Guide →

Set up budgets, rate limits, and manage credentials

2. Get Portkey API Key

Create your Portkey API key at app.portkey.ai/api-keys

3. Configure Your Application

Most OpenAI-compatible apps have settings for: Base URL / Endpoint

https://api.portkey.ai/v1

API Key

Your Portkey API Key (from step 2)

Model (if configurable)

@openai-prod/gpt-4o

If your app requires the OpenAI format (just model name), use a Portkey config with your default model.

Common Integration Patterns

Pattern 1: Direct Configuration (Recommended)

If your app allows custom base URL and API key:

Base URL: https://api.portkey.ai/v1
API Key: PORTKEY_API_KEY
Model: @openai-prod/gpt-4o

Pattern 2: With Config

If your app only accepts model names like gpt-4o:

Create a config in Portkey dashboard:

{
  "override_params": {
    "model": "@openai-prod/gpt-4o"
  }
}

Use the config in your app:

Base URL: https://api.portkey.ai/v1
API Key: PORTKEY_API_KEY
Model: gpt-4o  (the config will override this)

Add config to API key defaults or pass via header.

Pattern 3: Environment Variables

Many apps use environment variables:

OPENAI_API_BASE=https://api.portkey.ai/v1
OPENAI_API_KEY=PORTKEY_API_KEY
OPENAI_MODEL=@openai-prod/gpt-4o

Switching Providers

Change the model string to switch providers:

@openai-prod/gpt-4o        # OpenAI
@anthropic-prod/claude-sonnet-4    # Anthropic
@google-prod/gemini-2.0-flash      # Google

All without changing your application code!

Advanced Features via Configs

For production features like fallbacks, caching, and load balancing:

Create a config in Portkey dashboard
Attach it to your API key defaults
Or pass via header: x-portkey-config: your-config-id

Example config with fallbacks:

{
  "strategy": {"mode": "fallback"},
  "targets": [
    {"override_params": {"model": "@openai-prod/gpt-4o"}},
    {"override_params": {"model": "@anthropic-prod/claude-sonnet-4"}}
  ]
}

Learn About Configs →

Fallbacks, retries, caching, load balancing, and more

3. Set Up Enterprise Governance

Why Enterprise Governance?

Cost Management: Controlling and tracking AI spending across teams
Access Control: Managing team access and workspaces
Usage Analytics: Understanding how AI is being used across the organization
Security & Compliance: Maintaining enterprise security standards
Reliability: Ensuring consistent service across all users
Model Management: Managing what models are being used in your setup

Portkey adds a comprehensive governance layer to address these enterprise needs. Enterprise Implementation Guide

Step 1: Implement Budget Controls & Rate Limits

Model Catalog enables you to have granular control over LLM access at the team/department level. This helps you:

Set up budget limits
Prevent unexpected usage spikes using Rate limits
Track departmental spending

Setting Up Department-Specific Controls:

Navigate to Model Catalog in Portkey dashboard
Create new Provider for each engineering team with budget limits and rate limits
Configure department-specific limits

Step 2: Define Model Access Rules

As your AI usage scales, controlling which teams can access specific models becomes crucial. You can simply manage AI models in your org by provisioning model at the top integration level.

Step 4: Set Routing Configuration

Portkey allows you to control your routing logic very simply with it’s Configs feature. Portkey Configs provide this control layer with things like:

Data Protection: Implement guardrails for sensitive code and data
Reliability Controls: Add fallbacks, load-balance, retry and smart conditional routing logic
Caching: Implement Simple and Semantic Caching. and more…

Example Configuration:

Here’s a basic configuration to load-balance requests to OpenAI and Anthropic:

{
	"strategy": {
		"mode": "load-balance"
	},
	"targets": [
		{
			"override_params": {
				"model": "@YOUR_OPENAI_PROVIDER_SLUG/gpt-model"
			}
		},
		{
			"override_params": {
				"model": "@YOUR_ANTHROPIC_PROVIDER/claude-sonnet-model"
			}
		}
	]
}

Create your config on the Configs page in your Portkey dashboard. You’ll need the config ID for connecting.

Configs can be updated anytime to adjust controls without affecting running applications.

Step 4: Implement Access Controls

Step 3: Implement Access Controls

Create User-specific API keys that automatically:

Track usage per developer/team with the help of metadata
Apply appropriate configs to route requests
Collect relevant metadata to filter logs
Enforce access permissions

Create API keys through:

Example using Python SDK:

from portkey_ai import Portkey

portkey = Portkey(api_key="YOUR_ADMIN_API_KEY")

api_key = portkey.api_keys.create(
    name="frontend-engineering",
    type="organisation",
    workspace_id="YOUR_WORKSPACE_ID",
    defaults={
        "config_id": "your-config-id",
        "metadata": {
            "environment": "development",
            "department": "engineering",
            "team": "frontend"
        }
    },
    scopes=["logs.view", "configs.read"]
)

For detailed key management instructions, see our API Keys documentation.

Step 5: Deploy & Monitor

Step 4: Deploy & Monitor

After distributing API keys to your engineering teams, your enterprise-ready setup is ready to go. Each developer can now use their designated API keys with appropriate access levels and budget controls. Apply your governance setup using the integration steps from earlier sections Monitor usage in Portkey dashboard:

Cost tracking by engineering team
Model usage patterns for AI agent tasks
Request volumes
Error rates and debugging logs

Enterprise Features Now Available

You now have:

Departmental budget controls
Model access governance
Usage tracking & attribution
Security guardrails
Reliability features

Portkey Features

Now that you have an enterprise-grade setup, let’s explore the comprehensive features Portkey provides to ensure secure, efficient, and cost-effective AI operations.

1. Comprehensive Metrics

Using Portkey you can track 40+ key metrics including cost, token usage, response time, and performance across all your LLM providers in real time. You can also filter these metrics based on custom metadata that you can set in your configs. Learn more about metadata here.

2. Advanced Logs

Portkey’s logging dashboard provides detailed logs for every request made to your LLMs. These logs include:

Complete request and response tracking
Metadata tags for filtering
Cost attribution and much more…

3. Unified Access to 1600+ LLMs

You can easily switch between 1600+ LLMs. Call various LLMs such as Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, and many more by simply changing the virtual key in your default config object.

4. Advanced Metadata Tracking

Using Portkey, you can add custom metadata to your LLM requests for detailed tracking and analytics. Use metadata tags to filter logs, track usage, and attribute costs across departments and teams.

Custom Metata

5. Enterprise Access Management

Budget Controls

Set and manage spending limits across teams and departments. Control costs with granular budget limits and usage tracking.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Enterprise-grade SSO integration with support for SAML 2.0, Okta, Azure AD, and custom providers for secure authentication.

Organization Management

Hierarchical organization structure with workspaces, teams, and role-based access control for enterprise-scale deployments.

Access Rules & Audit Logs

Comprehensive access control rules and detailed audit logging for security compliance and usage tracking.

6. Reliability Features

Fallbacks

Automatically switch to backup targets if the primary target fails.

Conditional Routing

Route requests to different targets based on specified conditions.

Load Balancing

Distribute requests across multiple targets based on defined weights.

Caching

Enable caching of responses to improve performance and reduce costs.

Smart Retries

Automatic retry handling with exponential backoff for failed requests

Budget Limits

Set and manage budget limits across teams and departments. Control costs with granular budget limits and usage tracking.

7. Advanced Guardrails

Protect your Project’s data and enhance reliability with real-time checks on LLM inputs and outputs. Leverage guardrails to:

Prevent sensitive data leaks
Enforce compliance with organizational policies
PII detection and masking
Content filtering
Custom security rules
Data compliance checks

Guardrails

Implement real-time protection for your LLM interactions with automatic detection and filtering of sensitive content, PII, and custom security rules. Enable comprehensive data protection while maintaining compliance with organizational policies.

FAQs

How do I update my Virtual Key limits after creation?

You can update your Virtual Key limits at any time from the Portkey dashboard:1. Go to Virtual Keys section2. Click on the Virtual Key you want to modify3. Update the budget or rate limits4. Save your changes

Can I use multiple LLM providers with the same API key?

Yes! You can create multiple Virtual Keys (one for each provider) and attach them to a single config. This config can then be connected to your API key, allowing you to use multiple providers through a single API key.

How do I track costs for different teams?

Portkey provides several ways to track team costs:

Create separate Virtual Keys for each team
Use metadata tags in your configs
Set up team-specific API keys
Monitor usage in the analytics dashboard

What happens if a team exceeds their budget limit?

When a team reaches their budget limit:

Further requests will be blocked
Team admins receive notifications
Usage statistics remain available in dashboard
Limits can be adjusted if needed

Next Steps

Join our Community

For enterprise support and custom features, contact our enterprise team.

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MCP Clients

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​Quick Start

​Why Add Portkey?

Enterprise Observability

Multi-Provider Access

Production Reliability

Cost & Access Control

​Setup

​1. Add Provider in Model Catalog

Complete Model Catalog Guide →

​2. Get Portkey API Key

​3. Configure Your Application

​Common Integration Patterns

​Pattern 1: Direct Configuration (Recommended)

​Pattern 2: With Config

​Pattern 3: Environment Variables

​Switching Providers

​Advanced Features via Configs

Learn About Configs →

​3. Set Up Enterprise Governance

​Step 1: Implement Budget Controls & Rate Limits

​Setting Up Department-Specific Controls:

​Step 2: Define Model Access Rules

​Example Configuration:

​Step 3: Implement Access Controls

​Step 4: Deploy & Monitor

​Enterprise Features Now Available

​Portkey Features

​1. Comprehensive Metrics

​2. Advanced Logs

​3. Unified Access to 1600+ LLMs

​4. Advanced Metadata Tracking

Custom Metata

​5. Enterprise Access Management

Budget Controls

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Organization Management

Access Rules & Audit Logs

​6. Reliability Features

Fallbacks

Conditional Routing

Load Balancing

Caching

Smart Retries

Budget Limits

​7. Advanced Guardrails

Guardrails

​FAQs

​Next Steps

Quick Start

Why Add Portkey?

Setup

1. Add Provider in Model Catalog

2. Get Portkey API Key

3. Configure Your Application

Common Integration Patterns

Pattern 1: Direct Configuration (Recommended)

Pattern 2: With Config

Pattern 3: Environment Variables

Switching Providers

Advanced Features via Configs

3. Set Up Enterprise Governance

Step 1: Implement Budget Controls & Rate Limits

Setting Up Department-Specific Controls:

Step 2: Define Model Access Rules

Example Configuration:

Step 3: Implement Access Controls

Step 4: Deploy & Monitor

Enterprise Features Now Available

Portkey Features

1. Comprehensive Metrics

2. Advanced Logs

3. Unified Access to 1600+ LLMs

4. Advanced Metadata Tracking

5. Enterprise Access Management

6. Reliability Features

7. Advanced Guardrails

FAQs

Next Steps