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The AI Gateway can reach providers in three ways. Pick the path that matches what you’re trying to do.

Use OpenAI or Anthropic without a provider account

Use credits when you want the fastest path to OpenAI or Anthropic. The gateway supplies upstream credentials and bills model usage through your credit balance. Start here: Use ngrok.ai inference.

Bring your own provider key

Bring your own key when you want upstream usage billed to your provider account, need a provider that requires your own credentials, or want to use your own OpenAI or Anthropic account. Start here: Bring your own provider key.

Use a model you run yourself

Use a custom provider when your model runs on your machine, private network, cloud GPU, or another OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible endpoint outside the built-in catalog. Start here: Use a model you run yourself.

Make the provider usable from a request

Adding a provider or provider key doesn’t route traffic by itself. A working request needs:
  1. A provider: built-in or custom.
  2. A credential source: credits or a provider key, when required.
  3. An access key configuration that allows the provider and model.
  4. An access key assigned to that configuration.
  5. A request with a matching model or provider:model.
If requests are rejected before they reach the provider, check Restrict providers and models.

Next steps