diff --git a/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py b/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py
index 03bfa9a18f..36b59ea39e 100644
--- a/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py
+++ b/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py
@@ -1835,7 +1835,11 @@ async def completion(
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key"] = user_api_key_dict.api_key
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_metadata"] = user_api_key_dict.metadata
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_user_id"] = user_api_key_dict.user_id
-        data["metadata"]["headers"] = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers.pop(
+            "authorization", None
+        )  # do not store the original `sk-..` api key in the db
+        data["metadata"]["headers"] = _headers
         data["metadata"]["endpoint"] = str(request.url)
 
         # override with user settings, these are params passed via cli
@@ -1995,7 +1999,11 @@ async def chat_completion(
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key"] = user_api_key_dict.api_key
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_user_id"] = user_api_key_dict.user_id
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_metadata"] = user_api_key_dict.metadata
-        data["metadata"]["headers"] = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers.pop(
+            "authorization", None
+        )  # do not store the original `sk-..` api key in the db
+        data["metadata"]["headers"] = _headers
         data["metadata"]["endpoint"] = str(request.url)
 
         global user_temperature, user_request_timeout, user_max_tokens, user_api_base
@@ -2165,7 +2173,11 @@ async def embeddings(
             data["metadata"] = {}
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key"] = user_api_key_dict.api_key
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_metadata"] = user_api_key_dict.metadata
-        data["metadata"]["headers"] = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers.pop(
+            "authorization", None
+        )  # do not store the original `sk-..` api key in the db
+        data["metadata"]["headers"] = _headers
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_user_id"] = user_api_key_dict.user_id
         data["metadata"]["endpoint"] = str(request.url)
 
@@ -2307,7 +2319,11 @@ async def image_generation(
             data["metadata"] = {}
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key"] = user_api_key_dict.api_key
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_metadata"] = user_api_key_dict.metadata
-        data["metadata"]["headers"] = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers.pop(
+            "authorization", None
+        )  # do not store the original `sk-..` api key in the db
+        data["metadata"]["headers"] = _headers
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_user_id"] = user_api_key_dict.user_id
         data["metadata"]["endpoint"] = str(request.url)
 
@@ -3490,7 +3506,11 @@ async def async_queue_request(
             data["metadata"] = {}
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key"] = user_api_key_dict.api_key
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_metadata"] = user_api_key_dict.metadata
-        data["metadata"]["headers"] = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers = dict(request.headers)
+        _headers.pop(
+            "authorization", None
+        )  # do not store the original `sk-..` api key in the db
+        data["metadata"]["headers"] = _headers
         data["metadata"]["user_api_key_user_id"] = user_api_key_dict.user_id
         data["metadata"]["endpoint"] = str(request.url)