litellm/docs/my-website/docs/proxy/user_onboarding.md

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.

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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 (/ui endpoint)
• 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"}'

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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}'

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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.

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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!"}]
  }'

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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/models endpoint to quickly check if your key is valid without consuming LLM tokens.

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See Also

• Proxy Quick Start
• User Management
• Key Management