One API (36,211 Stars) LLM Gateway Setup 2026: One Key for OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and DeepSeek

one-api (36,211 stars) is the most-starred LLM API gateway: it unifies OpenAI, Azure, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek and Doubao behind one key. Here is the full self-host setup.

💡 What You Will Learn

one-api (36,211 stars) is the most-starred LLM API gateway: it unifies OpenAI, Azure, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek and Doubao behind one key. Here is the full self-host setup.

📜 Table of Contents

• The short answer
• Why teams run it
• Deploy in 10 minutes
• Practical notes
• FAQ

The short answer

songquanpeng/one-api (36,211 stars, JavaScript) is an LLM API management and distribution system. It aggregates dozens of providers - OpenAI, Azure, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, ByteDance Doubao, Zhipu, and more - behind a single OpenAI-compatible endpoint. You hand your team one key, and one-api routes, meters, and rate-limits every request.

Why teams run it

• One base URL for all models: http://your-server:3000/v1
• Per-user quotas and tokens: create keys per member, cap spending per day
• Cost tracking: logs every request with model, token count and price
• Model fallback: if one provider fails, requests fail over to a backup

Deploy in 10 minutes

1. Run the container (SQLite mode is fine for small teams):

docker run --name one-api -d --restart always \n  -p 3000:3000 -v /data/one-api:/data \n  ghcr.io/songquanpeng/one-api:latest

1. Open http://localhost:3000, default admin is root / 123456 (change it immediately).
2. Go to Channels - Add Channel: pick provider (e.g. OpenAI), paste the API key.
3. Go to Tokens - create a token; that is the single key your apps will use.
4. Point any OpenAI SDK at http://localhost:3000/v1 with the new token.

Practical notes

• Enable Model Ratio settings to control price multipliers per model.
• Use the Logs page to catch abuse - you can see each user token spend in real time.
• For production, back up /data (the SQLite DB or MySQL) daily.

FAQ

Is it compatible with the OpenAI SDK? Yes - it exposes /v1/chat/completions exactly like OpenAI, so LangChain, Open WebUI and most tools work unchanged.

Can it route to local models? Yes, add a channel pointing at Ollama or vLLM and serve local and cloud models through the same key.

Does it support Chinese providers? Yes - DeepSeek, Doubao, Qwen, Zhipu and others are built-in presets.

❓ FAQ

Is it compatible with the OpenAI SDK?

Yes - it exposes `/v1/chat/completions` exactly like OpenAI, so LangChain, Open WebUI and most tools work unchanged.

Can it route to local models?

Yes, add a channel pointing at Ollama or vLLM and serve local and cloud models through the same key.

Does it support Chinese providers?

Yes - DeepSeek, Doubao, Qwen, Zhipu and others are built-in presets.