> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/portkey-AI/gateway/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# API Overview

> Introduction to the Portkey AI Gateway API

## Introduction

The Portkey AI Gateway provides a unified API to route requests to 250+ LLMs with blazing fast performance. The API is OpenAI-compatible, making it easy to integrate with existing applications.

## Base URL

The base URL for all API requests depends on your deployment:

```bash theme={null}
# Local development
http://localhost:8787/v1

# Portkey Cloud
https://api.portkey.ai/v1

# Self-hosted
https://your-gateway-domain.com/v1
```

## OpenAI Compatibility

The Portkey AI Gateway is fully compatible with OpenAI's API format. You can use any OpenAI SDK by simply changing the base URL:

```python theme={null}
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="http://localhost:8787/v1",
    default_headers={
        "x-portkey-provider": "openai",
        "x-portkey-api-key": "your-openai-api-key"
    }
)
```

```javascript theme={null}
import OpenAI from 'openai';

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: 'http://localhost:8787/v1',
  defaultHeaders: {
    'x-portkey-provider': 'openai',
    'x-portkey-api-key': 'your-openai-api-key'
  }
});
```

## Request Format

All requests follow the OpenAI API format with additional provider-specific headers:

* **Content-Type**: `application/json`
* **Provider Headers**: Specify which AI provider to use
* **Request Body**: OpenAI-compatible JSON format

## Response Format

Responses follow the OpenAI response format:

```json theme={null}
{
  "id": "chatcmpl-123",
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "created": 1677652288,
  "model": "gpt-4o-mini",
  "choices": [{
    "index": 0,
    "message": {
      "role": "assistant",
      "content": "Hello! How can I help you today?"
    },
    "finish_reason": "stop"
  }],
  "usage": {
    "prompt_tokens": 9,
    "completion_tokens": 9,
    "total_tokens": 18
  }
}
```

## Supported Endpoints

The gateway supports all major OpenAI API endpoints:

* **/v1/chat/completions** - Chat completions
* **/v1/completions** - Text completions
* **/v1/embeddings** - Generate embeddings
* **/v1/images/generations** - Generate images
* **/v1/images/edits** - Edit images
* **/v1/audio/speech** - Text-to-speech
* **/v1/audio/transcriptions** - Speech-to-text
* **/v1/audio/translations** - Audio translation
* **/v1/files** - File operations
* **/v1/batches** - Batch processing
* **/v1/fine\_tuning/jobs** - Fine-tuning jobs
* **/v1/realtime** - WebSocket realtime API

## Rate Limits

Rate limits depend on the underlying provider. The gateway passes through provider rate limit headers.

## Versioning

The API version is included in the URL path (`/v1/`). The gateway maintains compatibility with OpenAI's latest stable API version.