Quickstart

llmax.ai speaks the OpenAI API. If your code already talks to OpenAI, you change the base URL and the key — nothing else. No SDK to install, no client to rewrite, and nothing to undo if you ever leave.

The only change

Two values, wherever your client keeps them:

Keep the key out of your source: the code examples below read it from an environment variable, and the tools take the same two values in a settings screen.

A GET /v1/models always returns the authoritative list of model IDs your key can reach — worth a look before you hard-code one.

Coding tools and chat apps

Most people never call the API directly — their editor or chat app does it for them. Anything that accepts a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint works, which is most of the ecosystem, and you are always filling in the same two fields. No code required.

Cline (VS Code)

Continue (VS Code / JetBrains)

In config.json, under models:

{
  "title": "llmax.ai",
  "provider": "openai",
  "model": "qwen3.6",
  "apiBase": "https://run.llmax.ai/v1",
  "apiKey": "sk-…"
}

Aider

export OPENAI_API_BASE="https://run.llmax.ai/v1"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-…"
aider --model openai/qwen3.6

Xcode 26

Xcode → Settings → Intelligence → Add a Model Provider → Internet Hosted.

Xcode is the one exception to the base URL above: it appends the version segment itself, so pasting the full https://run.llmax.ai/v1 makes it request /v1/v1/… and every call 404s. Enter the host alone. It also adds the Bearer prefix to the key for you. Both quirks, and how to set up a local model instead, are covered in a longer write-up on the blog.

Open WebUI and other chat clients

Add an OpenAI-compatible connection with the same base URL and key. This is the route for anyone who isn't writing code: the app does the talking, you only paste two values into its settings.

Python

Calling the API from your own code is the same story: the official openai package works as-is, no fork and no wrapper.

# pip install openai
import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://run.llmax.ai/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["LLMAX_API_KEY"],
)

resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="qwen3.6",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain actors in Swift, briefly."}],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)

JavaScript and TypeScript

// npm install openai
import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://run.llmax.ai/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.LLMAX_API_KEY,
});

const resp = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "qwen3.6",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Explain coroutines in Kotlin, briefly." }],
});
console.log(resp.choices[0].message.content);

curl

curl https://run.llmax.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LLMAX_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "qwen3.6",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
  }'

To list what your key can reach:

curl https://run.llmax.ai/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LLMAX_API_KEY"

Streaming

Set stream: true and read the chunks exactly as you would from OpenAI — the server-sent-event format is the same, terminator included.

stream = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="qwen3.6",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about tokens."}],
    stream=True,
)
for chunk in stream:
    print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content or "", end="")

Embeddings and reranking

The /v1/embeddings and /v1/rerank endpoints follow the same shape and the same authentication. They are billed as add-ons rather than being part of the flat inference plan — see the terms for how that works.

Rate limits

Tokens are unlimited; requests are not unmetered chaos. Each plan carries requests-per-minute and concurrency limits so one account can't saturate the cluster and slow everyone else down. Exceeding them returns 429, and the right response is the usual one: back off and retry. The exact figures per plan are published at launch.

Common errors

401 — authentication

Either no key reached the server or it isn't a valid llmax.ai key. Check that your client sends Authorization: Bearer sk-… and that the environment variable is actually populated in the shell that runs your code.

404 — wrong path

Almost always the base URL. It must end in /v1, and your client appends the rest. If you set https://run.llmax.ai without /v1, or paste the full /v1/chat/completions into a field that expects only the base, you get a 404.

429 — rate limited

Too many requests per minute, or too many in flight at once. Retry with exponential backoff.

What doesn't change

Your prompts, your tool definitions, your streaming code, your retry logic and your error handling. That's the point of being OpenAI-compatible: the switch is reversible, so trying it costs you an afternoon at most, and leaving would cost the same.

What you gain is on the other side of the wire — EU-only processing with zero logs and a bill that doesn't move with usage. If you want to see what that's worth at your volume, the cost calculator does the arithmetic.