Portkey natively integrates with LibreChat and makes your LibreChat deployments production-grade and reliable with our suite of features:

Unified AI Gateway - Single interface for 1600+ LLMs with API key management. (not just OpenAI & Anthropic)
Centralized AI observability: Real-time usage tracking for 40+ key metrics and logs for every request
Governance - Real-time spend tracking, set budget limits and RBAC in your LibreChat setup
Security Guardrails - PII detection, content filtering, and compliance controls

This guide will walk you through integrating Portkey with LibreChat and setting up essential enterprise features including usage tracking, access controls, and budget management.

If you are an enterprise looking to use LibreChat in your organisation, check out this section.

1. Setting up Portkey

Portkey allows you to use 1600+ LLMs with your LibreChat setup, with minimal configuration required. Let’s set up the core components in Portkey that you’ll need for integration.

Create Virtual Key

Virtual Keys are Portkey’s secure way to manage your LLM provider API keys. Think of them like disposable credit cards for your LLM API keys, providing essential controls like:

Budget limits for API usage
Rate limiting capabilities
Secure API key storage

To create a virtual key: Go to Virtual Keys in the Portkey App. Save and copy the virtual key ID

Save your virtual key ID - you’ll need it for the next step.

Create Default Config

Configs in Portkey are JSON objects that define how your requests are routed. They help with implementing features like advanced routing, fallbacks, and retries.We need to create a default config to route our requests to the virtual key created in Step 1.To create your config:

Go to Configs in Portkey dashboard

Create new config with:

{
    "virtual_key": "YOUR_VIRTUAL_KEY_FROM_STEP1",
   	"override_params": {
      "model": "gpt-4o" // Your preferred model name
    }
}

Save and note the Config name for the next step

This basic config connects to your virtual key. You can add more advanced portkey features later.

Configure Portkey API Key

Now create Portkey API key access point and attach the config you created in Step 2:

Go to API Keys in Portkey and Create new API key
Select your config from Step 2
Generate and save your API key

Save your API key securely - you’ll need it for LibreChat integration.

2. Integrate Portkey with LibreChat

Create the docker-compose-override.yaml file Create this file following the instructions here. This file will point to the librechat.yaml file where we will configure our Portkey settings (in Step 3).

docker-compose.override.yml

services:
  api:
    volumes:
    - type: bind
      source: ./librechat.yaml
      target: /app/librechat.yaml

Configure the .env file Edit your existing .env file at the project root (if the file does not exist, copy the .env.example file and rename to .env). We will add:

.env

PORTKEY_API_KEY=YOUR_PORTKEY_API_KEY
PORTKEY_GATEWAY_URL=https://api.portkey.ai/v1

Edit the librechat.yaml file Edit this file following the instructions here. Here, you can either pass your Config (containing provider/model configurations) or direct provider Virtual key saved on Portkey.

LibreChat requires that the API key field is present. Since we don’t need it for the Portkey integration, we can pass a dummy string for it.

version: 1.1.4
cache: true
endpoints:
  custom:
    - name: "Portkey"
      apiKey: "dummy"
      baseURL: ${PORTKEY_GATEWAY_URL}
      headers:
        x-portkey-api-key: "${PORTKEY_API_KEY}"
        x-portkey-config: "pc-libre-xxx"
      models:
        default: ["llama-3.2"]
        fetch: true
      titleConvo: true
      titleModel: "current_model"
      summarize: false
      summaryModel: "current_model"
      forcePrompt: false
      modelDisplayLabel: "Portkey:Llama"

If you’re a system admin, and you’re looking to track the costs/user on a centralized instance of LibreChat, here’s a community guide by Tim Manik.

3. Set Up Enterprise Governance for LibreChat

Why Enterprise Governance? If you are using LibreChat inside your orgnaization, you need to consider several governance aspects:

Cost Management: Controlling and tracking AI spending across teams
Access Control: Managing which teams can use specific models
Usage Analytics: Understanding how AI is being used across the organization
Security & Compliance: Maintaining enterprise security standards
Reliability: Ensuring consistent service across all users

Portkey adds a comprehensive governance layer to address these enterprise needs. Let’s implement these controls step by step. Enterprise Implementation Guide

Step 1: Implement Budget Controls & Rate Limits

Step 2: Define Model Access Rules

As your AI usage scales, controlling which teams can access specific models becomes crucial. Portkey Configs provide this control layer with features like:

Access Control Features:

Model Restrictions: Limit access to specific models
Data Protection: Implement guardrails for sensitive data
Reliability Controls: Add fallbacks and retry logic

Example Configuration:

Here’s a basic configuration to route requests to OpenAI, specifically using GPT-4o:

{
	"strategy": {
		"mode": "single"
	},
	"targets": [
		{
			"virtual_key": "YOUR_OPENAI_VIRTUAL_KEY",
			"override_params": {
				"model": "gpt-4o"
			}
		}
	]
}

Create your config on the Configs page in your Portkey dashboard. You’ll need the config ID for connecting to LibreChat’s setup.

Configs can be updated anytime to adjust controls without affecting running applications.

Step 3: Implement Access Controls

Create User-specific API keys that automatically:

Track usage per user/team with the help of virtual keys
Apply appropriate configs to route requests
Collect relevant metadata to filter logs
Enforce access permissions

Create API keys through:

Example using Python SDK:

from portkey_ai import Portkey

portkey = Portkey(api_key="YOUR_ADMIN_API_KEY")

api_key = portkey.api_keys.create(
    name="engineering-team",
    type="organisation",
    workspace_id="YOUR_WORKSPACE_ID",
    defaults={
        "config_id": "your-config-id",
        "metadata": {
            "environment": "production",
            "department": "engineering"
        }
    },
    scopes=["logs.view", "configs.read"]
)

For detailed key management instructions, see our API Keys documentation.

Step 4: Deploy & Monitor

Enterprise Features Now Available

LibreChat now has:

Departmental budget controls
Model access governance
Usage tracking & attribution
Security guardrails
Reliability features

Portkey Features

Now that you have enterprise-grade LibreChat setup, let’s explore the comprehensive features Portkey provides to ensure secure, efficient, and cost-effective AI operations.

1. Comprehensive Metrics

Using Portkey you can track 40+ key metrics including cost, token usage, response time, and performance across all your LLM providers in real time. You can also filter these metrics based on custom metadata that you can set in your configs. Learn more about metadata here.

2. Advanced Logs

Portkey’s logging dashboard provides detailed logs for every request made to your LLMs. These logs include:

Complete request and response tracking
Metadata tags for filtering
Cost attribution and much more…

3. Unified Access to 1600+ LLMs

You can easily switch between 1600+ LLMs. Call various LLMs such as Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, and many more by simply changing the virtual key in your default config object.

4. Advanced Metadata Tracking

Using Portkey, you can add custom metadata to your LLM requests for detailed tracking and analytics. Use metadata tags to filter logs, track usage, and attribute costs across departments and teams.

Custom Metata

5. Enterprise Access Management

Budget Controls

Set and manage spending limits across teams and departments. Control costs with granular budget limits and usage tracking.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Enterprise-grade SSO integration with support for SAML 2.0, Okta, Azure AD, and custom providers for secure authentication.

Organization Management

Hierarchical organization structure with workspaces, teams, and role-based access control for enterprise-scale deployments.

Access Rules & Audit Logs

Comprehensive access control rules and detailed audit logging for security compliance and usage tracking.

6. Reliability Features

Fallbacks

Automatically switch to backup targets if the primary target fails.

Conditional Routing

Route requests to different targets based on specified conditions.

Load Balancing

Distribute requests across multiple targets based on defined weights.

Caching

Enable caching of responses to improve performance and reduce costs.

Smart Retries

Automatic retry handling with exponential backoff for failed requests

Budget Limits

Set and manage budget limits across teams and departments. Control costs with granular budget limits and usage tracking.

7. Advanced Guardrails

Protect your Project’s data and enhance reliability with real-time checks on LLM inputs and outputs. Leverage guardrails to:

Prevent sensitive data leaks
Enforce compliance with organizational policies
PII detection and masking
Content filtering
Custom security rules
Data compliance checks

Guardrails

Implement real-time protection for your LLM interactions with automatic detection and filtering of sensitive content, PII, and custom security rules. Enable comprehensive data protection while maintaining compliance with organizational policies.

FAQs

How do I update my Virtual Key limits after creation?

Can I use multiple LLM providers with the same API key?

How do I track costs for different teams?

What happens if a team exceeds their budget limit?

Next Steps

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For enterprise support and custom features, contact our enterprise team.

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Tracing Providers

​1. Setting up Portkey

​2. Integrate Portkey with LibreChat

​3. Set Up Enterprise Governance for LibreChat

​Enterprise Features Now Available

​Portkey Features

​1. Comprehensive Metrics

​2. Advanced Logs

​3. Unified Access to 1600+ LLMs

​4. Advanced Metadata Tracking

Custom Metata

​5. Enterprise Access Management

Budget Controls

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Organization Management

Access Rules & Audit Logs

​6. Reliability Features

Fallbacks

Conditional Routing

Load Balancing

Caching

Smart Retries

Budget Limits

​7. Advanced Guardrails

Guardrails

​FAQs

​Next Steps

1. Setting up Portkey

2. Integrate Portkey with LibreChat

3. Set Up Enterprise Governance for LibreChat

Enterprise Features Now Available

Portkey Features

1. Comprehensive Metrics

2. Advanced Logs

3. Unified Access to 1600+ LLMs

4. Advanced Metadata Tracking

5. Enterprise Access Management

6. Reliability Features

7. Advanced Guardrails

FAQs

Next Steps