Skip to main content
OpenRouter provides endpoints to programmatically manage your API keys, enabling key creation and management for applications that need to distribute or rotate keys automatically.

​
Creating a Management API Key

To use the key management API, you first need to create a Management API key:
  1. Go to the Management API Keys page
  2. Click “Create New Key”
  3. Complete the key creation process
Management keys cannot be used to make API calls to OpenRouter’s completion endpoints - they are exclusively for administrative operations.

​
Use Cases

Common scenarios for programmatic key management include:
  • SaaS Applications: Automatically create unique API keys for each customer instance
  • Key Rotation: Regularly rotate API keys for security compliance
  • Usage Monitoring: Track key usage and automatically disable keys that exceed limits (with optional daily/weekly/monthly limit resets)

​
Example Usage

All key management endpoints are under /api/v1/keys and require a Management API key in the Authorization header. 
import { OpenRouter } from '@openrouter/sdk';

const openRouter = new OpenRouter({
  apiKey: 'your-management-key', // Use your Management API key
});

// List the most recent 100 API keys
const keys = await openRouter.apiKeys.list();

// You can paginate using the offset parameter
const keysPage2 = await openRouter.apiKeys.list({ offset: 100 });

// Create a new API key
const newKey = await openRouter.apiKeys.create({
  name: 'Customer Instance Key',
  limit: 1000, // Optional credit limit
});

// Get a specific key
const keyHash = '<YOUR_KEY_HASH>';
const key = await openRouter.apiKeys.get(keyHash);

// Update a key
const updatedKey = await openRouter.apiKeys.update(keyHash, {
  name: 'Updated Key Name',
  disabled: true, // Optional: Disable the key
  includeByokInLimit: false, // Optional: control BYOK usage in limit
  limitReset: 'daily', // Optional: reset limit every day at midnight UTC
});

// Delete a key
await openRouter.apiKeys.delete(keyHash);

​
Response Format

API responses return JSON objects containing key information: 
{
  "data": [
    {
      "created_at": "2025-02-19T20:52:27.363244+00:00",
      "updated_at": "2025-02-19T21:24:11.708154+00:00",
      "hash": "<YOUR_KEY_HASH>",
      "label": "sk-or-v1-abc...123",
      "name": "Customer Key",
      "disabled": false,
      "limit": 10,
      "limit_remaining": 10,
      "limit_reset": null,
      "include_byok_in_limit": false,
      "usage": 0,
      "usage_daily": 0,
      "usage_weekly": 0,
      "usage_monthly": 0,
      "byok_usage": 0,
      "byok_usage_daily": 0,
      "byok_usage_weekly": 0,
      "byok_usage_monthly": 0
    }
  ]
}
When creating a new key, the response will include the key string itself. Read more in the API reference.