Virtual Keys

This feature is available on all Portkey plans.

Portkey's virtual key system allows you to securely store your LLM API keys in our vault, utilizing a unique virtual identifier to streamline API key management.

This feature also provides the following benefits:

• Easier key rotation

• The ability to generate multiple virtual keys for a single API key

• Imposition of restrictions based on cost, request volume, and user access

These can be managed within your account under the "Virtual Keys" tab.

Creating Virtual Keys:

1. Navigate to the "Virtual Keys" page and click the "Add Key" button in the top right corner.

2. Select your AI provider, name your key uniquely, and note any usage specifics if needed.

Tip: You can register multiple keys for one provider or use different names for the same key for easy identification.

How are the provider API keys stored?

Your API keys are encrypted and stored in secure vaults, accessible only at the moment of a request. Decryption is performed exclusively in isolated workers and only when necessary, ensuring the highest level of data security.

How are the provider keys linked to the virtual key?

We randomly generate virtual keys and link them separately to the securely stored keys. This means, your raw API keys can not be reverse engineered from the virtual keys.

Using Virtual Keys

Using the Portkey SDK

Add the virtual key directly to the initialization configuration for Portkey.

NodeJS

import Portkey from 'portkey-ai'
 
const portkey = new Portkey({
    apiKey: "PORTKEY_API_KEY", // defaults to process.env["PORTKEY_API_KEY"]
    virtualKey: "VIRTUAL_KEY" // Portkey supports a vault for your LLM Keys
})

Python

# Construct a client with a virtual key
portkey = Portkey(
    api_key="PORTKEY_API_KEY",
    virtual_key="VIRTUAL_KEY"
)

Alternatively, you can override the virtual key during the completions call as follows:

NodeJS SDK

const chatCompletion = await portkey.chat.completions.create({
    messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Say this is a test' }],
    model: 'gpt-3.5-turbo',
}, {virtualKey: "OVERRIDING_VIRTUAL_KEY"});

Python SDK

completion = portkey.with_options(virtual_key="...").chat.completions.create(
    messages = [{ "role": 'user', "content": 'Say this is a test' }],
    model = 'gpt-3.5-turbo'
)

Setting Budget Limits

Portkey provides a simple way to set budget limits for any of your virtual keys and helps you manage your spending on AI providers (and LLMs) - giving you confidence and control over your application's costs.

Budget Limits

Prompt Templates

Choose your Virtual Key within Portkey’s prompt templates, and it will be automatically retrieved and ready for use.

Langchain / LlamaIndex

Set the virtual key when utilizing Portkey's custom LLM as shown below:

# Example in Langchain
llm = PortkeyLLM(api_key="PORTKEY_API_KEY",virtual_key="VIRTUAL_KEY")