Get Started with FriendliAI

Create an API key and send your first request. Once you complete these steps, you’re ready to choose a popular model and use your favorite agent or SDK with FriendliAI. With Friendli Model APIs, you get access to a curated set of popular, open-weight models that are ready for you today. If you want to run any model — including your own — on dedicated GPUs, try Friendli Dedicated Endpoints. To get started, complete the following steps.

Create an API Key

Create a Friendli Suite Account

If you haven’t already, sign up for an account.

Then, sign in. Friendli Suite opens your dashboard.

Create a FriendliAI API Key

In the left sidebar, click Settings. Then, click API Keys.
In the upper-right corner, click Create API Key.
Click Copy.

Send a Request

Set Up Your API Key

In your terminal, run the following command:

export FRIENDLIAI_API_KEY="<FRIENDLIAI_API_KEY>"

Replace <FRIENDLIAI_API_KEY> with your API key.

Install the OpenAI SDK

In your terminal, run the following command:

pip install openai

npm install openai

Send Your Request to FriendliAI

Run the following code:

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
  base_url="https://api.friendli.ai/serverless/v1",
  api_key=os.environ["FRIENDLIAI_API_KEY"],
)

completion = client.chat.completions.create(
  model="zai-org/GLM-5.2",
  messages=[
    {"role": "system", "content": "You are a friendly assistant."},
    {"role": "user", "content": "Describe FriendliAI in one sentence."},
  ],
)

print(completion.choices[0].message)

import OpenAI from "openai"

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api.friendli.ai/serverless/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.FRIENDLIAI_API_KEY,
})

const completion = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "zai-org/GLM-5.2",
  messages: [
    { role: "system", content: "You are a friendly assistant." },
    { role: "user", content: "Describe FriendliAI in one sentence." },
  ],
})

console.log(completion.choices[0].message)

curl -X POST https://api.friendli.ai/serverless/v1/chat/completions \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FRIENDLIAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "zai-org/GLM-5.2",
    "messages": [
      {"role": "system", "content": "You are a friendly assistant."},
      {"role": "user", "content": "Describe FriendliAI in one sentence."}
    ]
}'

FriendliAI returns a response, similar to the following:

{
  "id": "chatcmpl-04eb40ba7fc14cf8a51b7869d9cfa76f",
  "object": "chat.completion",
  "choices": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "message": {
        "role": "assistant",
        "content": "FriendliAI is a generative AI infrastructure company that provides optimized solutions to help businesses deploy large language models faster, more efficiently, and at a lower cost.",
        "reasoning": "...",
        "reasoning_content": "..."
      },
      "logprobs": null,
      "finish_reason": "stop"
    }
  ],
  "created": 1781892285,
  "usage": {
    "completion_tokens": 412,
    "prompt_tokens": 27,
    "prompt_tokens_details": {
      "cached_tokens": 0
    },
    "total_tokens": 439
  },
  "model": "zai-org/GLM-5.2"
}

Use Popular Models and Your Favorite Agent or SDK

You’re ready to start building with your favorite coding agent or SDK to connect to fast, cost-efficient, and reliable open-weight models.

Models

Use popular FriendliAI models.

Agents

Use your favorite agent with FriendliAI.

SDKs

Use your favorite SDK with FriendliAI.

Last modified on July 19, 2026

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Introduction

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Get Started with FriendliAI

Create an API Key

Send a Request

Use Popular Models and Your Favorite Agent or SDK

Models

Agents

SDKs

​Create an API Key

​Send a Request

​Use Popular Models and Your Favorite Agent or SDK

Models

Agents

SDKs

Create an API Key

Send a Request

Use Popular Models and Your Favorite Agent or SDK