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Create an API Key and send your first request. Once you complete these steps, you’re ready to build fast 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.

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Create an API Key

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Send a Request

Once you create your FriendliAI API Key, you’re ready to send your first request:
1

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.
2

Install the OpenAI SDK

In your terminal, run the following command:
pip install openai
3

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)
If you’d like to use a different model, replace zai-org/GLM-5.2 with another model. To browse all models, see Models > Model APIs.
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"
}
Congratulations. You sent your first request and are ready to build your next AI project.

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Use Your 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. Choose how you work:

Agents

Use your favorite agent with FriendliAI.

SDKs

Use your favorite SDK with FriendliAI.
Last modified on June 24, 2026