---
title: "Provider: FriendliAI"
subtitle: "Call FriendliAI models through Respan Gateway with unified logs, cost, and latency."
---
This page is for **Respan LLM Gateway** users.
Use Respan Gateway to call FriendliAI Serverless Endpoints (GLM 5.3, DeepSeek, and other models) while keeping unified observability (logs, cost, latency, reliability) in Respan.
## Quick setup
[Sign up](https://platform.respan.ai) and create a key on the [API keys page](https://platform.respan.ai/platform/gateway/api-keys).
[Top up credits](https://platform.respan.ai/platform/gateway/credits) to pay through Respan. No Friendli key required, Respan handles provider auth and billing.
Prefer to route through your own Friendli account? See [Use your own FriendliAI key](#use-your-own-friendli-ai-key-byok).
## Send your first request
Pick the integration that matches your stack. The base URL is `https://api.respan.ai/api` and the only key needed is your `RESPAN_API_KEY`.
FriendliAI is OpenAI-compatible. Point the OpenAI SDK at the Respan gateway and call any Friendli model.
```python Python
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key="YOUR_RESPAN_API_KEY",
base_url="https://api.respan.ai/api",
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Friendli!"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)
```
```typescript TypeScript
import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({
apiKey: process.env.RESPAN_API_KEY,
baseURL: "https://api.respan.ai/api",
});
const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
model: "friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3",
messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello, Friendli!" }],
});
console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);
```
Call `respan.chat(...)` explicitly to use the Gateway Chat Completions endpoint.
Use `@ai-sdk/openai` and point `createOpenAI` at the Respan gateway.
```typescript TypeScript
import { createOpenAI } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
import { generateText } from "ai";
const respan = createOpenAI({
apiKey: process.env.RESPAN_API_KEY!,
baseURL: "https://api.respan.ai/api",
});
const result = await generateText({
model: respan.chat("friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3"),
prompt: "Hello, Friendli!",
});
console.log(result.text);
```
Call the Respan REST API directly from any language.
```python Python
import requests
response = requests.post(
"https://api.respan.ai/api/chat/completions",
headers={
"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_RESPAN_API_KEY",
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
json={
"model": "friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, Friendli!"}],
},
)
print(response.json()["choices"][0]["message"]["content"])
```
```typescript TypeScript
const response = await fetch("https://api.respan.ai/api/chat/completions", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.RESPAN_API_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
model: "friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3",
messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello, Friendli!" }],
}),
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data.choices[0].message.content);
```
## More integrations
FriendliAI models work with every Respan gateway integration:
- [OpenAI SDK](/docs/integrations/openai-sdk)
- [OpenAI Agents SDK](/docs/integrations/openai-agents-sdk)
- [LangChain](/docs/integrations/langchain)
- [LangGraph](/docs/integrations/langgraph)
- [LlamaIndex](/docs/integrations/llama-index)
- [Pydantic AI](/docs/integrations/pydantic-ai)
- [Respan native (OTel)](/docs/documentation/features/gateway/gateway-quickstart)
## Switch models
Change the `model` parameter to call any supported model through the same client. Use the `friendliai/` prefix to disambiguate when routing across providers. Browse the full list on the [Models page](https://platform.respan.ai/platform/models).
```python
client.chat.completions.create(model="friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3", messages=messages)
client.chat.completions.create(model="friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3-Flash", messages=messages)
client.chat.completions.create(model="friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.2", messages=messages)
client.chat.completions.create(model="openai/gpt-6-sol", messages=messages)
client.chat.completions.create(model="anthropic/claude-opus-5-5", messages=messages)
```
## Use your own FriendliAI key (BYOK)
Credits are the default path. If you'd rather bill Friendli directly, attach your own provider key.
Go to the [Providers page](https://platform.respan.ai/platform/gateway/api-keys?providers=1).
Select **FriendliAI** and paste your `friendli.api_key` (Friendli Suite Personal API key).
Add multiple credential sets and use **Load balancing weight** to distribute traffic across them.
Pass `customer_credentials` on each [Gateway request](/docs/apis/gateway/create-chat-completion). Useful when serving end-user keys.
```json
{
"customer_credentials": {
"friendli": {
"api_key": "YOUR_FRIENDLI_API_KEY"
}
}
}
```
### Override credentials per model (Optional)
Use [`credential_override`](/docs/documentation/admin/llm_provider_keys#per-model-credential-override) when one model on a request should use a different Friendli key than the default.
```json
{
"customer_credentials": {
"friendli": { "api_key": "YOUR_FRIENDLI_API_KEY" }
},
"credential_override": {
"friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3": { "api_key": "ANOTHER_FRIENDLI_API_KEY" }
}
}
```
## Log without proxying (Optional)
Already calling Friendli directly? Send logs to Respan asynchronously to track cost, latency, and performance for those external calls.
```python
import requests
requests.post(
"https://api.respan.ai/api/request-logs/create/",
headers={
"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_RESPAN_API_KEY",
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
json={
"model": "friendliai/zai-org/GLM-5.3",
"prompt_messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello, how are you?"}],
"completion_message": {"role": "assistant", "content": "Hello from FriendliAI through Respan."},
"cost": 0.001,
"generation_time": 1.2,
"customer_params": {"customer_identifier": "user_123"},
},
)
```
See the [logging guide](/docs/apis/spans/create-span) for the full setup.