Get started

Quickstart

A working chat completion in three commands and 60 seconds. We'll use deepseek-v4 — fast, cheap, OpenAI-shape.

1. Install an SDK

Use the standard OpenAI SDK. Don't install anything ollima-specific — you don't need to.

# Python
pip install openai

# Node
npm install openai

2. Mint a key

Sign in at app.ollima.com (magic link, no password), open the Keys page, click Create key, copy the sk-t0-… value once (we never show it again).

Set a monthly spend cap right when you create the key. It's a one-line edit later but easy to forget — and a runaway loop will burn ₹3000 before you finish your coffee.

3. Make your first call

from openai import OpenAI client = OpenAI( base_url="https://api.ollima.com/v1", api_key="sk-t0-…", ) resp = client.chat.completions.create( model="deepseek-v4", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain DNS in one sentence."}], ) print(resp.choices[0].message.content)
import OpenAI from "openai"; const client = new OpenAI({ baseURL: "https://api.ollima.com/v1", apiKey: "sk-t0-…", }); const resp = await client.chat.completions.create({ model: "deepseek-v4", messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Explain DNS in one sentence." }], }); console.log(resp.choices[0].message.content);
curl https://api.ollima.com/v1/chat/completions \ -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-t0-…" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d {`'{"model":"deepseek-v4","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Explain DNS in one sentence."}]}'`}

You should see a one-sentence answer in under a second. If you get 401, your key has a typo. If you get 429 on call number 21, you hit the free-plan rate limit — see Rate limits.

4. Stream the response

Add stream: true to get tokens as Server-Sent Events. Ideal for chat UIs. The response shape is identical to OpenAI's.

# Python
stream = client.chat.completions.create(
  model="deepseek-v4-flash",
  messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a haiku about DNS"}],
  stream=True,
)
for chunk in stream:
  print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content or "", end="")

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