Building applications with AI is incredibly exciting, but managing the infrastructure is a nightmare. Every provider — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, Meta — has a different API structure, a different rate limit policy, and different authentication methods. If you want to swap models or add a fallback provider, you have to rewrite your entire integration code.
Free Ai Api Proxy solves this chaos. It is a lightweight, ultra-fast, and highly resilient reverse proxy that provides a single, standardized API endpoint for dozens of AI models. It acts as an intelligent router, translating your requests on the fly and managing the complexities of each provider behind the scenes.
Whether you are building a chatbot, an automated content pipeline, or a complex multi-agent system, this proxy lets you swap models with a single line of configuration. It handles retries, failovers, token counting, and key rotation transparently. You focus on building your product; the proxy handles the infrastructure.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| 🔄 Unified API | One standardized OpenAI-compatible endpoint for all major LLM providers |
| 🛡️ Smart Failover | Automatic retries and seamless fallback to secondary models on errors |
| 📉 Token Tracking | Built-in usage analytics and cost estimation per request |
| ⚡ Low Latency | Edge-optimized routing for sub-second response times |
| 🔑 Key Rotation | Automatically rotate multiple API keys to bypass rate limits |
| 🧩 Extensible | Easily add custom providers or wrap local models like Ollama |
| 📊 Observability | Detailed logging, health checks, and Prometheus metrics |
| 🐳 Docker Ready | Fully containerized for instant deployment anywhere |
Deploy the proxy in less than two minutes using Docker:
# Pull the latest image
docker pull freeaiproxy/free-ai-api-proxy:latest
# Run the container with your environment variables
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 \
-e OPENAI_API_KEY="your_key" \
-e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="your_key" \
-e PROXY_SECRET="your_custom_secret" \
freeaiproxy/free-ai-api-proxy:latestOnce running, point your application to http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions and start sending requests using the standard OpenAI format. The proxy will automatically route your request based on the model parameter you specify in the payload.
Under the hood, Free Ai Api Proxy is much more than a simple reverse proxy. It features a sophisticated routing engine that analyzes your incoming requests and makes intelligent decisions about where to send them.
When you send a prompt to the /v1/chat/completions endpoint, the proxy parses the requested model. If you request gpt-4, it forwards the request to OpenAI. If you request claude-3-opus, it translates the payload into Anthropic's format and forwards it there. If the primary provider returns a 429 (rate limit) or a 500 error, the proxy's failover mechanism instantly catches the error and retries the request against a designated backup model without dropping the connection.
Additionally, the proxy supports advanced features like prompt caching and semantic routing. With semantic routing enabled, you can define rules that automatically select the most cost-effective model for a given task. For example, simple classification tasks can be routed to cheaper, smaller models, while complex reasoning tasks are sent to flagship models. This level of abstraction saves both time and money.
The true power of Free Ai Api Proxy is unlocked through its configuration file. You can define complex routing rules, fallback chains, and custom headers with just a few lines of YAML.
providers.yaml— define your API keys, base URLs, and specific model mappings.routing.yaml— set up conditional rules based on prompt length, user tier, or keywords.plugins/— a directory for custom middleware (e.g., adding PII redaction before requests leave your server).telemetry— built-in support for OpenTelemetry and Datadog integration.webhooks— trigger custom events when specific model thresholds are reached.
The system also includes a lightweight web dashboard (accessible at /dashboard) where you can view real-time request logs, token usage, and provider health. This dashboard is secured by your PROXY_SECRET and is ideal for monitoring production deployments.
Free Ai Api Proxy is built by the community, for the community. We are always looking for new providers to support, optimizations for the routing engine, and improvements to the documentation.
- Fork the repository.
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/new-provider). - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add support for new provider'). - Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/new-provider). - Open a Pull Request.
Please review our CONTRIBUTING.md for coding standards and the review process. We also have an active Discord server where we discuss new features, help debug deployment issues, and share interesting AI use cases. Join us!
- 💬 Discussions: Join the conversation in the GitHub Discussions tab.
- 🐛 Issues: Found a bug? Let us know via the Issues tracker.
- 📧 Email: Reach out directly at support@freeaiproxy.dev.
