Skip to main content
Portkey provides a robust gateway to facilitate the integration of your locally hosted models through LocalAI.

​
Integration Steps

1

Expose your LocalAI Server

Ensure your LocalAI API is externally accessible. If running on http://localhost, use a tool like ngrok to create a public URL.
ngrok http 8080
2

Add to Model Catalog

  1. Go to Model Catalog → Add Provider
  2. Enable “Local/Privately hosted provider” toggle
  3. Select OpenAI as the provider type (LocalAI follows OpenAI API schema)
  4. Enter your LocalAI URL with /v1 in Custom Host: https://your-localai.ngrok-free.app/v1
  5. Name your provider (e.g., my-localai)

Complete Setup Guide

See all setup options
3

Use in Your Application

from portkey_ai import Portkey

portkey = Portkey(
    api_key="PORTKEY_API_KEY",
    provider="@my-localai"
)

response = portkey.chat.completions.create(
    model="ggml-koala-7b-model-q4_0-r2.bin",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)
Or use custom host directly:
from portkey_ai import Portkey

portkey = Portkey(
    api_key="PORTKEY_API_KEY",
    provider="openai",
    custom_host="https://your-localai.ngrok-free.app/v1"
)
Important:
  • Don’t forget to include the version identifier (/v1) in the Custom Host URL
  • Portkey supports all endpoints that adhere to the OpenAI specification

​
LocalAI Endpoints Supported

EndpointResource
/chat/completions (Chat, Vision, Tools support)Doc
/images/generationsDoc
/embeddingsDoc
/audio/transcriptionsDoc

​
Next Steps

Gateway Configs

Add retries, timeouts, and fallbacks

Observability

Monitor your LocalAI requests

Custom Host Guide

Learn more about custom host setup

BYOLLM Guide

Complete guide for private LLMs
For complete SDK documentation:

SDK Reference

Complete Portkey SDK documentation
Last modified on March 6, 2026