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Alex Spinov
Alex Spinov

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LiteLLM Has a Free API You Should Know About

#webdev #ai #python #opensource

LiteLLM is an open-source library that provides a unified API to call 100+ LLM providers — OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, Replicate, Azure, AWS Bedrock, and more — with a single interface.

The Problem LiteLLM Solves

A CTO at a SaaS company had their entire backend hardcoded to OpenAI's API. When they needed to add Anthropic as a fallback, it required rewriting 40+ files. With LiteLLM, switching between providers is a one-line change.

Key Features:

  • Unified API — Same interface for OpenAI, Anthropic, Cohere, and 100+ providers
  • Load Balancing — Route requests across multiple providers and API keys
  • Fallbacks — Automatic failover when a provider is down
  • Cost Tracking — Track spend per model, per user, per team
  • Proxy Server — Drop-in OpenAI-compatible proxy for any LLM

Quick Start 

pip install litellm
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from litellm import completion

# OpenAI
response = completion(model="gpt-4", messages=["role": "user"])

# Anthropic — same interface!
response = completion(model="claude-3-opus-20240229", messages=["role": "user"])

# Cohere — still the same!
response = completion(model="command-r-plus", messages=["role": "user"])
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Proxy Server

Run a local OpenAI-compatible proxy:

litellm --model claude-3-opus-20240229
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Now point any OpenAI SDK client to http://localhost:4000 and it works with Claude, Gemini, or any supported model.

Load Balancing & Fallbacks 

from litellm import Router

router = Router(
    model_list=[
        "model_name": "gpt-4",
        "model_name": "gpt-4",
    ],
    fallbacks=[{"gpt-4": ["claude-3-opus-20240229"]}]
)

response = router.completion(model="gpt-4", messages=["role": "user"])
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Why Teams Switch to LiteLLM

  1. Vendor independence — never locked into one provider
  2. Cost optimization — route to cheapest model per use case
  3. Reliability — automatic failover across providers
  4. Observability — built-in spend tracking and logging

Check out the LiteLLM documentation to get started.

Building AI-powered applications? I create data extraction and web scraping tools. Check out my Apify actors or email spinov001@gmail.com for custom solutions.

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