#### 3. Save fake OpenAI key in Librechat's `.env`
Copy Librechat's `.env.example` to `.env` and overwrite the default OPENAI_API_KEY (by default it requires the user to pass a key).
```env
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-1234
```
#### 4. Run LibreChat:
```shell
docker compose up
```
---
### Why use LiteLLM?
1.**Access to Multiple LLMs**: It allows calling over 100 LLMs from platforms like Huggingface, Bedrock, TogetherAI, etc., using OpenAI's ChatCompletions and Completions format.
2.**Load Balancing**: Capable of handling over 1,000 requests per second during load tests, it balances load across various models and deployments.
3.**Authentication & Spend Tracking**: The server supports virtual keys for authentication and tracks spending.
Key components and features include:
- **Installation**: Easy installation.
- **Testing**: Testing features to route requests to specific models.
- **Server Endpoints**: Offers multiple endpoints for chat completions, completions, embeddings, model lists, and key generation.
- **Supported LLMs**: Supports a wide range of LLMs, including AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Huggingface, AWS Sagemaker, Anthropic, and more.
- **Proxy Configurations**: Allows setting various parameters like model list, server settings, environment variables, and more.
- **Multiple Models Management**: Configurations can be set up for managing multiple models with fallbacks, cooldowns, retries, and timeouts.
- **Embedding Models Support**: Special configurations for embedding models.
- **Authentication Management**: Features for managing authentication through virtual keys, model upgrades/downgrades, and tracking spend.
- **Debugging Tools**: Options for debugging and logging proxy input/output.
- **Deployment and Performance**: Information on deploying LiteLLM Proxy and its performance metrics.
- **Proxy CLI Arguments**: A wide range of command-line arguments for customization.
Overall, LiteLLM Server offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing, deploying, and interacting with a variety of LLMs, making it a versatile choice for large-scale AI applications.