Models

anki-llm sends OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions requests. Any model name is accepted, and a custom base URL supports hosted compatible APIs and local servers.

Built-in provider detection

The model prefix selects a built-in endpoint and provider-specific key:

Model prefix	Endpoint	API key
gemini-	https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai	GEMINI_API_KEY
deepseek-	https://api.deepseek.com	DEEPSEEK_API_KEY
grok-	https://api.x.ai/v1	XAI_API_KEY
Any other prefix	OpenAI default	OPENAI_API_KEY

export OPENAI_API_KEY="..."
export GEMINI_API_KEY="..."
export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="..."
export XAI_API_KEY="..."

Create keys through OpenAI, Google AI Studio, DeepSeek, or xAI.

With no explicit model, resolution is:

1. --model
2. default_model in the effective workspace’s anki-llm.yaml
3. Global model
4. A key-based default: gemini-2.5-flash, deepseek-v4-flash, grok-4.3, or gpt-5, checked in that order

A model that does not match Gemini, DeepSeek, or Grok uses OpenAI defaults unless you configure a custom endpoint.

OpenRouter

OpenRouter exposes many provider-qualified models through one compatible endpoint and API key:

export ANKI_LLM_API_KEY="your-openrouter-key"
anki-llm generate "今日" \
  --api-base-url https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 \
  --model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4

Persist the endpoint and model:

anki-llm config set api_base_url https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
anki-llm config set model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4

Model names are forwarded unchanged. Use OpenRouter’s provider-qualified model ID.

Local servers

Ollama, llama.cpp, vLLM, and similar servers work when they expose /v1/chat/completions:

anki-llm generate "今日" \
  --api-base-url http://localhost:11434/v1 \
  --model llama3

A custom endpoint does not require a key from anki-llm. The server can still require authentication, in which case pass --api-key or set ANKI_LLM_API_KEY.

For safety, provider-specific keys are not sent to a custom endpoint. If OPENAI_API_KEY is set and --api-base-url points elsewhere, anki-llm does not forward that key unless it is supplied through the generic key setting.

Other compatible APIs

anki-llm process-file input.yaml \
  --output output.yaml \
  --prompt prompt.md \
  --api-base-url https://api.together.xyz/v1 \
  --api-key your-key \
  --model meta-llama/Llama-3-70b-chat-hf

Together, Fireworks, Groq, proxies, and private gateways follow the same pattern. Compatibility depends on the endpoint accepting the request fields used by the selected command.

Endpoint and key precedence

API base URL:

1. --api-base-url
2. ANKI_LLM_API_BASE_URL
3. Global api_base_url
4. Built-in provider detection

API key:

1. --api-key
2. ANKI_LLM_API_KEY
3. Provider-specific environment variable, only for an auto-detected endpoint

API keys are not stored in the global LLM configuration. Use environment variables or a command flag.

Reasoning effort

Reasoning effort is an optional provider-neutral top-level field in the standard Chat Completions request.

anki-llm config set reasoning_effort low
export ANKI_LLM_REASONING_EFFORT=medium

anki-llm.yaml

default_model: gpt-5.4-mini
reasoning_effort: high

anki-llm process-file input.csv \
  --output output.csv \
  --prompt prompt.md \
  --reasoning-effort xhigh

Resolution order is CLI, ANKI_LLM_REASONING_EFFORT, workspace, global config, then unset. Values are trimmed and must be non-empty. anki-llm does not enforce a fixed vocabulary because providers and models differ. Common values include none, minimal, low, medium, high, xhigh, and max.

When unset, the request omits reasoning_effort and the provider chooses its default. A compatible server must accept the field if you set it.

Known models and cost estimates

The built-in pricing table recognizes exact model IDs in these families:

• OpenAI: GPT-4.1, GPT-4o, GPT-5 through GPT-5.4, including listed mini and nano variants
• Google: Gemini 2.0 Flash, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Flash Lite and Pro, plus listed Gemini 3 preview models
• DeepSeek: deepseek-v4-flash and deepseek-v4-pro
• xAI: grok-4.3

Known models appear in the TUI picker when their provider key is available. A generic ANKI_LLM_API_KEY makes all known models available in the picker, and the configured model is included even when unknown.

Pricing is an exact-name lookup, not provider discovery and not a whitelist. Unknown or provider-qualified names still run, but their cost estimate is unavailable. Estimates multiply reported input and output token counts by these built-in per-million-token rates:

Model	Input / 1M	Output / 1M	Provider reference
gpt-4.1	$2.00	$8.00	OpenAI
gpt-4.1-mini	$0.40	$1.60	OpenAI
gpt-4.1-nano	$0.10	$0.40	OpenAI
gpt-4o	$2.50	$10.00	OpenAI
gpt-4o-mini	$0.15	$0.60	OpenAI
gpt-5	$1.25	$10.00	OpenAI
gpt-5-mini	$0.25	$2.00	OpenAI
gpt-5-nano	$0.05	$0.40	OpenAI
gpt-5.1	$1.25	$10.00	OpenAI
gpt-5.2	$1.75	$14.00	OpenAI
gpt-5.3	$1.75	$14.00	OpenAI
gpt-5.4	$2.50	$15.00	OpenAI
gpt-5.4-mini	$0.75	$4.50	OpenAI
gpt-5.4-nano	$0.20	$1.25	OpenAI
gemini-2.0-flash	$0.10	$0.40	Google
gemini-2.5-flash	$0.30	$2.50	Google
gemini-2.5-flash-lite	$0.10	$0.40	Google
gemini-2.5-pro	$1.25	$10.00	Google
gemini-3-flash-preview	$0.50	$3.00	Google
gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview	$0.25	$1.50	Google
gemini-3.1-pro-preview	$2.00	$12.00	Google
deepseek-v4-flash	$0.14	$0.28	DeepSeek
deepseek-v4-pro	$1.74	$3.48	DeepSeek
grok-4.3	$1.25	$2.50	xAI

DeepSeek estimates use cache-miss, undiscounted rates.

Treat every displayed cost as guidance:

• Provider prices can change after anki-llm ships.
• Cached input, batch discounts, taxes, free tiers, routing markups, and custom contracts are not modeled.
• OpenRouter and other gateways can price the same model differently.
• Providers can report usage differently, especially reasoning tokens.
• Extra processing steps make additional requests.

Check the provider’s current pricing before a large run. Use --limit on a representative sample and extrapolate from the token and cost summary.