Get an AI21 Labs key
Who this is for: anyone who wants AI21's Jamba models through SpiderGate on their own AI21 account.
What this does: walks you through creating an AI21 Studio API key and adding it to your SpiderGate vault.
Before you begin
An AI21 Studio account at studio.ai21.com. You can sign in with email, Google, GitHub or SSO.
About 5 minutes.
Limits and terms to know first
AI21 says new accounts "are given a $10 credit good for three months". Once the trial is used or expires, you must add billing details to continue; usage is then charged monthly. AI21's rate limits are 10 requests per second and 200 per minute for Jamba Large and Mini.
AI21's model terms say it "will not train AI21 Models on Customer Content" unless agreed in writing.
Warning: AI21's terms say you may not "sell, assign, transfer, lease, rent, sublicense, or otherwise distribute or make available any AI21 Technology to any third party". Keep this key to your own brand.
Steps
Step 1 — Create the key
In AI21 Studio, click Settings in the bottom-left of the sidebar, then the API Keys tab. Click Create new key, leave the name blank or type one, and click Create key. Copy it now: AI21 says "you won't be able to view it again".
Step 2 — Add the key in SpiderGate
Open Gate → Vault (/dashboard/gate/vault) and click Add Provider. Type AI21 Labs in Search providers... and pick it from the Pay-as-you-go group.
Fill in the dialog:
API Key — paste the key
Label — a name you will recognise later, for example the account it came from.
Under Routing, the Share with SpiderIQ key pool toggle does not apply to a metered key: SpiderGate never pools a key that bills per call, whatever the toggle shows. Switch it off anyway so the dialog matches what happens.
Click Add key. The button reads Saving... while SpiderGate checks the key.
Verify it worked
When you click Add key, SpiderGate sends one request to AI21 with the key before it stores anything: it sends a one-token chat request to jamba-mini.
If AI21 accepts the key, the dialog closes and the key appears in your vault list.
If it does not, the dialog stays open and shows:
The ai21 key did not pass its check: <reason>. Nothing was saved.The reason is SpiderGate's own wording, never AI21's error text. The usual ones are Invalid API key (401 Unauthorized), Access denied (403 Forbidden) and The account behind this key has no credit left (402).
To see the key serve a request, give it a slot in one of your own routing aliases and send a request to that alias. The trace shows which provider answered.
Troubleshoot
Requests fail with a 429. AI21 says "You are sending requests too quickly." The limit is 200 requests a minute.
Requests stop working after three months. The trial credit expired. Add billing details in AI21 Studio.
Too many keys checked for this workspace; try again in …s. SpiderGate runs at most 20 key checks per brand in any 10 minutes. Wait the number of seconds it gives, then click Add key again.
Request timed out (15s) or Could not reach … to check the key. Try again later. The provider did not answer in time. Nothing was saved. Try again in a minute.
The provider is rate-limiting us (429). Try again in a minute. The provider throttled the check itself. Wait a minute and retry.