Get an NVIDIA NIM key
Who this is for: anyone who wants to try NVIDIA-hosted models through SpiderGate on their own NVIDIA trial account.
What this does: walks you through verifying an NVIDIA developer account, generating an nvapi- key on build.nvidia.com, and adding it to your SpiderGate vault, with the trial terms you must follow.
Before you begin
An NVIDIA developer account, and a phone that can receive a one-time code. NVIDIA asks you to verify the account before a key works.
About 3 minutes.
Permission to manage the vault for your brand in SpiderGate.
Limits and terms to know first
NVIDIA's model pages state the trial limits as "Up to 40 rpm" and "10,000 requests per day", and add that limits "may vary by model and traffic from other users may cause throttling".
Warning: This is a trial, not a production service. NVIDIA's trial terms say you may use it "for limited trial purposes only and without use of the API Service or Generated Content in production". Use it to test, not to serve customers.
Warning: Send no personal data. The trial terms say "you will not upload any personal information relating to an identifiable individual", and that NVIDIA collects your prompts and outputs "to improve NVIDIA products and services, including AI models".
Warning: The trial terms also say you may not "make available to others any portion of the API Service". Keep this key to your own brand.
Steps
Step 1 — Create and verify your account
Go to build.nvidia.com and choose Create an Account, then Verify Account. NVIDIA sends a one-time code to your phone. NVIDIA's forum moderators say that if verification fails, you should email help@build.nvidia.com with the email you registered and the phone numbers you tried.
Step 2 — Generate the key
Open build.nvidia.com/settings/api-keys (profile menu → Settings → API keys). Click Get API Key, then Generate Key, then Copy Key. The key starts with nvapi-.
Copy it straight away. NVIDIA says you "may not be able to read the full secret again later".
Step 3 — Add the key in SpiderGate
Open Gate → Vault (/dashboard/gate/vault) and click Add Provider. Type NVIDIA NIM in Search providers... and pick it from the Free keys group.
Fill in the dialog:
API Key — paste the
nvapi-keyLabel — a name you will recognise later, for example the account it came from.
Under Routing, turn Share with SpiderIQ key pool off. It is on by default, and while it is on, other brands can draw on this key's free quota. Your provider's terms tie the key to your account (see the warnings above), so keep it to your brand.
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 NVIDIA with the key before it stores anything: it sends a one-token chat request to a small NVIDIA-hosted model at https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1.
If NVIDIA 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 nvidia_nim key did not pass its check: <reason>. Nothing was saved.The reason is SpiderGate's own wording, never NVIDIA'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
The check fails with Access denied (403 Forbidden). The account is probably not verified yet. Finish the phone check in Step 1, then try again.
The check fails with The account behind this key has no credit left (402). NVIDIA's own message for this is "You have reached your limit of credits." Trial credits are used up; the key will not serve until you have more.
Requests slow down or fail at busy times. NVIDIA's moderators say the trial rate limit depends on the model and on overall traffic, and "there is no official way" to raise it on the same tier.
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.