> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.near.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Check API key validity > Validates the provided API key (via Bearer token), checks rate limits, and verifies the organization has sufficient credits. This endpoint is designed for external model gateways to authenticate user requests before forwarding to inference engines. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /api-reference/openapi.json post /v1/check_api_key openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: NEAR AI Cloud API description: >- NEAR AI Cloud API for private AI model inference and organization administration. contact: name: NEAR AI Team email: support@near.ai license: name: MIT version: 1.0.0 servers: - url: https://cloud-api.near.ai description: NEAR AI Cloud security: - session_token: [] - api_key: [] tags: - name: Chat description: Chat completion endpoints for AI model inference - name: Images description: Image generation endpoints - name: Audio description: Audio transcription endpoints - name: Rerank description: Document reranking endpoints - name: Score description: Text similarity scoring endpoints - name: Privacy description: Privacy classification (PII span detection) endpoints - name: Models description: Public model catalog and information - name: Responses description: >- Stateless response inference (`store: false` only). Raw request/response content, response items, and history are not persisted. Clients must include any prior context in each request. Every successful Responses inference makes exactly one Chat Completions call. Only custom `function` tools are supported. They are client-managed: Cloud returns `function_call` items but never executes them; a later `store: false` request replays the individual call (the raw item from output is accepted) with its matching `function_call_output`, alongside caller-managed message history and the same function tool definitions. The minimal replay path also accepts assistant `message` text parts of type `output_text`, but not reasoning or arbitrary full `response.output` items. Server-executed tools (`web_search`, `web_context_search`, `file_search`, `code_interpreter`, `computer`, and remote `mcp`) and image-generation/editing models are rejected. The separate `POST /mcp` endpoint continues to expose its `web_search` tool independently of Responses; use `/v1/images/*` for image generation/editing. Existing completed-response gateway attestation is preserved best-effort: when the signature write succeeds, `GET /v1/signature/resp_*` retrieves signatures over SHA-256 request/response digests, never raw content. Interrupted streams create no `resp_*` attestation record or legacy disconnect fallback. Conversations, response history, and file input are rejected. - name: Organizations description: Organization management - name: Organization Members description: Organization member and invitation management - name: Workspaces description: Workspace and API key management - name: Users description: User profile and token management - name: Invitations description: Token-based invitation handling - name: Usage description: Usage tracking and billing information - name: Reporting description: Read-only customer usage reporting - name: Billing description: Billing costs endpoint (HuggingFace integration) - name: Staking Farm description: House of Stake farm credit configuration and synchronization - name: Health description: Health check endpoints - name: Attestation description: Attestation and verification endpoints - name: Gateway description: Model gateway integration endpoints - name: Admin description: Administrative endpoints (admin access required) - name: Services description: Public platform services (e.g. web_search pricing) paths: /v1/check_api_key: post: tags: - Gateway summary: Check API key validity description: |- Validates the provided API key (via Bearer token), checks rate limits, and verifies the organization has sufficient credits. This endpoint is designed for external model gateways to authenticate user requests before forwarding to inference engines. operationId: check_api_key responses: '200': description: API key is valid and has sufficient credits content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/CheckApiKeyResponse' '401': description: Invalid or missing API key content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' '402': description: Insufficient credits or spend limit exceeded content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' '429': description: Rate limit exceeded content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' '500': description: Internal server error content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' security: - api_key: [] components: schemas: CheckApiKeyResponse: type: object description: |- Response from the check_api_key endpoint. `organization_id`, `workspace_id`, and `api_key_id` are returned so downstream gateways (e.g. inference-proxy) have a server-side authoritative subject identity and don't have to trust caller-supplied headers when populating logs / usage records / billing reports. In particular, this lets a trusted gateway report usage to cloud-api with a shared service token instead of forwarding the user's `sk-…`. required: - valid - organization_id - workspace_id - api_key_id properties: api_key_id: type: string description: |- UUID of the API key itself. Used by trusted gateways to attribute per-key usage rows without holding the raw `sk-…` value. organization_id: type: string description: Organization the API key belongs to valid: type: boolean description: Whether the API key is valid and authorized workspace_id: type: string description: Workspace the API key belongs to ErrorResponse: type: object required: - error properties: error: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorDetail' ErrorDetail: type: object required: - message - type properties: code: type: - string - 'null' message: type: string param: type: - string - 'null' type: type: string securitySchemes: session_token: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: JWT description: >- JWT access token for user authentication (Authorization: Bearer ). Create via POST /users/me/access_tokens. api_key: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: api_key description: 'API key for programmatic access (Authorization: Bearer sk-)' ```` This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.