---
title: AI Providers
description: Connect the AI models that power Decopilot and your agents
icon: Sparkles
---

import Callout from "../../../../components/ui/Callout.astro";

## What are AI providers?

**AI Providers** are the AI model services that power [Decopilot](/en/studio/decopilot/overview) and your agents. You connect a provider once at the organization level, and all your agents use it from there.

Studio supports multiple providers at the same time — you can mix and match.

## Default models: one choice per purpose

You don't pick a model every time you start a task. Instead, Studio uses five **default models**, one for each kind of work:

| Default | What it's for | Typical pick |
|---|---|---|
| **Fast** | Quick replies, short interactions | Claude Haiku, GPT-4 mini, Gemini Flash |
| **Smart** | Balanced speed and capability — the everyday default | Claude Sonnet, GPT-4o, Gemini Pro |
| **Thinking** | Hardest reasoning, long planning | Claude Opus, o-series, Gemini Ultra |
| **Image** | Image generation | GPT Image, Imagen, etc. |
| **Web research** | Web search and deep research | Sonar, Perplexity, etc. |

Configure these once under **Settings → AI Providers → Default models**. When an agent or Decopilot picks a tier, it routes to the model you set. Change a default and every agent picks up the new model immediately — no per-agent reconfiguration.

You can still override on a per-agent basis when needed, but the defaults cover the common case.

## Deco AI Gateway

The **Deco AI Gateway** is the recommended provider. New organizations get credits to start with — no API keys to juggle — and it gives you access to 100+ models from many vendors behind a single connection. Pay as you go.

If you want to use your own keys later, add another provider; Studio will use whichever provider you set for each default model tier.

You can check your remaining gateway credit and top up directly from **Settings → AI Providers**.

## Other providers

Click **Connect provider** under **Settings → AI Providers** to add any of:

| Provider | Notes |
|---|---|
| **OpenRouter** | One account, hundreds of models from many vendors |
| **Anthropic** | Direct Anthropic key — Claude family |
| **Google Gemini** | Direct Google AI Studio key — Gemini family |
| **OpenAI-compatible** | Any endpoint that speaks the OpenAI Chat Completions API |

### OpenAI-compatible presets

The **OpenAI-compatible** provider has branded presets for common deployments — pick one and Studio pre-fills the base URL. You can also choose **Custom** and paste any URL.

| Preset | What it's for |
|---|---|
| **OpenAI** | Direct OpenAI API key — GPT-4, GPT-5, etc. |
| **LiteLLM** | A LiteLLM gateway your team manages |
| **Ollama** | Open-source models running locally via Ollama |
| **LM Studio** | Open models running through LM Studio |
| **vLLM** | Your team's self-hosted vLLM server |
| **Custom** | Any other OpenAI-compatible endpoint (advanced) |

### Local-only providers

When Studio runs locally (via `bunx decocms`), two extra providers light up that delegate to a CLI installed on your machine:

| Provider | Notes |
|---|---|
| **Claude Code** | Drives a `claude` CLI session — uses your existing Anthropic auth |
| **Codex** | Drives a `codex` CLI session |

These don't appear in the cloud product.

## How a provider gets connected

**API key** — the most common method. Paste the key from your provider's dashboard. It's stored encrypted and never exposed to your team.

**Sign in with browser** — for providers that support it (Deco AI Gateway, OpenRouter). You'll be taken to the provider's login page, authorize access, and Studio handles the rest.

**Local endpoint** — for the Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, LiteLLM, or Custom presets of OpenAI-compatible: paste the base URL where Studio can reach the server.

**CLI activate** — for Claude Code and Codex in local mode: Studio runs the CLI installed on your machine; no key is stored on Studio's side.

## What models are available?

Once a provider is connected, you can browse its available models. Each model shows:

- Its name and capabilities (text, vision, image generation, etc.)
- Context window size
- Pricing per token

Model availability may be filtered by your organization's model permission settings. If a model you expect isn't showing up, check with your org admin.

## Fallback

If the provider behind a default tier is unavailable, Studio falls back to another connected provider automatically — so a transient outage at one vendor doesn't break your agents.

---

<Callout type="info">
New organizations get Deco AI Gateway credits out of the box — you can start using Decopilot and your agents without configuring anything. See [Decopilot](/en/studio/decopilot/overview) or [API Keys](/en/studio/api-keys) for managing programmatic access to Studio itself.
</Callout>
