Venice is our highlight Venice setup for privacy-first inference with optional anonymized access to proprietary models.

Venice AI provides privacy-focused AI inference with support for uncensored models and access to major proprietary models through their anonymized proxy. All inference is private by default—no training on your data, no logging.

• Private inference for open-source models (no logging).
• Uncensored models when you need them.
• Anonymized access to proprietary models (Opus/GPT/Gemini) when quality matters.
• OpenAI-compatible /v1 endpoints.

Venice offers two privacy levels — understanding this is key to choosing your model:

• Privacy-focused: Choose between “private” (fully private) and “anonymized” (proxied) modes
• Uncensored models: Access to models without content restrictions
• Major model access: Use Claude, GPT-5.2, Gemini, Grok via Venice’s anonymized proxy
• OpenAI-compatible API: Standard /v1 endpoints for easy integration
• Streaming: ✅ Supported on all models
• Function calling: ✅ Supported on select models (check model capabilities)
• Vision: ✅ Supported on models with vision capability
• No hard rate limits: Fair-use throttling may apply for extreme usage

1. Sign up at venice.ai
2. Go to Settings → API Keys → Create new key
3. Copy your API key (format: vapi_xxxxxxxxxxxx)

Option A: Environment Variable

export VENICE_API_KEY="vapi_xxxxxxxxxxxx"

Option B: Interactive Setup (Recommended)

openclaw onboard --auth-choice venice-api-key

This will:

1. Prompt for your API key (or use existing VENICE_API_KEY)
2. Show all available Venice models
3. Let you pick your default model
4. Configure the provider automatically

Option C: Non-interactive

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --auth-choice venice-api-key \
  --venice-api-key "vapi_xxxxxxxxxxxx"

openclaw chat --model venice/llama-3.3-70b "Hello, are you working?"

After setup, OpenClaw shows all available Venice models. Pick based on your needs:

• Default (our pick): venice/llama-3.3-70b for private, balanced performance.
• Best overall quality: venice/claude-opus-45 for hard jobs (Opus remains the strongest).
• Privacy: Choose “private” models for fully private inference.
• Capability: Choose “anonymized” models to access Claude, GPT, Gemini via Venice’s proxy.

Change your default model anytime:

openclaw models set venice/claude-opus-45
openclaw models set venice/llama-3.3-70b

List all available models:

openclaw models list | grep venice

1. Run openclaw configure
2. Select Model/auth
3. Choose Venice AI

OpenClaw automatically discovers models from the Venice API when VENICE_API_KEY is set. If the API is unreachable, it falls back to a static catalog.

The /models endpoint is public (no auth needed for listing), but inference requires a valid API key.

Venice uses a credit-based system. Check venice.ai/pricing for current rates:

• Private models: Generally lower cost
• Anonymized models: Similar to direct API pricing + small Venice fee

# Use default private model
openclaw chat --model venice/llama-3.3-70b

# Use Claude via Venice (anonymized)
openclaw chat --model venice/claude-opus-45

# Use uncensored model
openclaw chat --model venice/venice-uncensored

# Use vision model with image
openclaw chat --model venice/qwen3-vl-235b-a22b

# Use coding model
openclaw chat --model venice/qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct

echo $VENICE_API_KEY
openclaw models list | grep venice

Ensure the key starts with vapi_.

The Venice model catalog updates dynamically. Run openclaw models list to see currently available models. Some models may be temporarily offline.

Venice API is at https://api.venice.ai/api/v1. Ensure your network allows HTTPS connections.

{
  env: { VENICE_API_KEY: "vapi_..." },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "venice/llama-3.3-70b" } } },
  models: {
    mode: "merge",
    providers: {
      venice: {
        baseUrl: "https://api.venice.ai/api/v1",
        apiKey: "${VENICE_API_KEY}",
        api: "openai-completions",
        models: [
          {
            id: "llama-3.3-70b",
            name: "Llama 3.3 70B",
            reasoning: false,
            input: ["text"],
            cost: { input: 0, output: 0, cacheRead: 0, cacheWrite: 0 },
            contextWindow: 131072,
            maxTokens: 8192,
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  },
}

• Venice AI
• API Documentation
• Pricing
• Status