Open WebUI

Before you start

1. Create an API key. In the portal, open Keys and click Create Key. Your key starts with ni_live_.
2. Add credit. New accounts start with a balance of $0, and every request is refused until you add credit. Open Billing and click Buy credits.
3. Install Docker. Install Docker Desktop and start it. On Windows, Docker Desktop uses WSL 2; accept that option during setup.

Start Open WebUI

Run this in a terminal (it works the same in PowerShell, Terminal on Mac and Linux):

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Open http://localhost:3000 and create your account. The first account you create becomes the administrator.

Connect Open WebUI to Northern Inference

1. Click your name or avatar, then Settings, then Admin, then Connections.
2. Next to Manage OpenAI API Connections, click +.
3. Enter the URL https://northerninference.ca/v1 and paste your ni_live_ key.
4. Click Save.

Open WebUI then lists the Northern Inference models automatically. Start a new chat, pick a model such as claude-sonnet-4-6-t4 and send a message. It appears in the portal under Usage within a few seconds.

Names ending in -t3 run in Canada, for example mistral-large-2402-t3. The Models page lists every model and its price.

Setting the connection in docker-compose instead (optional)

You can also pass the connection as environment variables:

services:
  open-webui:
    image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
    ports:
      - "3000:8080"
    environment:
      OPENAI_API_BASE_URL: https://northerninference.ca/v1
      OPENAI_API_KEY: ni_live_YOUR_KEY_HERE
    volumes:
      - open-webui:/app/backend/data

Open WebUI only reads these values the first time it starts. After that it keeps the settings saved in its database, so changing the file later has no effect. Change the connection in Settings, Admin, Connections instead.

One key per person (optional)

Each Open WebUI user has their own Connections settings. If everyone in your team has their own Northern Inference key, they can add it there instead of sharing one key for the whole server.

Troubleshooting