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Inference Providers

PopNow

PopNow is a pay-as-you-go AI API with an OpenAI-compatible endpoint at https://api.popnow.ai/v1. It serves Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi and other chat models, plus OpenAI embedding models, behind a single API key, billed per token in USD.

Capabilities with PrivateGPT

CapabilityStatus
Model discovery (/v1/models)✅
Tokenizer endpoint (/tokenize)❌
Embeddings✅
Tool / function calling✅ model-dependent
Structured output✅ model-dependent
Streaming✅
Vision / image input✅ model-dependent

Setup

1

Get a PopNow API key

  1. Sign up at popnow.ai.
  2. Open the API console, create an API key and add funds to your API balance. Keys start with sk-popnow-.
  3. Note the model IDs you want to use. PopNow model IDs follow the <lab>/<model>/<task> format, e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5/chat or openai/text-embedding-3-small/embedding.
2

Run PrivateGPT

OPENAI_API_BASE=https://api.popnow.ai/v1 \
  OPENAI_API_KEY=your-popnow-api-key \
  private-gpt serve

Store the API key in an .env file or use OPENAI_API_KEY as an environment variable to avoid exposing it in shell history.

Advanced profile example

# settings-model.yaml
llm:
  default_model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5/chat
models:
  - name: anthropic/claude-sonnet-5.5/chat
    type: llm
    mode: openai
    context_window: 1000000
    support_tools: true
    support_reasoning: true
    sampling_params:
      temperature: 0.7
  - name: openai/gpt-6.1-terra/chat
    type: llm
    mode: openai
    context_window: 1050000
    support_tools: true
    support_reasoning: true
    sampling_params:
      temperature: 0.7
  - name: deepseek/v4-flash/chat
    type: llm
    mode: openai
    context_window: 1048576
    support_tools: true
    support_reasoning: true
    sampling_params:
      temperature: 0.7

Run with a profile:

OPENAI_API_BASE=https://api.popnow.ai/v1 \
  OPENAI_API_KEY=your-popnow-api-key \
  PGPT_PROFILES=model \
  uv run python -m private_gpt

settings.yaml override

You can also set the endpoint directly in settings.yaml instead of environment variables:

openai:
  api_base: https://api.popnow.ai/v1
  api_key: ${POPNOW_API_KEY:}

Notes

  • Model IDs end with the task, for example /chat for chat models and /embedding for embedding models. See the full list with prices in the PopNow chat API docs, or call /v1/models.
  • Embeddings are available through /v1/embeddings, e.g. openai/text-embedding-3-small/embedding.
  • Because PopNow does not expose /tokenize, set context_window explicitly in your model profiles for accurate token management.
  • PopNow is prepaid: requests fail with an insufficient balance error until you add funds in the API console.