Deploy OpenAI-Compatible Blazing-Fast LLM Endpoints powered by the vLLM Inference Engine on Runpod Serverless with just a few clicks.
Current vLLM version: 0.26.0
Check out our Load Balancer implementation here: vLLM Load Balancer
🚀 Deploy Guide: Follow our step-by-step deployment guide to deploy using the Runpod Console.
📦 Docker Image: runpod/worker-v1-vllm:<version>
- Available Versions: See GitHub Releases
- CUDA Compatibility: Inherits the CUDA runtime of the
vllm/vllm-openaibase image used at build time.
Configure worker-vllm using environment variables:
| Environment Variable | Description | Default | Options |
|---|---|---|---|
MODEL_NAME |
Path of the model weights | Local folder or Hugging Face repo ID | |
HF_TOKEN |
HuggingFace access token for gated/private models | Your HuggingFace access token | |
MAX_MODEL_LEN |
Model's maximum context length | Integer (e.g., 4096) | |
QUANTIZATION |
Quantization method | "awq", "gptq", "squeezellm", "bitsandbytes" | |
TENSOR_PARALLEL_SIZE |
Number of GPUs | 1 | Integer |
GPU_MEMORY_UTILIZATION |
Fraction of GPU memory to use | 0.9 | Float between 0.0 and 1.0 |
MAX_NUM_SEQS |
Maximum number of sequences per iteration | 256 | Integer |
CUSTOM_CHAT_TEMPLATE |
Custom chat template override | Jinja2 template string | |
ENABLE_AUTO_TOOL_CHOICE |
Enable automatic tool selection | false | boolean (true or false) |
TOOL_CALL_PARSER |
Parser for tool calls | "mistral", "hermes", "llama3_json", "granite", "deepseek_v3", etc. | |
OPENAI_SERVED_MODEL_NAME_OVERRIDE |
Override served model name in API | String | |
MAX_CONCURRENCY |
Maximum concurrent requests | 30 | Integer |
Pass any vLLM engine arg as an environment variable: the worker translates env vars into vllm serve CLI flags. Any env var whose name is the UPPERCASED form of a vllm serve flag is applied automatically:
| Environment Variable | vLLM CLI Flag | Example Value |
|---|---|---|
MAX_MODEL_LEN |
--max-model-len |
4096 |
ENFORCE_EAGER |
--enforce-eager |
true |
ENABLE_CHUNKED_PREFILL |
--enable-chunked-prefill |
true |
SPECULATIVE_CONFIG |
--speculative-config |
'{"model": "org/draft", "num_speculative_tokens": 3}' |
Backward-compat aliases are also honored: MODEL_NAME (--model), MODEL_REVISION (--revision), TOKENIZER_NAME (--tokenizer), OPENAI_SERVED_MODEL_NAME_OVERRIDE (--served-model-name), CUSTOM_CHAT_TEMPLATE (--chat-template).
Values are passed straight through to vLLM (ints, floats, JSON blobs all work). For anything not recognized — e.g. a flag newer than the worker's list — use the ultimate escape hatch, whose contents are appended verbatim to the vllm serve command (and override earlier settings):
VLLM_EXTRA_ARGS="--override-generation-config '{\"max_new_tokens\": 512}' --uvicorn-log-level warning"As an alternative to environment variables, you can supply a complete vllm serve --config file using the CLI key names (hyphens or underscores both work):
model: meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct
max-model-len: 8192
gpu-memory-utilization: 0.90
quantization: awq
tensor-parallel-size: 2Mount the file anywhere into the container and point the VLLM_CONFIG_FILE env var at it. CLI flags built from environment variables take precedence over config file values (standard vllm serve behavior).
For the complete list of all available environment variables, examples, and detailed descriptions: Configuration
To build an image with the model baked in, you must specify the following docker arguments when building the image.
- Docker
- Required
MODEL_NAME
- Optional
MODEL_REVISION: Model revision to load (default:main).VLLM_VERSION: Tag of the officialvllm/vllm-openaibase image to use (default:v0.23.0).BASE_PATH: Storage directory where huggingface cache and model will be located. (default:/runpod-volume, which will utilize network storage if you attach it or create a local directory within the image if you don't. If your intention is to bake the model into the image, you should set this to something like/modelsto make sure there are no issues if you were to accidentally attach network storage.)QUANTIZATIONTOKENIZER_NAME: Tokenizer repository if you would like to use a different tokenizer than the one that comes with the model. (default:None, which uses the model's tokenizer)TOKENIZER_REVISION: Tokenizer revision to load (default:main).
For the remaining settings, you may apply them as environment variables when running the container. Supported environment variables are listed in the Environment Variables section.
docker build -t username/image:tag --build-arg MODEL_NAME="openchat/openchat_3.5" --build-arg BASE_PATH="/models" .The image is based on the official vllm/vllm-openai image; switching vLLM versions is a single build arg:
docker build -t username/image:tag --build-arg VLLM_VERSION=v0.10.0 --build-arg MODEL_NAME="meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct" .To run a nightly vLLM build, point VLLM_VERSION at a nightly tag or use latest at your own risk.
If the model you would like to deploy is private or gated, you will need to include it during build time as a Docker secret, which will protect it from being exposed in the image and on DockerHub.
- Enable Docker BuildKit (required for secrets).
export DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1- Export your Hugging Face token as an environment variable
export HF_TOKEN="your_token_here"- Add the token as a secret when building
docker build -t username/image:tag --secret id=HF_TOKEN --build-arg MODEL_NAME="openchat/openchat_3.5" .You can deploy any model on Hugging Face that is supported by vLLM. For the complete and up-to-date list of supported model architectures, see the vLLM Supported Models documentation.
The vLLM Worker is fully compatible with OpenAI's API, and you can use it with any OpenAI Codebase by changing only 3 lines in total. The supported routes are Chat Completions, Models, Responses, and Messages - with both streaming and non-streaming.
Python (similar to Node.js, etc.):
-
When initializing the OpenAI Client in your code, change the
api_keyto your Runpod API Key and thebase_urlto your Runpod Serverless Endpoint URL in the following format:https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1, filling in your deployed endpoint ID. For example, if your Endpoint ID isabc1234, the URL would behttps://api.runpod.ai/v2/abc1234/openai/v1.- Before:
from openai import OpenAI client = OpenAI(api_key=os.environ.get("OPENAI_API_KEY"))
- After:
from openai import OpenAI client = OpenAI( api_key=os.environ.get("RUNPOD_API_KEY"), base_url="https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1", )
-
Change the
modelparameter to your deployed model's name whenever using Completions or Chat Completions.- Before:
response = client.chat.completions.create( model="gpt-3.5-turbo", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Why is Runpod the best platform?"}], temperature=0, max_tokens=100, )
- After:
response = client.chat.completions.create( model="<YOUR DEPLOYED MODEL REPO/NAME>", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Why is Runpod the best platform?"}], temperature=0, max_tokens=100, )
Using http requests:
- Change the
Authorizationheader to your Runpod API Key and theurlto your Runpod Serverless Endpoint URL in the following format:https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1- Before:
curl https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \ -d '{ "model": "gpt-4", "messages": [ { "role": "user", "content": "Why is Runpod the best platform?" } ], "temperature": 0, "max_tokens": 100 }'
- After:
curl https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1/chat/completions \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR OPENAI API KEY>" \ -d '{ "model": "<YOUR DEPLOYED MODEL REPO/NAME>", "messages": [ { "role": "user", "content": "Why is Runpod the best platform?" } ], "temperature": 0, "max_tokens": 100 }'
When using the chat completion feature of the vLLM Serverless Endpoint Worker, you can customize your requests with the following parameters:
Supported Chat Completions Inputs and Descriptions
| Parameter | Type | Default Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
messages |
Union[str, List[Dict[str, str]]] | List of messages, where each message is a dictionary with a role and content. The model's chat template will be applied to the messages automatically, so the model must have one or it should be specified as CUSTOM_CHAT_TEMPLATE env var. |
|
model |
str | The model repo that you've deployed on your Runpod Serverless Endpoint. If you are unsure what the name is or are baking the model in, use the guide to get the list of available models in the Examples: Using your Runpod endpoint with OpenAI section | |
temperature |
Optional[float] | 0.7 | Float that controls the randomness of the sampling. Lower values make the model more deterministic, while higher values make the model more random. Zero means greedy sampling. |
top_p |
Optional[float] | 1.0 | Float that controls the cumulative probability of the top tokens to consider. Must be in (0, 1]. Set to 1 to consider all tokens. |
n |
Optional[int] | 1 | Number of output sequences to return for the given prompt. |
max_tokens |
Optional[int] | None | Maximum number of tokens to generate per output sequence. |
seed |
Optional[int] | None | Random seed to use for the generation. |
stop |
Optional[Union[str, List[str]]] | list | List of strings that stop the generation when they are generated. The returned output will not contain the stop strings. |
stream |
Optional[bool] | False | Whether to stream or not |
presence_penalty |
Optional[float] | 0.0 | Float that penalizes new tokens based on whether they appear in the generated text so far. Values > 0 encourage the model to use new tokens, while values < 0 encourage the model to repeat tokens. |
frequency_penalty |
Optional[float] | 0.0 | Float that penalizes new tokens based on their frequency in the generated text so far. Values > 0 encourage the model to use new tokens, while values < 0 encourage the model to repeat tokens. |
logit_bias |
Optional[Dict[str, float]] | None | Unsupported by vLLM |
user |
Optional[str] | None | Unsupported by vLLM |
Additional parameters supported by vLLM:
| best_of | Optional[int] | None | Number of output sequences that are generated from the prompt. From these best_of sequences, the top n sequences are returned. best_of must be greater than or equal to n. This is treated as the beam width when use_beam_search is True. By default, best_of is set to n. |
| top_k | Optional[int] | -1 | Integer that controls the number of top tokens to consider. Set to -1 to consider all tokens. |
| ignore_eos | Optional[bool] | False | Whether to ignore the EOS token and continue generating tokens after the EOS token is generated. |
| use_beam_search | Optional[bool] | False | Whether to use beam search instead of sampling. |
| stop_token_ids | Optional[List[int]] | list | List of tokens that stop the generation when they are generated. The returned output will contain the stop tokens unless the stop tokens are special tokens. |
| skip_special_tokens | Optional[bool] | True | Whether to skip special tokens in the output. |
| spaces_between_special_tokens| Optional[bool] | True | Whether to add spaces between special tokens in the output. Defaults to True. |
| add_generation_prompt | Optional[bool] | True | Read more here |
| echo | Optional[bool] | False | Echo back the prompt in addition to the completion |
| repetition_penalty | Optional[float] | 1.0 | Float that penalizes new tokens based on whether they appear in the prompt and the generated text so far. Values > 1 encourage the model to use new tokens, while values < 1 encourage the model to repeat tokens. |
| min_p | Optional[float] | 0.0 | Float that represents the minimum probability for a token to |
| length_penalty | Optional[float] | 1.0 | Float that penalizes sequences based on their length. Used in beam search.. |
| include_stop_str_in_output | Optional[bool] | False | Whether to include the stop strings in output text. Defaults to False.|
First, initialize the OpenAI Client with your Runpod API Key and Endpoint URL:
from openai import OpenAI
import os
# Initialize the OpenAI Client with your Runpod API Key and Endpoint URL
client = OpenAI(
api_key=os.environ.get("RUNPOD_API_KEY"),
base_url="https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1",
)This is the format used for GPT-4 and focused on instruction-following and chat. Examples of Open Source chat/instruct models include meta-llama/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf, mistralai/Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1, openchat/openchat-3.5-0106, NousResearch/Nous-Hermes-2-Mistral-7B-DPO and more. However, if your model is a completion-style model with no chat/instruct fine-tune and/or does not have a chat template, you can still use this if you provide a chat template with the environment variable CUSTOM_CHAT_TEMPLATE.
- Streaming:
# Create a chat completion stream response_stream = client.chat.completions.create( model="<YOUR DEPLOYED MODEL REPO/NAME>", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Why is Runpod the best platform?"}], temperature=0, max_tokens=100, stream=True, ) # Stream the response for response in response_stream: print(chunk.choices[0].delta.content or "", end="", flush=True)
- Non-Streaming:
# Create a chat completion response = client.chat.completions.create( model="<YOUR DEPLOYED MODEL REPO/NAME>", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Why is Runpod the best platform?"}], temperature=0, max_tokens=100, ) # Print the response print(response.choices[0].message.content)
In the case of baking the model into the image, sometimes the repo may not be accepted as the model in the request. In this case, you can list the available models as shown below and use that name.
models_response = client.models.list()
list_of_models = [model.id for model in models_response]
print(list_of_models)Path: /openai/v1/responses (full URL: https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1/responses)
Supports the OpenAI Responses API request shape. Like other /openai/ routes, this is served directly—use the /openai/ prefix rather than the RunPod native job queue for these calls.
{
"model": "meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct",
"input": "Tell me a joke."
}Using HTTP requests:
curl https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1/responses \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR RUNPOD API KEY>" \
-d '{
"model": "<YOUR DEPLOYED MODEL REPO/NAME>",
"input": "Tell me a joke."
}'Path: /openai/v1/messages (full URL: https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1/messages)
Supports the Anthropic Messages API format. Served directly, bypassing the RunPod queue.
{
"model": "meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct",
"max_tokens": 256,
"messages": [
{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}
]
}Using HTTP requests:
curl https://api.runpod.ai/v2/<YOUR ENDPOINT ID>/openai/v1/messages \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR RUNPOD API KEY>" \
-d '{
"model": "<YOUR DEPLOYED MODEL REPO/NAME>",
"max_tokens": 256,
"messages": [
{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}
]
}'Click to expand table
You may either use a prompt or a list of messages as input. Under the hood, prompt is proxied to vLLM's /v1/completions and messages to /v1/chat/completions (with the model's chat template applied, so the model must have one or you must set the CUSTOM_CHAT_TEMPLATE env var).
| Argument | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
prompt |
str | Prompt string to generate text based on. Proxied to /v1/completions. |
|
messages |
list[dict[str, str]] | List of messages, which will automatically have the model's chat template applied. Overrides prompt. |
|
sampling_params |
dict | {} | Sampling parameters forwarded in the request body (temperature, top_p, max_tokens, ...). |
stream |
bool | False | Whether to enable streaming of output. If True, raw SSE chunks are streamed as they are generated. |
You can also call any vLLM route directly with the generic proxy form:
{
"input": {
"route": "/v1/chat/completions",
"method": "POST",
"body": {
"model": "<YOUR DEPLOYED MODEL>",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "hello"}],
"stream": true
}
}
}Below are all available sampling parameters that you can specify in the sampling_params dictionary. If you do not specify any of these parameters, the default values will be used.
Click to expand table
| Argument | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
n |
int | 1 | Number of output sequences generated from the prompt. The top n sequences are returned. |
best_of |
Optional[int] | n |
Number of output sequences generated from the prompt. The top n sequences are returned from these best_of sequences. Must be ≥ n. Treated as beam width in beam search. Default is n. |
presence_penalty |
float | 0.0 | Penalizes new tokens based on their presence in the generated text so far. Values > 0 encourage new tokens, values < 0 encourage repetition. |
frequency_penalty |
float | 0.0 | Penalizes new tokens based on their frequency in the generated text so far. Values > 0 encourage new tokens, values < 0 encourage repetition. |
repetition_penalty |
float | 1.0 | Penalizes new tokens based on their appearance in the prompt and generated text. Values > 1 encourage new tokens, values < 1 encourage repetition. |
temperature |
float | 1.0 | Controls the randomness of sampling. Lower values make it more deterministic, higher values make it more random. Zero means greedy sampling. |
top_p |
float | 1.0 | Controls the cumulative probability of top tokens to consider. Must be in (0, 1]. Set to 1 to consider all tokens. |
top_k |
int | -1 | Controls the number of top tokens to consider. Set to -1 to consider all tokens. |
min_p |
float | 0.0 | Represents the minimum probability for a token to be considered, relative to the most likely token. Must be in [0, 1]. Set to 0 to disable. |
use_beam_search |
bool | False | Whether to use beam search instead of sampling. |
length_penalty |
float | 1.0 | Penalizes sequences based on their length. Used in beam search. |
early_stopping |
Union[bool, str] | False | Controls stopping condition in beam search. Can be True, False, or "never". |
stop |
Union[None, str, List[str]] | None | List of strings that stop generation when produced. The output will not contain these strings. |
stop_token_ids |
Optional[List[int]] | None | List of token IDs that stop generation when produced. Output contains these tokens unless they are special tokens. |
ignore_eos |
bool | False | Whether to ignore the End-Of-Sequence token and continue generating tokens after its generation. |
max_tokens |
int | 16 | Maximum number of tokens to generate per output sequence. |
skip_special_tokens |
bool | True | Whether to skip special tokens in the output. |
spaces_between_special_tokens |
bool | True | Whether to add spaces between special tokens in the output. |
You may either use a prompt or a list of messages as input.
-
promptThe prompt string can be any string, and the model's chat template will not be applied to it unlessapply_chat_templateis set totrue, in which case it will be treated as a user message.Example: ```json { "input": { "prompt": "why sky is blue?", "sampling_params": { "temperature": 0.7, "max_tokens": 100 } } } ``` -
messagesYour list can contain any number of messages, and each message usually can have any role from the following list: -user-assistant-systemHowever, some models may have different roles, so you should check the model's chat template to see which roles are required.
The model's chat template will be applied to the messages automatically, so the model must have one.
Example:
{ "input": { "messages": [ { "role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful AI assistant that provides clear and concise responses." }, { "role": "user", "content": "Can you explain the difference between supervised and unsupervised learning?" }, { "role": "assistant", "content": "Sure! Supervised learning uses labeled data, meaning each input has a corresponding correct output. The model learns by mapping inputs to known outputs. In contrast, unsupervised learning works with unlabeled data, where the model identifies patterns, structures, or clusters without predefined answers." } ], "sampling_params": { "temperature": 0.7, "max_tokens": 100 } } }
