Welcome to Lava - Lava Documentation

What is Lava?

Lava is a usage and monetization platform purpose-built for AI.
We help teams manage AI costs, track customer usage, and launch flexible subscription and usage-based pricing plans.
Whether you’re still building or ready to monetize, Lava gives you the tools to accelerate development and avoid maintaining custom usage and billing infrastructure.

Managed vs unmanaged

Lava supports two ways to use the gateway: managed (Lava holds and bills provider usage for you) and unmanaged (bring your own key — you supply your own provider API key; Lava still meters usage and can apply service fees). Both work through the same proxy — just pass your secret key or a forward token in the Authorization header.

Core Capabilities

• AI gateway: Access 225+ AI providers via Lava’s AI gateway. Easily switch between models while automatically tying into Lava’s usage analytics and billing capabilities.
• Cost tracking: Track costs incurred by model provider, product feature, and customers.
• Usage-based pricing: Price by API request, tokens, characters, or cost markups.
• Subscriptions: Charge recurring fees with included usage credits. Handle subscription cancellations, downgrades, and upgrades.
• Overages: Charge customers for usage exceeding included limits.
• Prepaid credit bundles: Offer prepaid credits with configurable exchange rates.

Next Steps

Gateway Quickstart
Make your first request in 5 minutes with step-by-step guide

Monetize Quickstart
Configure pricing and embed checkout to start earning revenue