OIDC - JWT-based Auth

Use JWT's to auth admins / users / projects into the proxy.

Enterprise feature

JWT-based Auth requires a LiteLLM Enterprise license. Start a free 30-day trial or book a demo. See what Enterprise includes.

JWT → Virtual Key Mapping

Want per-user model restrictions, spend limits, and rate limits without distributing API keys? See JWT → Virtual Key Mapping for granular access control for JWT-authenticated users (e.g. Claude Code + SSO).

Usage

Step 1. Setup Proxy

• JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL: This is the public keys endpoint of your OpenID provider. Typically it's {openid-provider-base-url}/.well-known/openid-configuration/jwks. For Keycloak it's {keycloak_base_url}/realms/{your-realm}/protocol/openid-connect/certs.
• JWT_AUDIENCE: This is the audience used for decoding the JWT. If not set, the decode step will not verify the audience.

export JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL="" # "https://demo.duendesoftware.com/.well-known/openid-configuration/jwks"

• enable_jwt_auth in your config. This will tell the proxy to check if a token is a jwt token.

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True

model_list:
- model_name: azure-gpt-3.5 
  litellm_params:
      model: azure/<your-deployment-name>
      api_base: os.environ/AZURE_API_BASE
      api_key: os.environ/AZURE_API_KEY
      api_version: "2023-07-01-preview"

Step 2. Create JWT with scopes

admin

Create a client scope called litellm_proxy_admin in your OpenID provider (e.g. Keycloak).

Grant your user, litellm_proxy_admin scope when generating a JWT.

curl --location ' 'https://demo.duendesoftware.com/connect/token'' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--data-urlencode 'client_id={CLIENT_ID}' \
--data-urlencode 'client_secret={CLIENT_SECRET}' \
--data-urlencode 'username=test-{USERNAME}' \
--data-urlencode 'password={USER_PASSWORD}' \
--data-urlencode 'grant_type=password' \
--data-urlencode 'scope=litellm_proxy_admin' # 👈 grant this scope

project

Create a JWT for your project on your OpenID provider (e.g. Keycloak).

# client_id: 👈 project id
curl --location ' 'https://demo.duendesoftware.com/connect/token'' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--data-urlencode 'client_id={CLIENT_ID}' \
--data-urlencode 'client_secret={CLIENT_SECRET}' \
--data-urlencode 'grant_type=client_credential' \

Step 3. Test your JWT

/key/generate

curl --location '{proxy_base_url}/key/generate' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiI...' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{}'

/chat/completions

curl --location 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/v1/chat/completions' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1...' \
--data '{"model": "azure-gpt-3.5", "messages": [ { "role": "user", "content": "What's the weather like in Boston today?" } ]}'

Advanced

Multiple OIDC providers

Use this if you want LiteLLM to validate your JWT against multiple OIDC providers (e.g. Google Cloud, GitHub Auth)

Set JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL in your environment to a comma-separated list of URLs for your OIDC providers. Each entry can be a JWKS URL or an OIDC discovery URL (.../.well-known/openid-configuration); LiteLLM fetches a discovery document and follows its jwks_uri

export JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL="https://demo.duendesoftware.com/.well-known/openid-configuration,https://accounts.google.com/.well-known/openid-configuration"

This validates tokens from every listed provider against one shared set of claim mappings. If your providers disagree about what a given claim contains, use per-issuer claim mapping instead

How a token is validated

LiteLLM reads the kid from the unverified JWT header and walks the JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL list in order. For each URL it loads that provider's key set and looks for a key whose kid equals the token's. The first match wins and the search stops there; if no listed provider publishes that kid, the request is rejected with a 401 (No matching public key found). The iss claim plays no part in choosing the key set on this path, so kid alone decides which provider's key is tried

A token without a kid header only matches a key set that contains exactly one key. Against a JWKS with several keys it is rejected, so a provider that rotates keys must put kid in the header

Once a key is selected the signature is verified with it and exp (plus nbf and iat when present) is checked. The accepted algorithms are RS256/384/512, PS256/384/512, ES256/384/512 and EdDSA; HMAC-signed tokens (HS*) are always rejected. Key material is read from the JWK kty, n, e, x, y and crv members, so RSA, EC and OKP keys all work and x5c certificate chains are ignored

aud and iss are only verified when you ask for it. JWT_AUDIENCE sets the expected audience (a token whose aud is a list passes if it contains that value) and JWT_ISSUER sets the expected iss. Both are single values shared by every URL in the list, so with several providers JWT_ISSUER can only admit one of them; a setup that needs iss verified for more than one provider must use per-issuer configuration. Leaving both unset means any token signed by any listed provider is accepted no matter which application it was minted for, and the proxy logs a warning at first use to say so

Caching and failure behavior

Each key set (and each discovery document) is cached in the proxy's auth cache, Redis when configured and otherwise in-process memory, for litellm_jwtauth.public_key_ttl seconds (default 600). A kid miss does not trigger a refetch inside the TTL, so a token signed with a key the provider rotated in a moment ago is rejected until the cached copy expires

When a fetch fails at the transport level (DNS, connect, TLS, timeout) LiteLLM tries it up to three times with a short backoff, then remembers the outage for 30 seconds so concurrent requests do not pile onto the dead endpoint. If a last-known-good copy of that key set exists and is younger than public_key_ttl + public_key_stale_ttl (default 600 + 3600 seconds) it is served and a warning is logged. Otherwise the request fails with a 503 (the identity provider's JWKS endpoint is temporarily unreachable) and the remaining URLs in the list are not tried, even if one of them holds the matching key. Set public_key_stale_ttl: 0 to fail closed as soon as the cached copy expires. A non-200 response or an unparseable body is neither retried nor served stale; it fails the request with a 401 and also stops the walk through the list

config.yaml

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: true
  litellm_jwtauth:
    public_key_ttl: 600
    public_key_stale_ttl: 3600

Per-issuer claim mapping

Use litellm_jwtauth.issuers when the same claim means different things depending on which provider minted the token. A common case: one provider puts the team ID in sub while another puts the user ID there, so a single global team_id_jwt_field: "sub" cannot serve both

Each entry is matched against the token's iss claim and carries its own JWKS URL, audience, and claim mappings

config.yaml

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: true
  litellm_jwtauth:
    admin_jwt_scope: "litellm_proxy_admin"
    issuers:
      - issuer: "https://accounts.google.com"
        audience: "my-gcp-audience"
        team_id_jwt_field: "sub"

      - issuer: "https://keycloak.example.com/realms/my-realm"
        jwks_url: "https://keycloak.example.com/realms/my-realm/protocol/openid-connect/certs"
        audience: "my-keycloak-audience"
        user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
        user_email_jwt_field: "email"

With this config a token from accounts.google.com resolves sub to a team ID, while a token from Keycloak resolves the same sub to a user ID

Per-issuer fields

Field	Required	Description
issuer	Yes	Exact expected iss claim value. Matching is an exact string comparison
audience	Yes, unless disable_audience_validation is set	Expected aud for tokens from this issuer
disable_audience_validation	Yes, unless audience is set	Skip audience validation for this issuer. Setting both this and audience is rejected
jwks_url	No	This issuer's JWKS endpoint. Defaults to reading <issuer>/.well-known/openid-configuration and following its jwks_uri
team_id_jwt_field	No	Claim path to read as the team ID
team_ids_jwt_field	No	Claim path to read as a list of team IDs
user_id_jwt_field	No	Claim path to read as the user ID
user_email_jwt_field	No	Claim path to read as the user email
org_id_jwt_field	No	Claim path to read as the organization ID
end_user_id_jwt_field	No	Claim path to read as the end-user ID

Claim paths support dot notation for nested claims, for example resource_access.my-client.team

Things to know

Every issuer must set either audience or disable_audience_validation: true. LiteLLM rejects the config at startup otherwise, so tokens minted by another application that shares your provider's signing keys cannot authenticate against your proxy

Claim mappings you leave out of an issuer entry fall back to the top-level litellm_jwtauth setting. If you keep a global team_id_jwt_field: "sub" and add an issuer that only maps user_id_jwt_field: "sub", that issuer's tokens still get a team ID read from sub. Move all of your claim mappings into issuers to avoid this

issuers is additive routing rather than an allow-list. A token whose iss matches no entry falls through to the global JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL and JWT_AUDIENCE path, so leave those unset if you want only your listed issuers accepted

Matching is on iss only. The kid header still selects the signing key within the matched issuer's JWKS

Recommended multi-provider setup

For more than one provider, prefer litellm_jwtauth.issuers over the shared list even when the claim mappings are the same. An issuers entry scopes the key lookup to that issuer's own JWKS and verifies iss and aud per provider, which the shared list cannot do. Leave JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL unset so a token whose iss is not listed is rejected (401, Missing JWT Public Key URL) instead of falling through to an unscoped path. Key caching and the stale-copy fallback described above apply to each issuer's JWKS in the same way

config.yaml

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: true
  litellm_jwtauth:
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    user_email_jwt_field: "email"
    issuers:
      - issuer: "https://keycloak.example.com/realms/my-realm"
        audience: "litellm-proxy"

      - issuer: "https://sts.example-cloud.com"
        jwks_url: "https://sts.example-cloud.com/.well-known/jwks.json"
        audience: "litellm-proxy"

Provider compatibility

LiteLLM does not special-case any identity provider. Any issuer works if it signs tokens with one of the algorithms listed above, publishes its public keys as a JWKS (directly, or through an OIDC discovery document that carries a jwks_uri), sets a kid header that appears in that JWKS, and mints a stable iss value plus the audience you configure. The Keycloak and Kubernetes issuers shown on this page publish keys this way; for any other issuer, check those four points against a decoded sample token and the provider's JWKS before relying on it

Troubleshooting

Run the proxy with --detailed_debug to see the JWT Auth: log lines that explain each rejection

Symptom	Cause	Fix
401 No matching public key found. keys=[...], kid=...	No listed JWKS contains the token's kid, or the token has no kid and the JWKS has several keys	Confirm the kid from the token header appears in one of the JWKS documents. If the provider just rotated keys, wait out public_key_ttl or restart the proxy
401 Validation fails: Signature verification failed with several providers in JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL	Two providers publish the same kid; the shared list picks the first URL that has it and verifies against the wrong key	Use litellm_jwtauth.issuers so the lookup is scoped to the token's issuer
401 Validation fails: Invalid issuer	iss does not equal JWT_ISSUER (shared path) or the matched issuers[].issuer	Copy iss verbatim from a decoded token; trailing slashes and http vs https matter
401 Validation fails: Audience doesn't match or Token is missing the "aud" claim	aud does not contain JWT_AUDIENCE / issuers[].audience, or the token has no aud	Set the audience your provider actually mints (often the client ID), or set disable_audience_validation: true on that issuer if it cannot mint one
401 Validation fails: The specified alg value is not allowed	Token is HMAC-signed or uses an algorithm outside the list above	Configure the provider to sign with RS256 or another asymmetric algorithm
401 OIDC discovery document at ... does not contain a 'jwks_uri' field	The URL contains .well-known/openid-configuration, so it was treated as a discovery document, but it returned a JWKS	Point JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL at the discovery document itself, or at a JWKS URL whose path does not contain that segment
503 the identity provider's JWKS endpoint is temporarily unreachable	A JWKS or discovery URL could not be reached and no stale copy was available	Check egress from the proxy to the provider. Raise public_key_stale_ttl to ride out longer outages
401 Missing JWT Public Key URL from environment	iss matched no issuers entry and JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL is unset	Add the issuer to issuers, or set JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL if unlisted issuers should be accepted

Kubernetes ServiceAccount Authentication

Use Kubernetes ServiceAccount tokens to authenticate workloads running in your cluster. This is useful when you want pods to authenticate to LiteLLM using their native Kubernetes identity.

Prerequisites

1. Your Kubernetes cluster must have ServiceAccount token projection enabled (default in Kubernetes 1.20+)
2. Your cluster's OIDC issuer must be accessible (for EKS, GKE, AKS this is automatic)

Step 1: Configure the OIDC Discovery URL

Set JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL to your cluster's OIDC discovery endpoint:

Amazon EKS

# Get your EKS OIDC issuer URL
aws eks describe-cluster --name <cluster-name> --query "cluster.identity.oidc.issuer" --output text

# Set the JWKS URL (append /keys to the issuer URL)
export JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL="https://oidc.eks.<region>.amazonaws.com/id/<id>/keys"

Google GKE

# GKE uses Google's OIDC provider
export JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL="https://container.googleapis.com/v1/projects/<project>/locations/<location>/clusters/<cluster>/jwks"

Azure AKS

# Get your AKS OIDC issuer URL
az aks show --name <cluster-name> --resource-group <resource-group> --query "oidcIssuerProfile.issuerUrl" -o tsv

# Set the JWKS URL
export JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL="<issuer-url>/openid/v1/jwks"

Self-Managed

# For self-managed clusters, check your API server's --service-account-issuer flag
# The JWKS endpoint is typically at:
export JWT_PUBLIC_KEY_URL="https://<api-server>/openid/v1/jwks"

Step 2: Configure LiteLLM

Configure LiteLLM to extract identity information from Kubernetes ServiceAccount tokens:

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:  
    # Use namespace as team identifier (resolves via team_alias in DB)
    team_alias_jwt_field: 'kubernetes\.io.namespace'

Step 3: Create ServiceAccount and Configure Pod

Create a ServiceAccount with an associated secret and configure your pod to use the token:

apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
metadata:
  name: my-llm-client
  namespace: my-app
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: my-llm-client-token
  namespace: my-app
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/service-account.name: my-llm-client
type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: llm-client-pod
  namespace: my-app
spec:
  serviceAccountName: my-llm-client
  containers:
  - name: app
    image: my-app:latest
    env:
    - name: LITELLM_TOKEN
      valueFrom:
        secretKeyRef:
          name: my-llm-client-token
          key: token

Set the expected audience in LiteLLM:

export JWT_AUDIENCE="https://kubernetes.default.svc"

Step 4: Create Team for Namespace

Create a team in LiteLLM that matches the namespace (using team_alias):

curl -X POST 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/team/new' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <PROXY_MASTER_KEY>' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
    "team_alias": "my-app",
    "team_id": "my-app",
    "models": ["gpt-5.6-terra", "claude-sonnet-5"]
}'

Step 5: Use the Token

From within the pod, the token is available in the LITELLM_TOKEN environment variable:

# Make a request to LiteLLM using the env var
curl -X POST 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/v1/chat/completions' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LITELLM_TOKEN" \
-d '{
  "model": "gpt-5.6-terra",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
}'

Example: ServiceAccount Token Structure

A Kubernetes ServiceAccount token looks like this:

{
  "aud": ["litellm-proxy"],
  "exp": 1234567890,
  "iat": 1234567890,
  "iss": "https://oidc.eks.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/id/EXAMPLE",
  "kubernetes.io": {
    "namespace": "my-app",
    "pod": {
      "name": "llm-client-pod",
      "uid": "pod-uid"
    },
    "serviceaccount": {
      "name": "my-llm-client",
      "uid": "sa-uid"
    }
  },
  "nbf": 1234567890,
  "sub": "system:serviceaccount:my-app:my-llm-client"
}

Advanced: Map Namespace to Team Using Name Resolution

Use the team_alias_jwt_field to automatically resolve namespaces to teams:

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    # Map the namespace to team_alias in the database
    team_alias_jwt_field: 'kubernetes\.io.namespace'
    user_id_upsert: true

This way, pods in namespace production automatically get associated with the team that has team_alias: production.

Set Accepted JWT Scope Names

Change the string in JWT 'scopes', that litellm evaluates to see if a user has admin access.

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    admin_jwt_scope: "litellm-proxy-admin"

Tracking End-Users / Internal Users / Team / Org

Set the field in the jwt token, which corresponds to a litellm user / team / org.

Note: All JWT fields support dot notation to access nested claims (e.g., "user.sub", "resource_access.client.roles").

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    admin_jwt_scope: "litellm-proxy-admin"
    team_id_jwt_field: "client_id" # 👈 CAN BE ANY FIELD (supports dot notation for nested claims)
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub" # 👈 CAN BE ANY FIELD (supports dot notation for nested claims)
    org_id_jwt_field: "org_id" # 👈 CAN BE ANY FIELD (supports dot notation for nested claims)
    end_user_id_jwt_field: "customer_id" # 👈 CAN BE ANY FIELD (supports dot notation for nested claims)

Expected JWT (flat structure):

{
  "client_id": "my-unique-team",
  "sub": "my-unique-user",
  "org_id": "my-unique-org"
}

Or with nested structure using dot notation:

{
  "user": {
    "sub": "my-unique-user",
    "email": "user@example.com"
  },
  "tenant": {
    "team_id": "my-unique-team"
  },
  "organization": {
    "id": "my-unique-org"
  }
}

Configuration for nested example:

litellm_jwtauth:
  user_id_jwt_field: "user.sub"
  user_email_jwt_field: "user.email"
  team_id_jwt_field: "tenant.team_id"
  org_id_jwt_field: "organization.id"

Now litellm will automatically update the spend for the user/team/org in the db for each call.

Resolve by Name (Alias) Instead of ID

Sometimes your JWT token contains human-readable names instead of database IDs. LiteLLM can resolve these names to IDs by looking them up in the database.

Use Case: Your IDP provides team/org names in the JWT, but LiteLLM needs the actual database IDs for spend tracking and access control.

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    # Name-based fields (resolved via database lookup)
    team_alias_jwt_field: "team_alias"       # Resolves team by team_alias in DB
    org_alias_jwt_field: "org_alias"         # Resolves org by organization_alias in DB

Expected JWT:

{
  "sub": "user-123",
  "team_alias": "engineering-team",
  "org_alias": "acme-corp"
}

How It Works:

1. LiteLLM extracts the name from the configured JWT field
2. Looks up the entity in the database by its alias field:
   • Teams: team_alias column in LiteLLM_TeamTable
   • Organizations: organization_alias column in LiteLLM_OrganizationTable
3. Uses the resolved ID for spend tracking and access control

Precedence: ID fields always take precedence over name fields. If both team_id_jwt_field and team_alias_jwt_field are configured and both values exist in the JWT, the ID will be used.

# Example: ID takes precedence
litellm_jwtauth:
  team_id_jwt_field: "team_id"        # Used if present in JWT
  team_alias_jwt_field: "team_alias"   # Fallback if team_id not present

Nested Fields: Name fields also support dot notation for nested claims:

litellm_jwtauth:
  team_alias_jwt_field: "organization.team.name"
  org_alias_jwt_field: "company.name"

Important Notes:

• The entity (team/org) must already exist in the database with the matching alias
• Aliases should be unique - if multiple entities share the same alias, an error will be returned
• Name resolution adds a database lookup, so using IDs directly is slightly more performant

JWT Scopes

Here's what scopes on JWT-Auth tokens look like

Can be a list

scope: ["litellm-proxy-admin",...]

Can be a space-separated string

scope: "litellm-proxy-admin ..."

Control model access with Teams

1. Specify the JWT field that contains the team ids, that the user belongs to.

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    team_ids_jwt_field: "groups" 
    user_id_upsert: true # add user_id to the db if they don't exist
    enforce_team_based_model_access: true # don't allow users to access models unless the team has access

This is assuming your token looks like this:

{
  ...,
  "sub": "my-unique-user",
  "groups": ["team_id_1", "team_id_2"]
}

2. Create the teams on LiteLLM

curl -X POST '<PROXY_BASE_URL>/team/new' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <PROXY_MASTER_KEY>' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-D '{
    "team_alias": "team_1",
    "team_id": "team_id_1" # 👈 MUST BE THE SAME AS THE SSO GROUP ID
}'

3. Test the flow

SSO for UI: See Walkthrough

OIDC Auth for API: See Walkthrough

Flow

• Validate if user id is in the DB (LiteLLM_UserTable)
• Validate if any of the groups are in the DB (LiteLLM_TeamTable)
• Validate if any group has model access
• If all checks pass, allow the request

Select Team via Request Header

When a JWT token contains multiple teams (via team_ids_jwt_field), you can explicitly select which team to use for a request by passing the x-litellm-team-id header.

curl -X POST 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/v1/chat/completions' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <your-jwt-token>' \
-H 'x-litellm-team-id: team_id_2' \
-d '{
  "model": "gpt-5.6-terra",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
}'

Validation:

• The team ID in the header must exist in the JWT's team_ids_jwt_field list or match team_id_jwt_field
• If an invalid team is specified, a 403 error is returned
• If no header is provided, LiteLLM auto-selects the first team with access to the requested model

Fall back to DB team when JWT claims don't resolve

By default, when team_id_jwt_field or team_ids_jwt_field is configured and the JWT carries a claim value that does not map to any LiteLLM team, LiteLLM raises an error: the claim is treated as authoritative.

For deployments where the IdP team claim is advisory (e.g. machine tokens whose groups claim lives in a separate namespace from LiteLLM team_ids), opt in to a fallback: if the configured claim is present but unresolved, LiteLLM defers to the user's single LiteLLM team (when the user belongs to exactly one team in the DB).

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    team_ids_jwt_field: "groups"
    team_claim_fallback: true # 👈 opt in

Behavior:

Trigger	Default (team_claim_fallback: false)	Opt-in (team_claim_fallback: true)
team_id claim resolves to a real team	200 / use team	200 / use team
team_id claim present, team missing in DB	raise	defer → fallback to user's single DB team
team_alias claim resolves	200 / use team	200 / use team
groups claim resolves and team grants model	200	200
groups claim resolves but team lacks model	403 (preserved)	403 (preserved)
groups claim present, none resolve to a real team	403	defer → fallback to user's single DB team
no claim at all (single-team fallback baseline)	200 / fallback	200 / fallback

Security envelope: the fallback only resolves when the user belongs to exactly one LiteLLM team in the DB; non-404 errors (e.g. "No DB Connected") always propagate. Keep the default (false) if your IdP team claims are authoritative for authorization.

Custom JWT Validate

Validate a JWT Token using custom logic, if you need an extra way to verify if tokens are valid for LiteLLM Proxy.

1. Setup custom validate function

from typing import Literal

def my_custom_validate(token: str) -> Literal[True]:
  """
  Only allow tokens with tenant-id == "my-unique-tenant", and claims == ["proxy-admin"]
  """
  allowed_tenants = ["my-unique-tenant"]
  allowed_claims = ["proxy-admin"]

  if token["tenant_id"] not in allowed_tenants:
    raise Exception("Invalid JWT token")
  if token["claims"] not in allowed_claims:
    raise Exception("Invalid JWT token")
  return True

2. Setup config.yaml

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    team_id_jwt_field: "tenant_id"
    user_id_upsert: True
    custom_validate: custom_validate.my_custom_validate # 👈 custom validate function

3. Test the flow

Expected JWT

{
  "sub": "my-unique-user",
  "tenant_id": "INVALID_TENANT",
  "claims": ["proxy-admin"]
}

Expected Response

{
  "error": "Invalid JWT token"
}

Allowed Routes

Configure which routes a JWT can access via the config.

By default:

• Admins: can access only management routes (/team/*, /key/*, /user/*)
• Teams: can access only openai routes (/chat/completions, etc.)+ info routes (/*/info)

See Code

Admin Routes

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    admin_jwt_scope: "litellm-proxy-admin"
    admin_allowed_routes: ["/v1/embeddings"]

Team Routes

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    # ...
    team_id_jwt_field: "litellm-team" # 👈 Set field in the JWT token that stores the team ID
    team_allowed_routes: ["/v1/chat/completions"] # 👈 Set accepted routes

Allowing other provider routes for Teams

To enable team JWT tokens to access Anthropic-style endpoints such as /v1/messages, update team_allowed_routes in your litellm_jwtauth configuration. team_allowed_routes supports the following values:

• Named route groups from LiteLLMRoutes (e.g., openai_routes, anthropic_routes, info_routes, mapped_pass_through_routes).
• Exact routes, e.g. /v1/messages.
• Route prefixes ending in *, e.g. /internal-models/*, which match every route under that prefix.

Below is a quick reference for the route groups you can use and example representative routes from each group. If you need the exhaustive list, see the LiteLLMRoutes enum in litellm/proxy/_types.py for the authoritative list.

Route Group	What it contains	Representative routes
openai_routes	OpenAI-compatible REST endpoints (chat, completion, embeddings, images, responses, models, etc.)	/v1/chat/completions, /v1/completions, /v1/embeddings, /v1/images/generations, /v1/models
anthropic_routes	Anthropic-style endpoints (/v1/messages and related)	/v1/messages, /v1/messages/count_tokens, /v1/skills
mapped_pass_through_routes	Provider-specific pass-through route prefixes (e.g., Anthropic when proxied via /anthropic). Use with mapped_pass_through_routes for provider wildcard mapping	/anthropic/*, /vertex-ai/*, /bedrock/*
passthrough_routes_wildcard	Wildcard mapping for providers (e.g., /anthropic/*) - precomputed wildcard list used by the proxy	/anthropic/*, /vllm/*
google_routes	Google-specific (e.g., Vertex / Batching endpoints)	/v1beta/models/{model_name}:generateContent
mcp_routes	Internal MCP management endpoints	/mcp/tools, /mcp/tools/call
info_routes	Read-only & info endpoints used by the UI	/key/info, /team/info, /v1/models
management_routes	Admin-only management endpoints (create/update/delete user/team/model)	/team/new, /key/generate, /model/new
spend_tracking_routes	Budget/spend related endpoints	/spend/logs, /spend/keys, /spend/users
public_routes	Public and unauthenticated endpoints	/, /routes, /.well-known/litellm-ui-config

Note: llm_api_routes is the union of OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, pass-through and other LLM routes (openai_routes + anthropic_routes + google_routes + mapped_pass_through_routes + passthrough_routes_wildcard + apply_guardrail_routes + mcp_routes + litellm_native_routes).

Defaults (what the proxy uses if you don't override them in litellm_jwtauth):

• admin_jwt_scope: litellm_proxy_admin
• admin_allowed_routes (default): management_routes, spend_tracking_routes, global_spend_tracking_routes, info_routes
• team_allowed_routes (default): openai_routes, info_routes
• public_allowed_routes (default): public_routes

Example: Allow team JWTs to call Anthropic /v1/messages (either by route group or by explicit route string):

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    team_ids_jwt_field: "team_ids"
    team_allowed_routes: ["openai_routes", "info_routes", "anthropic_routes"]

Or selectively allow the exact Anthropic message endpoint only:

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    team_ids_jwt_field: "team_ids"
    team_allowed_routes: ["/v1/messages", "info_routes"]

If you register pass-through endpoints that all share a prefix, grant the prefix once with a trailing * so routes added later are covered without another config change. admin_allowed_routes accepts the same patterns.

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    team_ids_jwt_field: "team_ids"
    team_allowed_routes: ["openai_routes", "info_routes", "/internal-models/*"]

Only a trailing * is treated as a wildcard, and it matches routes below the prefix, so /internal-models/* covers /internal-models/anthropic/v1/messages but not the bare /internal-models route.

Caching Public Keys

Control how long public keys are cached for (in seconds).

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    admin_jwt_scope: "litellm-proxy-admin"
    admin_allowed_routes: ["/v1/embeddings"]
    public_key_ttl: 600 # 👈 KEY CHANGE

Custom JWT Field

Set a custom field in which the team_id exists. By default, the 'client_id' field is checked.

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    team_id_jwt_field: "client_id" # 👈 KEY CHANGE

Block Teams

To block all requests for a certain team id, use /team/block

Block Team

curl --location 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/team/block' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <admin-token>' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "team_id": "litellm-test-client-id-new" # 👈 set team id
}'

Unblock Team

curl --location 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/team/unblock' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer <admin-token>' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
    "team_id": "litellm-test-client-id-new" # 👈 set team id
}'

Upsert Users + Allowed Email Domains

Allow users who belong to a specific email domain, automatic access to the proxy.

Note: user_allowed_email_domain is optional. If not specified, all users will be allowed regardless of their email domain.

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    user_email_jwt_field: "email" # 👈 checks 'email' field in jwt payload
    user_allowed_email_domain: "my-co.com" # 👈 OPTIONAL - allows user@my-co.com to call proxy
    user_id_upsert: true # 👈 upserts the user to db, if valid email but not in db

OIDC UserInfo Endpoint

Use this when your JWT/access token doesn't contain user-identifying information. LiteLLM will call your identity provider's UserInfo endpoint to fetch user details.

When to Use

• Your JWT is opaque (not self-contained) or lacks user claims
• You need to fetch fresh user information from your identity provider
• Your access tokens don't include email, roles, or other identifying data

Configuration

config.yaml

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    # Enable OIDC UserInfo endpoint
    oidc_userinfo_enabled: true
    oidc_userinfo_endpoint: "https://your-idp.com/oauth2/userinfo"
    oidc_userinfo_cache_ttl: 300  # Cache for 5 minutes (default: 300)
    
    # Map fields from UserInfo response
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    user_email_jwt_field: "email"
    user_roles_jwt_field: "roles"

Flow Diagram

Example: Azure AD

config.yaml

litellm_jwtauth:
  oidc_userinfo_enabled: true
  oidc_userinfo_endpoint: "https://graph.microsoft.com/oidc/userinfo"
  user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
  user_email_jwt_field: "email"

Example: Keycloak

config.yaml

litellm_jwtauth:
  oidc_userinfo_enabled: true
  oidc_userinfo_endpoint: "https://keycloak.example.com/realms/your-realm/protocol/openid-connect/userinfo"
  user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
  user_roles_jwt_field: "resource_access.your-client.roles"

Route JWT-Shaped Machine Tokens to OAuth2

Use this when:

• enable_jwt_auth: true for standard JWT validation
• machine tokens are JWT-shaped and should be routed to OAuth2 based on claims

routing_overrides supports two operating modes:

• Selective mode: set enable_oauth2_auth: false to send only matching JWTs to OAuth2 on LLM + info routes
• Global mode: set enable_oauth2_auth: true to also enable OAuth2 on LLM + info routes

config.yaml

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: true
  enable_oauth2_auth: false
  litellm_jwtauth:
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    routing_overrides:
      - iss: "machine-issuer.example.com"
        client_id: "MID_LITELLM"
        path: "oauth2"

Matching behavior

• A rule matches when all configured selectors match the corresponding token claims (AND semantics).
• Supported selectors: iss (required), client_id (optional), scope (optional), aud (optional).
• Selector values can be a single string or a list of strings (the claim must match at least one entry, using the rules below).
• Wildcards: selectors may use shell-style * and ?. Matching is case-sensitive, so use the same casing your IdP emits in JWT claims.
• scope claim as a space-delimited string: OAuth/OIDC often sends scope as one string (e.g. openid profile App:LiteLLM). LiteLLM splits that string only when matching the scope selector, so a configured value like App:LiteLLM can match. iss, aud, and client_id are never split on spaces; the full claim string is used (routing uses unverified claims only for path selection; final auth still validates the token).
• If no rule matches, LiteLLM continues with standard JWT validation.

Example: scope and wildcard client_id

config.yaml

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: true
  enable_oauth2_auth: false
  litellm_jwtauth:
    routing_overrides:
      - iss: "machine-issuer.example.com"
        scope: "App:LiteLLM"
        client_id: "*MID_LITELLM"
        path: "oauth2"

List-based override example

config.yaml

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: true
  enable_oauth2_auth: false
  litellm_jwtauth:
    routing_overrides:
      - iss: ["machine-issuer.example.com", "backup-issuer.example.com"]
        client_id: ["MID_LITELLM", "MID_BACKUP"]
        aud: ["api://litellm", "api://fallback"]
        path: "oauth2"

[BETA] Control Access with OIDC Roles

Allow JWT tokens with supported roles to access the proxy.

Let users and teams access the proxy, without needing to add them to the DB.

Very important, set enforce_rbac: true to ensure that the RBAC system is enabled.

Note: This is in beta and might change unexpectedly.

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    object_id_jwt_field: "oid" # can be either user / team, inferred from the role mapping
    roles_jwt_field: "roles"
    role_mappings:
      - role: litellm.api.consumer
        internal_role: "team"
    enforce_rbac: true # 👈 VERY IMPORTANT

  role_permissions: # default model + endpoint permissions for a role. 
    - role: team
      models: ["anthropic-claude"]
      routes: ["/v1/chat/completions"]

environment_variables:
  JWT_AUDIENCE: "api://LiteLLM_Proxy" # ensures audience is validated

• object_id_jwt_field: The field in the JWT token that contains the object id. This id can be either a user id or a team id. Use this instead of user_id_jwt_field and team_id_jwt_field. If the same field could be both. Supports dot notation for nested claims (e.g., "profile.object_id").

• roles_jwt_field: The field in the JWT token that contains the roles. This field is a list of roles that the user has. Supports dot notation for nested fields - e.g., resource_access.litellm-test-client-id.roles.

Additional JWT Field Configuration Options:

• team_ids_jwt_field: Field containing team IDs (as a list). Supports dot notation (e.g., "groups", "teams.ids").

• user_email_jwt_field: Field containing user email. Supports dot notation (e.g., "email", "user.email").

• end_user_id_jwt_field: Field containing end-user ID for cost tracking. Supports dot notation (e.g., "customer_id", "customer.id"). When set, the end-user ID from the verified JWT claim takes precedence over any request-supplied value (headers like x-litellm-end-user-id or body fields like metadata.user_id; see the customer ID priority order).

• role_mappings: A list of role mappings. Map the received role in the JWT token to an internal role on LiteLLM.

• JWT_AUDIENCE: The audience of the JWT token. This is used to validate the audience of the JWT token. Set via an environment variable.

Example Token

{
  "aud": "api://LiteLLM_Proxy",
  "oid": "eec236bd-0135-4b28-9354-8fc4032d543e",
  "roles": ["litellm.api.consumer"] 
}

Role Mapping Spec

• role: The expected role in the JWT token.
• internal_role: The internal role on LiteLLM that will be used to control access.

Supported internal roles:

• team: Team object will be used for RBAC spend tracking. Use this for tracking spend for a 'use case'.
• internal_user: User object will be used for RBAC spend tracking. Use this for tracking spend for an 'individual user'.
• proxy_admin: Proxy admin will be used for RBAC spend tracking. Use this for granting admin access to a token.

Architecture Diagram (Control Model Access)

[BETA] Control Model Access with Scopes

Control which models a JWT can access. Set enforce_scope_based_access: true to enforce scope-based access control.

1. Setup config.yaml with scope mappings.

model_list:
  - model_name: anthropic-claude
    litellm_params:
      model: anthropic/claude-sonnet-5
      api_key: os.environ/ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
  - model_name: gpt-3.5-turbo-testing
    litellm_params:
      model: gpt-5.6-luna
      api_key: os.environ/OPENAI_API_KEY

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    team_id_jwt_field: "client_id" # 👈 set the field in the JWT token that contains the team id
    team_id_upsert: true # 👈 upsert the team to db, if team id is not found in db
    scope_mappings:
      - scope: litellm.api.consumer
        models: ["anthropic-claude"]
      - scope: litellm.api.gpt_3_5_turbo
        models: ["gpt-3.5-turbo-testing"]
    enforce_scope_based_access: true # 👈 enforce scope-based access control
    enforce_rbac: true # 👈 enforces only a Team/User/ProxyAdmin can access the proxy.

Scope Mapping Spec

• scope: The scope to be used for the JWT token.
• models: The models that the JWT token can access. Value is the model_name in model_list. Note: Wildcard routes are not currently supported.

2. Create a JWT with the correct scopes.

Expected Token:

{
  "scope": ["litellm.api.consumer", "litellm.api.gpt_3_5_turbo"] # can be a list or a space-separated string
}

3. Test the flow.

curl -L -X POST 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/v1/chat/completions' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGci...' \
-d '{
  "model": "gpt-3.5-turbo-testing",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Hey, how'\''s it going 1234?"
    }
  ]
}'

[BETA] Sync User Roles and Teams with IDP

Automatically sync user roles and team memberships from your Identity Provider (IDP) to LiteLLM's database. This ensures that user permissions and team memberships in LiteLLM stay in sync with your IDP.

Note: This is in beta and might change unexpectedly.

Use Cases

• Role Synchronization: Automatically update user roles in LiteLLM when they change in your IDP
• Team Membership Sync: Keep team memberships in sync between your IDP and LiteLLM
• Centralized Access Management: Manage all user permissions through your IDP while maintaining LiteLLM functionality

Setup

1. Configure JWT Role Mapping

Map roles from your JWT token to LiteLLM user roles:

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    team_ids_jwt_field: "groups"
    roles_jwt_field: "roles"
    user_id_upsert: true
    sync_user_role_and_teams: true # 👈 Enable sync functionality
    jwt_litellm_role_map: # 👈 Map JWT roles to LiteLLM roles
      - jwt_role: "ADMIN"
        litellm_role: "proxy_admin"
      - jwt_role: "USER"
        litellm_role: "internal_user"
      - jwt_role: "VIEWER"
        litellm_role: "internal_user"

2. JWT Role Mapping Spec

• jwt_role: The role name as it appears in your JWT token. Supports wildcard patterns using fnmatch (e.g., "ADMIN_*" matches "ADMIN_READ", "ADMIN_WRITE", etc.)
• litellm_role: The corresponding LiteLLM user role

Supported LiteLLM Roles:

• proxy_admin: Full administrative access
• internal_user: Standard user access
• internal_user_view_only: Read-only access

3. Example JWT Token

{
  "sub": "user-123",
  "roles": ["ADMIN"],
  "groups": ["team-alpha", "team-beta"],
  "iat": 1234567890,
  "exp": 1234567890
}

How It Works

When a user makes a request with a JWT token:

1. Role Sync:

   • LiteLLM checks if the user's role in the JWT matches their role in the database
   • If different, the user's role is updated in LiteLLM's database
   • Uses the jwt_litellm_role_map to convert JWT roles to LiteLLM roles

2. Team Membership Sync:

   • Compares team memberships from the JWT token with the user's current teams in LiteLLM
   • Adds the user to new teams found in the JWT
   • Removes the user from teams not present in the JWT

3. Database Updates:

   • Updates happen automatically during the authentication process
   • No manual intervention required

Configuration Options

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    # Required fields
    user_id_jwt_field: "sub"
    team_ids_jwt_field: "groups"
    roles_jwt_field: "roles"
    
    # Sync configuration
    sync_user_role_and_teams: true
    user_id_upsert: true
    
    # Role mapping
    jwt_litellm_role_map:
      - jwt_role: "AI_ADMIN_*"  # Wildcard pattern
        litellm_role: "proxy_admin"
      - jwt_role: "AI_USER"
        litellm_role: "internal_user"

Important Notes

• Performance: Sync operations happen during authentication, which may add slight latency
• Database Access: Requires database access for user and team updates
• Team Creation: Teams mentioned in JWT tokens must exist in LiteLLM before sync can assign users to them
• Wildcard Support: JWT role patterns support wildcard matching using fnmatch

Testing the Sync Feature

1. Create a test user with initial role:

curl -X POST 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/user/new' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <PROXY_MASTER_KEY>' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
    "user_id": "user-123",
    "user_role": "internal_user"
}'

2. Make a request with JWT containing different role:

curl -X POST 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/v1/chat/completions' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <JWT_WITH_ADMIN_ROLE>' \
-d '{
  "model": "claude-sonnet-5",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}]
}'

3. Verify the role was updated:

curl -X GET 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/user/info?user_id=user-123' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer <PROXY_MASTER_KEY>'

[BETA] JWT-to-Virtual-Key Mapping

Map JWT identities to LiteLLM virtual keys so that JWT-authenticated users get per-user budgets, rate limits, model access controls, and spend tracking.

When a JWT comes in, LiteLLM looks up a configured claim (e.g. email, sub) in a mapping table. If a mapping exists, the request is treated as if it arrived with the corresponding virtual key, and all virtual key features apply.

Setup

Add virtual_key_claim_field to your JWT auth config:

general_settings:
  enable_jwt_auth: True
  litellm_jwtauth:
    virtual_key_claim_field: "email"         # JWT claim to look up (supports dot notation)
    virtual_key_mapping_cache_ttl: 300       # Cache TTL in seconds (default: 300)

Managing Mappings

All endpoints require admin auth (Authorization: Bearer <master_key>).

Create a mapping. Link a JWT claim value to an existing virtual key:

curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/jwt/key/mapping/new \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-1234" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jwt_claim_name": "email",
    "jwt_claim_value": "user@example.com",
    "key": "sk-virtual-key-from-key-generate"
  }'

List mappings (paginated):

curl http://localhost:4000/jwt/key/mapping/list?page=1&size=50 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-1234"

Get a specific mapping:

curl "http://localhost:4000/jwt/key/mapping/info?id=<mapping-id>" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-1234"

Update a mapping:

curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/jwt/key/mapping/update \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-1234" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "id": "<mapping-id>",
    "description": "Updated description",
    "is_active": true
  }'

Delete a mapping:

curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/jwt/key/mapping/delete \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-1234" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"id": "<mapping-id>"}'

How It Works

1. A request arrives with a JWT bearer token
2. LiteLLM validates the JWT signature
3. Extracts the configured claim (e.g. email → user@example.com)
4. Looks up the claim value in the LiteLLM_JWTKeyMapping table
5. If a mapping exists, the request proceeds as if the mapped virtual key was used, so budgets, rate limits, model access, and spend tracking all apply
6. If no mapping exists, falls back to standard JWT auth (team-level controls)

Error Codes

Code	Meaning
409	Duplicate mapping — a mapping for that claim name + value already exists
400	The provided key does not match an existing virtual key
404	Mapping not found (for update/delete/info)
403	Non-admin user attempted a mapping operation

All JWT Params

See Code