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NVIDIA serves open models for free through an OpenAI-compatible API at https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1, authenticated with an API key from build.nvidia.com. OpenClaw defaults the NVIDIA provider to Nemotron 3 Ultra, NVIDIA’s 550B total / 55B active reasoning model for long-context agentic work.

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Getting started

1

Get your API key

Create an API key at build.nvidia.com.
2

Export the key and run onboarding

export NVIDIA_API_KEY="nvapi-..."
openclaw onboard --auth-choice nvidia-api-key
3

Set an NVIDIA model

openclaw models set nvidia/nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b
For non-interactive setup, pass the key directly: 
openclaw onboard --auth-choice nvidia-api-key --nvidia-api-key "nvapi-..."
--nvidia-api-key lands the key in shell history and ps output. Prefer the NVIDIA_API_KEY environment variable when possible.

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Config example

{
  env: { NVIDIA_API_KEY: "nvapi-..." },
  models: {
    providers: {
      nvidia: {
        baseUrl: "https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1",
        api: "openai-completions",
      },
    },
  },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "nvidia/nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b" },
    },
  },
}
When an NVIDIA API key is configured, setup and model-selection paths fetch NVIDIA’s public featured-model catalog from https://assets.ngc.nvidia.com/products/api-catalog/featured-models.json and cache the result for 24 hours (first 32 entries, imported as free text-input rows). New featured models from build.nvidia.com therefore appear in setup and model-selection surfaces without waiting for an OpenClaw release. When the live feed is available, the first returned model is the preselected option during NVIDIA setup. The fetch uses a fixed HTTPS host policy for assets.ngc.nvidia.com. If no NVIDIA API key is configured, or if the feed is unavailable or malformed, OpenClaw falls back to the bundled catalog and bundled default below.

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Nemotron 3 Ultra

Nemotron 3 Ultra is the default NVIDIA model in OpenClaw. NVIDIA’s build page for nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b lists it as an available free endpoint with a 1M-token context specification. The bundled catalog records a 16,384-token max output to match NVIDIA’s current OpenAI-compatible sample request for the hosted endpoint. The bundled Ultra row sends chat_template_kwargs: { enable_thinking: false, force_nonempty_content: true } by default so normal chat output stays in the visible answer instead of exposing reasoning text. Use Ultra for the highest-capability NVIDIA default. Keep Super selected when you want the smaller Nemotron 3 option, or choose one of the third-party models hosted in NVIDIA’s catalog when their context, latency, or behavior fits better.

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Bundled fallback catalog

Model refNameContextMax outputNotes
nvidia/nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55bNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B1,000,00016,384Default
nvidia/nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12bNVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 120B1,048,5768,192
nvidia/moonshotai/kimi-k2.5Kimi K2.5262,1448,192
nvidia/minimaxai/minimax-m2.7Minimax M2.7196,6088,192
nvidia/z-ai/glm-5.1GLM 5.1202,7528,192
nvidia/minimaxai/minimax-m2.5MiniMax M2.5196,6088,192Deprecated; use minimaxai/minimax-m2.7
nvidia/z-ai/glm5GLM-5202,7528,192Deprecated; use z-ai/glm-5.1

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Advanced configuration

The provider auto-enables when the NVIDIA_API_KEY environment variable is set or a key was stored during onboarding. No explicit provider config is required beyond the key.
OpenClaw prefers NVIDIA’s public featured-model catalog when NVIDIA auth is configured and caches it for 24 hours. The bundled fallback catalog is static and keeps deprecated shipped refs for upgrade compatibility. Costs default to 0 in source since NVIDIA currently offers free API access for the listed models.
OpenClaw talks to NVIDIA with the openai-completions adapter against the standard /v1 chat completions route. Any OpenAI-compatible tooling should work out of the box with the NVIDIA base URL.
NVIDIA’s Ultra sample request uses chat_template_kwargs.enable_thinking and reasoning_budget for reasoning output. OpenClaw’s bundled Ultra row disables template thinking by default for normal chat use. If you need to opt into NVIDIA reasoning output or force other NVIDIA-specific request fields, set per-model params and keep provider-specific overrides scoped to the NVIDIA model:
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      models: {
        "nvidia/nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b": {
          params: {
            chat_template_kwargs: { enable_thinking: true },
            extra_body: { reasoning_budget: 16384 },
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
params.chat_template_kwargs merges into any chat_template_kwargs already on the request instead of replacing the whole object. params.extra_body is the final OpenAI-compatible request-body override and overwrites colliding payload keys, so use it only for fields NVIDIA documents for the selected endpoint.
Some NVIDIA-hosted custom models can take longer than the default ~120s model idle watchdog before they emit a first response chunk. For custom NVIDIA provider entries, raise the provider timeout instead of the whole agent runtime timeout; timeoutSeconds covers provider HTTP requests and raises the idle/stream watchdog ceiling for that provider:
{
  models: {
    providers: {
      "custom-integrate-api-nvidia-com": {
        baseUrl: "https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1",
        api: "openai-completions",
        apiKey: "NVIDIA_API_KEY",
        timeoutSeconds: 300,
      },
    },
  },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      models: {
        "custom-integrate-api-nvidia-com/meta/llama-3.1-70b-instruct": {
          params: { thinking: "off" },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
NVIDIA models are currently free to use. Check build.nvidia.com for the latest availability and rate-limit details.

Model selection

Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.

Configuration reference

Full config reference for agents, models, and providers.