Zed

Use cheapaimodel models in the Zed Agent and other Zed AI features through an OpenAI-compatible provider.

Zed adds OpenAI-compatible services as providers under language_models.openai_compatible in settings.json. The provider then serves the Zed Agent, the Inline Assistant and Zed's other model-backed features.

	Zed setting	Value
Base URL	`api_url`	`https://api.cheapaimodel.ai/v1`
API key	LLM Providers settings page, or `CHEAPAIMODEL_API_KEY`	Your key from the console's API Keys page
Model ID	`available_models[].name`	`glm-5.3`, or any ID from the catalog

Set it up

Add the provider

Run zed: open settings file from the command palette and add a provider:

~/.config/zed/settings.json

{
  "language_models": {
    "openai_compatible": {
      "cheapaimodel": {
        "api_url": "https://api.cheapaimodel.ai/v1",
        "available_models": [
          {
            "name": "glm-5.3",
            "display_name": "GLM-5.3",
            "max_tokens": CONTEXT_LENGTH
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

max_tokens is the model's context window. Replace CONTEXT_LENGTH with the context length on the model's page, for example glm-5.3. Add one entry to available_models per model ID.

Add your key

Run agent: open settings, find cheapaimodel under LLM Providers and paste the key; Zed stores it in your system keychain. Alternatively set CHEAPAIMODEL_API_KEY in the environment Zed starts with and restart Zed.

Pick the model

Open the Agent Panel and choose GLM-5.3 under cheapaimodel in the model selector.

Edit predictions are configured separately. Zed's OpenAI-compatible edit prediction provider needs a /v1/completions endpoint and a fill-in-the-middle model; cheapaimodel's models serve only /v1/chat/completions and /v1/responses. Keep Zeta or another edit prediction provider.

Common mistakes

Zed says the provider has no API key. Keys are not read from settings.json. Paste the key on the LLM Providers page or set the environment variable.
The environment variable is ignored, or an old key keeps being used. Zed derives the variable's name from the provider ID: upper snake case plus _API_KEY. The ID cheapaimodel reads CHEAPAIMODEL_API_KEY; if you rename the provider, rename the variable to match. A non-empty variable takes precedence over the keychain; unset it and restart Zed to use the key you pasted.
404 with the plain-text body fault filter abort. api_url is missing /v1. Set https://api.cheapaimodel.ai/v1.
404 with Invalid URL (POST /v1/chat/completions/chat/completions). api_url includes the endpoint path. Zed adds /chat/completions itself; set https://api.cheapaimodel.ai/v1 only.
503 with model_not_found. name must be a model ID from the catalog, spelled exactly; display_name is only a label.

Set it up

Add the provider

Add your key

Pick the model

Common mistakes

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