What base URL does Open WebUI need for NovAI?

https://aiapi-pro.com/v1 - the OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Enter it in Settings > Connections > OpenAI API together with your NovAI key; the model list is fetched automatically from /v1/models.

Are there free models I can use in Open WebUI?

Yes: GLM-4.7-Flash, GLM-4.6V-Flash, GLM-4.1V-Thinking-Flash, CogView3-Flash, CogVideoX-Flash are free and unlimited on NovAI (no token cap, no card). New accounts also get $2 credit for paid models.

Does NovAI add a markup on model prices?

No. Prices are the raw provider list rate with 0% platform fee (vs OpenRouter ~5.5%). Live per-model prices: /china-ai-leaderboard.json.

Open WebUI + Chinese AI Models (2026)

Updated 2026-10-10 · verified against the live model list

Open WebUI is the most popular self-hosted chat interface, and it speaks OpenAI. That means you can point it at NovAI and get 121 Chinese frontier models — DeepSeek, Qwen, GLM, Kimi, Seedance, MiniMax, Hunyuan — inside your own UI, with the model picker populated automatically. Five of those models are free and unlimited.

What you need

An Open WebUI instance (any recent version)
A NovAI API key — register free, $2 credit, no card
Base URL: https://aiapi-pro.com/v1

Connect in 2 minutes

Sign in to Open WebUI as an admin.
Open Admin Panel → Settings → Connections.
In the OpenAI API section click Add Connection (the + button).
Set API Base URL to https://aiapi-pro.com/v1 and API Key to your NovAI key.
Save. Open WebUI fetches /v1/models and the full Chinese model list appears in the model picker.

# optional: fresh install via Docker
docker run -d -p 3000:8080 \
  -e OPENAI_API_BASE_URL=https://aiapi-pro.com/v1 \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=YOUR_NOVAI_KEY \
  --name open-webui ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Which model to pick

Use case	Model	Cost
Everyday chat, free forever	glm-4.7-flash	Free, unlimited
Free vision / image understanding	glm-4.6v-flash	Free, unlimited
Balanced quality vs price	glm-5.3-flash	$0.08 / $0.28 per 1M
Hardest reasoning & coding	deepseek-v4-pro / kimi-k2.7-code	see live leaderboard

Exact live prices for all 121 models: leaderboard (machine-readable JSON). NovAI charges 0% platform fee — you pay the raw provider list price.

Troubleshooting

Model list empty: make sure the base URL ends with /v1 and the key has no surrounding spaces; test curl https://aiapi-pro.com/v1/models.
401: key not active yet or credits exhausted — top-up from $5, or switch to a free model.
Want image generation in Open WebUI: use the Images pipeline with the same base URL; cogview-3-flash is free and unlimited.

Get a key: $2 free credit · Browse models: model catalog · Pricing: live leaderboard