> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vlm.run/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# FAQ

> Frequently asked questions about the VLM Run Gateway

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="What is the VLM Run Gateway?" icon="compass">
    An OpenAI-compatible API for visual AI: OCR, VQA, document extraction, and text detection,
    all behind one base URL and one `Authorization` header. See [Introduction](/gateway/introduction)
    for the full rationale.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How is this different from a general-purpose LLM gateway?" icon="shuffle">
    General-purpose routers are built for text and carry lots of LLMs, but only a small slice of
    visual workloads. The VLM Run Gateway is built for OCR and VQA, and exposes each supported
    model through the same `chat.completions` shape so switching models is a one-line change.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does the Gateway support PDFs and multi-page documents?" icon="file-lines">
    Yes. Pass a PDF as a `document_url` content part and the Gateway decodes it, fans out per-page
    inference, and returns concatenated markdown or streamed page blocks through the same chat
    completions response. See [Flexible Document OCR](/gateway/guides/document-ocr) for the full
    walkthrough, including the `method` and `document_dpi` knobs for tuning cost, latency, and
    accuracy per request.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does the Gateway do embeddings and audio transcription too?" icon="waveform-lines">
    Yes, behind the same base URL and API key as chat completions. See
    [Embeddings](/gateway/api-reference/post-embeddings) and
    [Audio Transcriptions](/gateway/api-reference/post-audio-transcriptions)
    for request schemas, or [Models](/gateway/models#embeddings-and-transcription)
    for the models that back each endpoint.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How much does it cost?" icon="dollar-sign">
    The Gateway is **free during the alpha**, subject to per-tier rate limits. Formal pricing
    (per-request and per-page) is coming; until then, watch `usage.cost` on chat completion
    responses for a per-request cost signal. See [Pricing](/gateway/pricing) and
    [Rate Limits](/gateway/rate-limits).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do I need an API key?" icon="key">
    Not to start. Every endpoint accepts anonymous access today, rate limited per IP. Authenticate
    with an API key from [app.vlm.run](https://app.vlm.run) to get usage attributed to your account
    instead of a shared IP bucket, which matters once you're building something you plan to run in
    production. See [Authentication](/gateway/authentication).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Is the Gateway production ready?" icon="server">
    The Gateway is in **alpha**: free, rate-limited, and the model catalog is intentionally small.
    It already returns a live model catalog, per-request `usage.cost` for metering, `x-request-id`
    for tracing, and sanitized error responses. Authenticate with an API key if you're building
    something you plan to run in production, since alpha limits are subject to change.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How do I choose between models or methods?" icon="sliders">
    Use `qwen/qwen3.5-0.8b` for VQA and `paddleocr/pp-ocrv6` for OCR or text detection.
    `zai-org/glm-ocr` and `rednote-hilab/dots.mocr` are markdown-output OCR alternatives when you
    want reading-order page output. Within `pp-ocrv6`, start with `method: "ocr"` for full OCR, or
    `method: "detect"` when you only need bounding polygons. For documents, treat model, method, and
    `document_dpi` as one tunable unit: start with the cheapest combination that clears your
    accuracy bar on your own data, and only pay for more where it actually moves the numbers.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Introduction" icon="compass" href="/gateway/introduction">
    Why the VLM Run Gateway exists and what it's built to help you do.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Models" icon="table-list" href="/gateway/models">
    Full catalog with availability, methods, and accepted inputs.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Methods" icon="list-check" href="/gateway/methods">
    Per-model method reference and request parameters.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="rocket" href="/gateway/quickstart">
    First requests for VQA and document OCR.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>