Limit Your API Calls with Unkey Usage-Limited Keys

Integrate Unkey to your API for managing call quotas. With usage-limited keys, this API enables you to control access while implementing automatic refill strategies—daily or monthly—ensuring seamless user experiences without exceeding limits.

Use Cases

Quota limiting for APIs is essential for preventing abuse, managing costs, ensuring fair access, optimizing performance, and upholding security and compliance.

Demo App Overview

This template showcases a generative AI REST API built with Rust and Rocket web framework. It demonstrates a secure method for storing created API keys using HTTP-only cookies. The /generate-image endpoint accepts a prompt message as payload, verifies the API key (decrementing remaining credits), and requests images from OpenAI. If the key becomes invalid, the user receives an error message indicating that the quota has been exceeded.

Quickstart

Create a root key

1. Go to /settings/root-keys and click on the "Create New Root Key" button.
2. Enter a name for the key.
3. Select the following workspace permissions: create_key, read_key, encrypt_key and decrypt_key.
4. Click "Create".

Create your API

1. Go to https://app.unkey.com/apis and click on the "Create New API" button.
2. Give it a name.
3. Click "Create".

Create yout OpenAI API key

1. Go to the https://platform.openai.com/ and create an account or log in.
2. Navigate to the API section in your dashboard.
3. Click on “Create API Key” or “Generate API Key.”
4. Copy and securely store the generated key.

Set up the example

1. Clone the repository to your local machine:

1git clone git@github.com:unrenamed/unkey-rust-rocket
2cd unkey-rust-rocket

2. Create a .env file in the root directory and populate it with the following environment variables:

1OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key
2UNKEY_ROOT_KEY=your-unkey-root-key
3UNKEY_API_ID=your-unkey-api-id

Ensure you replace your-* with your actual Unkey credentials.

4. Start the server:

1cargo run

The server will start and listen on the port specified in the .env file (default is 8000).

5. Use /authorize route to generate a new API key which will be saved to cookies:

1  curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/authorize

6. Use /me route to ensure you've successfully authorized:

1   curl http://localhost:8000/me

7. Send a prompt message to /generate-image route to receive a URL to the generated image:

1  curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/generate_image \
2    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
3    -d '{"prompt": "A sunset over a mountain range"}'