Skip to main content

Sarvam AI Provider Guide

Sarvam AI is a Tier-2 catalog provider: OpenAI-wire-compatible with no behavioural quirks, so its entire integration is one JSON file (src/lib/providers/catalog/sarvam.json) rather than hand-written code. That file is the source of truth for everything on this page.

Verification status: docs- and roster-verified, not yet live-verified. This entry was onboarded credential-free — no Sarvam API key was ever created or used. Every field below is sourced from Sarvam's own published docs plus one unauthenticated GET /v1/models call; no authenticated request (chat completion, streaming, tool call, structured output) has been made against the live API. Treat tools, structuredOutput, toolsWithStreaming and thinking as documented, not wire-proven, until evidence.liveMatrix is filled in by a live capability sweep. See Verification status below for exactly what is and isn't proven.

Key Facts​

  • Provider id: sarvam
  • Protocol: OpenAI-compatible (/chat/completions)
  • Base URL: https://api.sarvam.ai/v1
  • Default model: sarvam-105b
  • Models in catalog: 2 (this is the entire roster — the endpoint serves only these two)
  • Streaming: documented (SSE, stream: true)
  • Tool calling: documented (native tools / tool_choice)
  • Structured output: documented (response_format: json_schema and json_object)
  • Reasoning / thinking: documented — a reasoning_effort request parameter (low / high / max, default medium) and a reasoning_content response field
  • Embeddings: not documented
  • Billing: free-tier — every new account gets ₹100 in starter credits, then usage-based billing
  • Key format: sk_xxx (documented prefix, exact character set not specified)

Quick Start​

1. Get an API key​

  1. Visit: https://dashboard.sarvam.ai and sign in or create an account
  2. Create an API subscription key from the dashboard (documented format: sk_xxx)
  3. Every new account receives ₹100 in starter credits, then usage-based billing applies — see the pricing page; no ongoing free tier beyond that starter credit is documented
  4. Set SARVAM_API_KEY in your .env file

2. Configure​

export SARVAM_API_KEY=your-api-key
export SARVAM_MODEL=sarvam-105b                    # optional — overrides the default model
export SARVAM_BASE_URL=https://api.sarvam.ai/v1    # optional — self-hosted or proxy

3. Use it​

import { NeuroLink } from "@juspay/neurolink";

const neurolink = new NeuroLink();

const result = await neurolink.generate({
  input: { text: "Explain context windows in one paragraph." },
  provider: "sarvam",
  model: "sarvam-105b",
});

console.log(result.content);
# CLI
npx @juspay/neurolink generate "Hello" --provider sarvam

Per-request credentials work as they do for every provider:

await neurolink.generate({
  input: { text: "Hello" },
  provider: "sarvam",
  credentials: { sarvam: { apiKey: process.env.SARVAM_API_KEY } },
});

Authentication note​

Sarvam's own raw-HTTP API reference examples authenticate with a standard Authorization: Bearer <token> header — exactly what NeuroLink's generic OpenAI-compatible provider sends, so no custom auth-header quirk is needed. Sarvam's stated preference is instead an api-subscription-key header, which its Python/TypeScript SDKs use; the docs say both are accepted on every endpoint.

Models​

ModelContextVision$/M in · outNotes
sarvam-105b ⭐128Kno—Recommended — flagship model, documented for "complex reasoning and agentic tasks." Default model.
sarvam-105b-conversations32Kno—Documented for "real-time conversational and voice-agent workloads." Fallback.

Context window shown is each model's documented figure (128K / 32K). The catalog's defaultMaxOutputTokens is 2048 — the vendor's documented default for the max_tokens request parameter when a caller omits it, not a stated maximum (the docs say no maximum is documented).

Pricing is published only in Indian Rupees, not USD: ₹29.28 input / ₹73.2 output / ₹10.98 cached-input per 1M tokens for both models (identical rates), per the pricing page (retrieved 2026-09-28). The catalog's pricingPerMTok field is left unset for both models rather than placing that INR figure in a field every other provider in this catalog uses for USD — there is no vendor-stated INR/USD rate to convert by without inventing a number.

Fallback order when the default is unavailable: sarvam-105b-conversations.

Neither model is documented as vision-capable. The request schema does declare an image_url content-part type (the standard OpenAI-compatible message shape), but Sarvam's docs make no claim that either model actually processes image input, so both are marked vision: false.

Verification status​

Tier-2 onboarding requires evidence before a provider is accepted, and pnpm run verify:provider-onboarding gates it in CI. This is what the catalog records for Sarvam AI — and, unusually, all of it is credential-free:

ProbeResult
RosterUnauthenticated GET https://api.sarvam.ai/v1/models, HTTP 200, 2026-09-28 — returned exactly sarvam-105b and sarvam-105b-conversations, no API key used.
Auth rejectionNot probed live (would require a POST request, out of scope for credential-free onboarding). The 403 shape below is transcribed from Sarvam's own authentication docs, not observed.
Wire compatibilityDocumentary only — Sarvam's API reference explicitly describes an OpenAI-shaped messages / choices / finish_reason / object: "chat.completion" schema, tools/tool_choice, response_format (json_schema, json_object), and stream: true (SSE) for this endpoint.
Live capability sweepNot run. evidence.liveMatrix is null. tools, structuredOutput, toolsWithStreaming and thinking in the catalog reflect vendor documentation, not a live probe; structuredOutputWithTools is false because no combined tools+schema request was possible without a key.

Documented auth failure shape (from Sarvam's authentication docs, not independently observed): HTTP 403, not 401 — Sarvam's docs state "Auth failures return HTTP 403, not 401" and use the same code for both bad keys and valid-but-forbidden requests:

{
  "error": {
    "code": "invalid_api_key_error",
    "message": "Invalid API key"
  }
}

Troubleshooting​

SymptomCauseFix
Invalid Sarvam AI API keySARVAM_API_KEY unset or wrongCheck the key at https://dashboard.sarvam.ai
HTTP 403 on every callSarvam returns 403 (not 401) for both bad and forbidden keysConfirm the key is current and has access; see error.code in the response
Model not foundOnly sarvam-105b and sarvam-105b-conversations existUse one of those two ids — the endpoint serves no others
Empty/short replies at a small maxTokensreasoning_effort defaults to medium, and reasoning_content is billed as outputGive reasoning prompts a generous maxTokens budget or lower reasoning_effort

See also​