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

# Model access

> Allow or block models per key, user, group, or the whole deployment

**Model access** rules decide which models a key is allowed to call. They sit alongside
[usage limits](/gateway/budgets-and-limits), [content guardrails](/gateway/guardrails), and
[routing](/gateway/route-requests). Limits cap how much a key spends, guardrails inspect content,
routing picks a provider, and model access governs the model name the client asked for.

## Create a rule

On the **Model access** page under Policies, create a rule and choose:

* **Who it's for**: one **API key**, a **user**, a **group**, keys with **no group**, or the
  whole deployment (**All traffic**).
* **Allow or block**: **Block** refuses the named models and leaves everything else callable.
  **Allow only** makes the named models the whole menu — nothing else is callable, on any API.
* **Which models**: the names from the request body, such as `gpt-4o` or `claude-sonnet-4-5`.
  Names match exactly, case included. A trailing `*` is a prefix wildcard (`claude-opus-*`), so a
  rule keeps covering a model when a vendor stamps a new date on the name.

A rule names models only. It does not distinguish OpenAI from Anthropic: the same name means the
same thing on either API.

Each key's detail page also has a **Model access** section for the rules that cover that key.

## How rules combine

Rules stack. For one requested model:

* Any matching **block** refuses it, including a block on a wider target than an allow. A
  key-level allow list cannot escape a deployment-wide block.
* Every **target** carrying an allow list must name the model. Allow lists from different
  targets intersect; two on the same target union.
* No allow list anywhere means everything not blocked is callable.

Enforcement is on the model the client asked for, before routing. A routing rewrite is not
second-guessed. A block takes effect on the next request.

## What callers see

A refused request never reaches a provider. It returns **403** in the caller's dialect, mapped to
`permission_error`. The same policy filters `GET /v1/models` for that key, so the client's picker
cannot offer a blocked model.