How to Create a HuggingFace API Key - Complete 2025 Guide

HuggingFace provides access to thousands of AI models through their API, making it easy to integrate state-of-the-art machine learning capabilities into your applications. Here’s how to create your HuggingFace API key.

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Step-by-Step Instructions

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Step 1: Navigate to HuggingFace

Go to https://huggingface.co in your web browser.

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Step 2: Sign In or Create an Account

Log into your existing account or create one using the Login or Sign Up option in the top right corner.

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Step 3: Access Your Profile

Click on your profile icon in the top right corner of the page.

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Step 4: Navigate to Access Tokens

In the dropdown menu, click Access Tokens, found just below Settings.

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Step 5: Create New Token

You’ll see a prompt to create a new token. Click Create new token.

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Step 6: Select Token Type

Choose from the following options:

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Read Token

• Read-only access to public repositories
• Cannot modify or write to content
• Best for basic read access

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Write Token

• Read and write access
• Allows content editing and repository updates
• Suitable for developers updating models

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Fine-grained Token

• Custom permissions
• Control access to:
  • Repositories
  • Inference
  • Webhooks
  • Billing
  • Discussions
• Supports organization-level permissions

Important: Token type cannot be changed after creation.

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Step 7: Configure Token Settings

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For Read/Write Tokens:

• Enter a token name (e.g., MyApp-API-Key)
• Click Create token

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For Fine-grained Tokens:

• Name the token (e.g., test)
• Set permissions for:
  • Repositories
  • Inference
  • Webhooks
  • Collections
  • Billing
  • Discussions and more
• Define organization-level access if needed

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Step 8: Create Your Token

Click Create token after configuring the options.

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Step 9: Copy and Save Your Token

Your token will be displayed once.
Security Note: Copy and store it securely now — you will not be able to view it again later.

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Post-Creation: Access Token Dashboard

Once created, all your access tokens are listed and organized for easy management.

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HuggingFace Side Panel Overview

The Settings panel provides full control over your account and environment:

• Profile: In the dropdown menu, look for Access Tokens which appears just below Settings at the bottom of the menu. Click on Access Tokens.
• Account: Configure basic account settings, email preferences, and account security options
• Authentication: Set up two-factor authentication and manage login security methods
• Organizations: Create and manage organizations for team collaboration and shared resources
• Billing: Handle subscription plans, payment methods, and usage billing for Pro features
• Access Tokens: Generate and manage API tokens for programmatic access to Hugging Face services
• SSH & GPG Keys: Add SSH keys for Git operations and GPG keys for commit signing
• Inference Providers: Configure third-party inference providers for model deployment and hosting
• Webhooks: Set up automated notifications for repository events and model updates
• Papers: Manage academic papers linked to your models and datasets
• Notifications: Control email and web notifications for activities and updates
• Local Apps & Hardware: Manage local applications and hardware configurations for model running
• Gated Repositories: Control access permissions for private or restricted model repositories
• Content Preferences: Set content filtering and display preferences for the platform
• Connected Apps: Manage third-party applications connected to your Hugging Face account
• MCP: Access the new Model Card Protocol features for enhanced model documentation
• Theme: Switch between dark, light, and system theme preferences for the interface
• Upgrade to Pro: Access premium features including faster inference and private repositories

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HuggingFace Features and Capabilities (2025)

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Serverless Inference API

HuggingFace offers a fully-managed production solution for inference where you just pay as you go for the raw compute you use. The platform provides access to over 60,000+ models including:

• Transformers (NLP)
• Diffusers (image generation)
• Sentence Transformers (embeddings)
• Vision models
• Speech processing

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Popular Model Categories

HuggingFace Transformers provides state-of-the-art machine learning models in text, vision, audio, and multimodal models, for both inference and training.

• Language Models: GPT, BERT, T5, RoBERTa
• Image Generation: Stable Diffusion, DALL·E
• Computer Vision: Object detection, classification
• Audio Processing: ASR, TTS
• Multimodal: Combine text, image, and sound inputs

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Inference Endpoints

Deploy models into secure offline endpoints only accessible via direct connection to your Virtual Private Cloud (VPCs). This enterprise feature allows you to:

• Deploy custom models or Hub models
• Scale automatically based on demand
• Maintain security with private endpoints
• Pay only for actual usage

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Integration Options

Use your API key with:

• Python: transformers, huggingface_hub
• JavaScript: Web-based AI tools
• REST API: Direct HTTP calls
• Gradio: Build fast UIs and demos

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Free Tier and Pricing

HuggingFace offers generous free access to their Inference API, making it accessible for experimentation and small-scale applications. For production use, they offer scalable pricing based on actual compute usage.

• Generous free tier available
• Ideal for exploration, demos, and small-scale apps
• Scalable pricing for production and enterprise

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Security Best Practices

• Store your token securely (use environment variables)
• Never commit tokens to version control
• Regenerate tokens if compromised
• Use fine-grained tokens with minimal required permissions
• Monitor your usage regularly

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You’re Ready to Build

With your HuggingFace API key in hand, you can:

• Access thousands of pretrained models
• Build and deploy NLP, CV, audio, or multimodal apps
• Use secure endpoints for enterprise deployments
• Accelerate development using state-of-the-art AI

Start building with HuggingFace today!