diff --git a/docs/docs/providers/inference/remote_runpod.mdx b/docs/docs/providers/inference/remote_runpod.mdx
index 6cdcdd3b5..70c1a68ec 100644
--- a/docs/docs/providers/inference/remote_runpod.mdx
+++ b/docs/docs/providers/inference/remote_runpod.mdx
@@ -23,5 +23,5 @@ RunPod inference provider for running models on RunPod's cloud GPU platform.
 
 ```yaml
 base_url: ${env.RUNPOD_URL:=}
-api_token: ${env.RUNPOD_API_TOKEN}
+api_token: ${env.RUNPOD_API_TOKEN:=}
 ```
diff --git a/src/llama_stack/providers/remote/inference/runpod/config.py b/src/llama_stack/providers/remote/inference/runpod/config.py
index 8d06f5263..937b259ee 100644
--- a/src/llama_stack/providers/remote/inference/runpod/config.py
+++ b/src/llama_stack/providers/remote/inference/runpod/config.py
@@ -35,5 +35,5 @@ class RunpodImplConfig(RemoteInferenceProviderConfig):
     def sample_run_config(cls, **kwargs: Any) -> dict[str, Any]:
         return {
             "base_url": "${env.RUNPOD_URL:=}",
-            "api_token": "${env.RUNPOD_API_TOKEN}",
+            "api_token": "${env.RUNPOD_API_TOKEN:=}",
         }