diff --git a/litellm/tests/test_utils.py b/litellm/tests/test_utils.py
index 8225b309d..db2d9ab5e 100644
--- a/litellm/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/litellm/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -258,6 +258,13 @@ def test_validate_environment_empty_model():
         raise Exception()
 
 
+def test_validate_environment_api_key():
+    response_obj = validate_environment(model="gpt-3.5-turbo", api_key="sk-my-test-key")
+    assert (
+        response_obj["keys_in_environment"] is True
+    ), f"Missing keys={response_obj['missing_keys']}"
+
+
 @mock.patch.dict(os.environ, {"OLLAMA_API_BASE": "foo"}, clear=True)
 def test_validate_environment_ollama():
     for provider in ["ollama", "ollama_chat"]:
diff --git a/litellm/utils.py b/litellm/utils.py
index 39ddc02ac..56331c6ce 100644
--- a/litellm/utils.py
+++ b/litellm/utils.py
@@ -5048,12 +5048,15 @@ def create_proxy_transport_and_mounts():
     return sync_proxy_mounts, async_proxy_mounts
 
 
-def validate_environment(model: Optional[str] = None) -> dict:
+def validate_environment(
+    model: Optional[str] = None, api_key: Optional[str] = None
+) -> dict:
     """
     Checks if the environment variables are valid for the given model.
 
     Args:
         model (Optional[str]): The name of the model. Defaults to None.
+        api_key (Optional[str]): If the user passed in an api key, of their own.
 
     Returns:
         dict: A dictionary containing the following keys:
@@ -5329,6 +5332,13 @@ def validate_environment(model: Optional[str] = None) -> dict:
                 keys_in_environment = True
             else:
                 missing_keys.append("NLP_CLOUD_API_KEY")
+
+    if api_key is not None:
+        new_missing_keys = []
+        for key in missing_keys:
+            if "api_key" not in key.lower():
+                new_missing_keys.append(key)
+        missing_keys = new_missing_keys
     return {"keys_in_environment": keys_in_environment, "missing_keys": missing_keys}