diff --git a/litellm/main.py b/litellm/main.py
index c0df0f4cc..51d35b4d8 100644
--- a/litellm/main.py
+++ b/litellm/main.py
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ from litellm.utils import (
     CustomStreamWrapper,
     read_config_args,
     completion_with_fallbacks,
+    verify_access_key,
 )
 from .llms import anthropic
 from .llms import together_ai
diff --git a/litellm/tests/test_verify_openai_key.py b/litellm/tests/test_verify_openai_key.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e5cfdb1dd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/litellm/tests/test_verify_openai_key.py
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+from litellm import verify_access_key
+
+def bad_key():
+    key = "bad-key"
+    response = verify_access_key(key)
+    print(f"response: {response}")
+bad_key()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/litellm/utils.py b/litellm/utils.py
index 1a36fd918..db6cd1e4f 100644
--- a/litellm/utils.py
+++ b/litellm/utils.py
@@ -2554,3 +2554,18 @@ def trim_messages(
     except: # [NON-Blocking, if error occurs just return final_messages
         return messages
 
+
+# Verify that the user has passed in a valid and active api key
+def verify_access_key(access_key:str):
+    openai.api_key = access_key
+    try:
+        test_response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
+            model="gpt-3.5-turbo",
+            messages=[
+                {"role": "user", "content": "test"},
+            ],
+            max_tokens = 10
+        )
+        return False
+    except:
+        return True
\ No newline at end of file