diff --git a/cookbook/liteLLM_IBM_Watsonx.ipynb b/cookbook/liteLLM_IBM_Watsonx.ipynb
index 99854b3b3..5ec6d05e0 100644
--- a/cookbook/liteLLM_IBM_Watsonx.ipynb
+++ b/cookbook/liteLLM_IBM_Watsonx.ipynb
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
    "cell_type": "markdown",
    "metadata": {},
    "source": [
-    "## Set watsonx Credentials\n",
+    "## Set watsonx.ai Credentials\n",
     "\n",
     "See [this documentation](https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/watsonx-ai#api-authentication) for more information about authenticating to watsonx.ai"
    ]
@@ -43,9 +43,10 @@
     "from litellm.llms.watsonx import IBMWatsonXAI\n",
     "litellm.set_verbose = False\n",
     "\n",
-    "os.environ[\"WX_URL\"] = \"\" # Your watsonx.ai base URL\n",
-    "os.environ[\"WX_API_KEY\"] = \"\" # Your IBM cloud API key or watsonx.ai token\n",
-    "os.environ[\"WX_PROJECT_ID\"] = \"\" # ID of your watsonx.ai project\n",
+    "os.environ[\"WATSONX_URL\"] = \"\" # Your watsonx.ai base URL\n",
+    "os.environ[\"WATSONX_APIKEY\"] = \"\" # Your IBM cloud API key or watsonx.ai token\n",
+    "os.environ[\"WATSONX_PROJECT_ID\"] = \"\" # ID of your watsonx.ai project\n",
+    "# these can also be passed as arguments to the function\n",
     "\n",
     "# generating an IAM token is optional, but it is recommended to generate it once and use it for all your requests during the session\n",
     "# if not passed to the function, it will be generated automatically for each request\n",
diff --git a/litellm/llms/watsonx.py b/litellm/llms/watsonx.py
index 38837ddb2..26bcf6c06 100644
--- a/litellm/llms/watsonx.py
+++ b/litellm/llms/watsonx.py
@@ -258,7 +258,11 @@ class IBMWatsonXAI(BaseLLM):
                 or get_secret("WML_URL")
             )
         if api_key is None:
-            api_key = get_secret("WATSONX_API_KEY") or get_secret("WX_API_KEY")
+            api_key = (
+                get_secret("WATSONX_APIKEY")
+                or get_secret("WATSONX_API_KEY")
+                or get_secret("WX_API_KEY")
+            )
         if token is None:
             token = get_secret("WATSONX_TOKEN") or get_secret("WX_TOKEN")
         if project_id is None: