diff --git a/cluster/applications/open-webui/deployment.yaml b/cluster/applications/open-webui/deployment.yaml
index 87dcd02..99ffb55 100644
--- a/cluster/applications/open-webui/deployment.yaml
+++ b/cluster/applications/open-webui/deployment.yaml
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@ spec:
               optional: false
         - name: OPENAI_MODEL_FALLBACK
           value: "Gemma-4-26B-A4B-it-AWQ"
+        # Disable OpenAI API key validation (we're using vLLM, not OpenAI)
+        - name: OPENAI_VALIDATE_ENDPOINT
+          value: "false"
         # Allow access from ingress
         - name: WEBUI_URL
           value: "https://body-wars.local.mk-labs.cloud"