diff --git a/litellm/utils.py b/litellm/utils.py
index 3795262a6c03..d93c88e05a09 100644
--- a/litellm/utils.py
+++ b/litellm/utils.py
@@ -4789,7 +4789,7 @@ def get_api_key(llm_provider: str, dynamic_api_key: str | None):
         api_key = api_key or litellm.anthropic_key or get_secret("ANTHROPIC_API_KEY")
     # ai21
     elif llm_provider == "ai21":
-        api_key = api_key or litellm.ai21_key or get_secret("AI211_API_KEY")
+        api_key = api_key or litellm.ai21_key or get_secret("AI21_API_KEY")
     # aleph_alpha
     elif llm_provider == "aleph_alpha":
         api_key = api_key or litellm.aleph_alpha_key or get_secret("ALEPH_ALPHA_API_KEY")
diff --git a/tests/test_litellm/test_utils.py b/tests/test_litellm/test_utils.py
index f1f863b99a0f..a8eb8b119741 100644
--- a/tests/test_litellm/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_litellm/test_utils.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
     TextCompletionStreamWrapper,
     _check_provider_match,
     _is_streaming_request,
+    get_api_key,
     get_llm_provider,
     get_optional_params_image_gen,
     get_prompt_cache_min_tokens,
@@ -5108,3 +5109,14 @@ def test_reapply_runtime_registrations_drops_request_scoped_registrations(monkey
     finally:
         litellm.model_cost = saved_model_cost
         _invalidate_model_cost_lowercase_map()
+
+
+def test_ai21_api_key_is_resolved_from_the_documented_env_var(monkeypatch: pytest.MonkeyPatch) -> None:
+    """The ai21 branch resolved a misspelled env var, so the name every other ai21 code path
+    reads, and the only name documented, was ignored."""
+    monkeypatch.setattr(litellm, "api_key", None)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(litellm, "ai21_key", None)
+    monkeypatch.delenv("AI211_API_KEY", raising=False)
+    monkeypatch.setenv("AI21_API_KEY", "sk-ai21-resolved-from-env")
+
+    assert get_api_key(llm_provider="ai21", dynamic_api_key=None) == "sk-ai21-resolved-from-env"