diff --git a/invokeai/app/services/config/config_default.py b/invokeai/app/services/config/config_default.py
index 3af906bd04..c13900cfee 100644
--- a/invokeai/app/services/config/config_default.py
+++ b/invokeai/app/services/config/config_default.py
@@ -293,6 +293,8 @@ class InvokeAIAppConfig(InvokeAISettings):
     lora_dir            : Optional[Path] = Field(default=None, description='Path to a directory of LoRA/LyCORIS models to be imported on startup.', json_schema_extra=Categories.Paths)
     embedding_dir       : Optional[Path] = Field(default=None, description='Path to a directory of Textual Inversion embeddings to be imported on startup.', json_schema_extra=Categories.Paths)
     controlnet_dir      : Optional[Path] = Field(default=None, description='Path to a directory of ControlNet embeddings to be imported on startup.', json_schema_extra=Categories.Paths)
+
+    civit_api_key       : Optional[str] = Field(default=os.environ.get("CIVIT_API_KEY"), description="API key for Civit", json_schema_extra=Categories.Other)
     # this is not referred to in the source code and can be removed entirely
     #free_gpu_mem        : Optional[bool] = Field(default=None, description="If true, purge model from GPU after each generation.", json_schema_extra=Categories.MemoryPerformance)
 
diff --git a/invokeai/backend/install/model_install_backend.py b/invokeai/backend/install/model_install_backend.py
index d412d0226f..8f4fdece31 100644
--- a/invokeai/backend/install/model_install_backend.py
+++ b/invokeai/backend/install/model_install_backend.py
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ class ModelInstall(object):
         self.datasets = OmegaConf.load(Dataset_path)
         self.prediction_helper = prediction_type_helper
         self.access_token = access_token or HfFolder.get_token()
-        self.civit_api_key = civit_api_key or os.environ.get("CIVIT_API_KEY")
+        self.civit_api_key = civit_api_key or config.civit_api_key
         self.reverse_paths = self._reverse_paths(self.datasets)
 
     def all_models(self) -> Dict[str, ModelLoadInfo]: