diff --git a/apps/python-sdk/firecrawl/__tests__/v1/e2e_withAuth/test.py b/apps/python-sdk/firecrawl/__tests__/v1/e2e_withAuth/test.py
index 0ada6c1d..d25d43f3 100644
--- a/apps/python-sdk/firecrawl/__tests__/v1/e2e_withAuth/test.py
+++ b/apps/python-sdk/firecrawl/__tests__/v1/e2e_withAuth/test.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ from datetime import datetime
 
 load_dotenv()
 
-API_URL = "http://127.0.0.1:3002";
+API_URL = os.getenv('API_URL', 'http://127.0.0.1:3002')
 ABSOLUTE_FIRECRAWL_PATH = "firecrawl/firecrawl.py"
 TEST_API_KEY = os.getenv('TEST_API_KEY')
 
@@ -20,15 +20,26 @@ spec.loader.exec_module(firecrawl)
 FirecrawlApp = firecrawl.FirecrawlApp
 
 def test_no_api_key():
-    with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:
-      invalid_app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL)
-    assert "No API key provided" in str(excinfo.value)
+    if 'api.firecrawl.dev' in API_URL:
+        with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:
+            invalid_app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL)
+        assert "No API key provided" in str(excinfo.value)
+    else:
+        # Should not raise error for self-hosted
+        app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL)
+        assert app is not None
 
 def test_scrape_url_invalid_api_key():
-    invalid_app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL, api_key="invalid_api_key")
-    with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:
-        invalid_app.scrape_url('https://firecrawl.dev')
-    assert "Unauthorized: Invalid token" in str(excinfo.value)
+    if 'api.firecrawl.dev' in API_URL:
+        invalid_app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL, api_key="invalid_api_key")
+        with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:
+            invalid_app.scrape_url('https://firecrawl.dev')
+        assert "Unauthorized: Invalid token" in str(excinfo.value)
+    else:
+        # Should work without API key for self-hosted
+        app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL)
+        response = app.scrape_url('https://firecrawl.dev')
+        assert response is not None
 
 # def test_blocklisted_url():
 #     blocklisted_url = "https://facebook.com/fake-test"
@@ -131,10 +142,16 @@ def test_successful_response_for_valid_scrape_with_pdf_file_without_explicit_ext
     assert 'We present spectrophotometric observations of the Broad Line Radio Galaxy' in response['markdown']
 
 def test_crawl_url_invalid_api_key():
-    invalid_app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL, api_key="invalid_api_key")
-    with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:
-        invalid_app.crawl_url('https://firecrawl.dev')
-    assert "Unauthorized: Invalid token" in str(excinfo.value)
+    if 'api.firecrawl.dev' in API_URL:
+        invalid_app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL, api_key="invalid_api_key")
+        with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:
+            invalid_app.crawl_url('https://firecrawl.dev')
+        assert "Unauthorized: Invalid token" in str(excinfo.value)
+    else:
+        # Should work without API key for self-hosted
+        app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL)
+        response = app.crawl_url('https://firecrawl.dev')
+        assert response is not None
 
 # def test_should_return_error_for_blocklisted_url():
 #     app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL, api_key=TEST_API_KEY)
@@ -291,10 +308,16 @@ def test_check_crawl_status_e2e():
     assert 'error' not in status_response['data'][0]['metadata']
 
 def test_invalid_api_key_on_map():
-    invalid_app = FirecrawlApp(api_key="invalid_api_key", api_url=API_URL)
-    with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:
-        invalid_app.map_url('https://roastmywebsite.ai')
-    assert "Unauthorized: Invalid token" in str(excinfo.value)
+    if 'api.firecrawl.dev' in API_URL:
+        invalid_app = FirecrawlApp(api_key="invalid_api_key", api_url=API_URL)
+        with pytest.raises(Exception) as excinfo:
+            invalid_app.map_url('https://roastmywebsite.ai')
+        assert "Unauthorized: Invalid token" in str(excinfo.value)
+    else:
+        # Should work without API key for self-hosted
+        app = FirecrawlApp(api_url=API_URL)
+        response = app.map_url('https://roastmywebsite.ai')
+        assert response is not None
 
 # def test_blocklisted_url_on_map():
 #     app = FirecrawlApp(api_key=TEST_API_KEY, api_url=API_URL)
@@ -349,4 +372,3 @@ def test_search_e2e():
 #     assert isinstance(llm_extraction['is_open_source'], bool)
 
 
-    
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/apps/python-sdk/firecrawl/firecrawl.py b/apps/python-sdk/firecrawl/firecrawl.py
index e4ac2726..0181db90 100644
--- a/apps/python-sdk/firecrawl/firecrawl.py
+++ b/apps/python-sdk/firecrawl/firecrawl.py
@@ -40,19 +40,22 @@ class FirecrawlApp:
         error: Optional[str] = None
 
     def __init__(self, api_key: Optional[str] = None, api_url: Optional[str] = None) -> None:
-      """
-      Initialize the FirecrawlApp instance with API key, API URL.
+        """
+        Initialize the FirecrawlApp instance with API key, API URL.
 
-      Args:
-          api_key (Optional[str]): API key for authenticating with the Firecrawl API.
-          api_url (Optional[str]): Base URL for the Firecrawl API.
-      """
-      self.api_key = api_key or os.getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_KEY')
-      self.api_url = api_url or os.getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_URL', 'https://api.firecrawl.dev')
-      if self.api_key is None:
-          logger.warning("No API key provided")
-          raise ValueError('No API key provided')
-      logger.debug(f"Initialized FirecrawlApp with API key: {self.api_key}")
+        Args:
+            api_key (Optional[str]): API key for authenticating with the Firecrawl API.
+            api_url (Optional[str]): Base URL for the Firecrawl API.
+        """
+        self.api_key = api_key or os.getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_KEY')
+        self.api_url = api_url or os.getenv('FIRECRAWL_API_URL', 'https://api.firecrawl.dev')
+        
+        # Only require API key when using cloud service
+        if 'api.firecrawl.dev' in self.api_url and self.api_key is None:
+            logger.warning("No API key provided for cloud service")
+            raise ValueError('No API key provided')
+            
+        logger.debug(f"Initialized FirecrawlApp with API URL: {self.api_url}")
 
     def scrape_url(self, url: str, params: Optional[Dict[str, Any]] = None) -> Any:
         """
diff --git a/apps/python-sdk/pyproject.toml b/apps/python-sdk/pyproject.toml
index 87cb91f1..67082d5e 100644
--- a/apps/python-sdk/pyproject.toml
+++ b/apps/python-sdk/pyproject.toml
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ dependencies = [
     "requests",
     "python-dotenv",
     "websockets",
-    "nest-asyncio"
+    "nest-asyncio",
+    "pydantic>=2.10.3",
 ]
 authors = [{name = "Mendable.ai",email = "nick@mendable.ai"}]
 maintainers = [{name = "Mendable.ai",email = "nick@mendable.ai"}]
diff --git a/apps/python-sdk/requirements.txt b/apps/python-sdk/requirements.txt
index db67ceeb..5dcd8f6c 100644
--- a/apps/python-sdk/requirements.txt
+++ b/apps/python-sdk/requirements.txt
@@ -2,4 +2,5 @@ requests
 pytest
 python-dotenv
 websockets
-nest-asyncio
\ No newline at end of file
+nest-asyncio
+pydantic
\ No newline at end of file