diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/llm_calls/fetch_models.test.tsx b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/llm_calls/fetch_models.test.tsx
index 998924ce36d..bc276c95fdd 100644
--- a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/llm_calls/fetch_models.test.tsx
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/llm_calls/fetch_models.test.tsx
@@ -50,14 +50,46 @@ describe("fetchAvailableModels", () => {
       { model_group: "plain", mode: "chat" },
       { model_group: "smart", mode: "chat", supports_reasoning: true, supported_reasoning_efforts: ["low", "high"] },
     ]);
+    expect(modelAvailableCallMock).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
   });
 
   it.each([
     ["an error payload in place of the list", { data: { error: "no access" } }],
     ["a missing data key", {}],
     ["no body at all", undefined],
-  ])("returns an empty list on %s rather than throwing", async (_label, response) => {
-    modelHubCallMock.mockResolvedValue(response);
+  ])("falls back to /models on %s so non-admin sessions still get a dropdown", async (_label, hubResponse) => {
+    modelHubCallMock.mockResolvedValue(hubResponse);
+    modelAvailableCallMock.mockResolvedValue({
+      data: [
+        { id: "llama", mode: "chat" },
+        { id: "gpt-4o", mode: "chat" },
+      ],
+    });
+
+    expect(await fetchAvailableModels("token")).toEqual([
+      { model_group: "gpt-4o", mode: "chat" },
+      { model_group: "llama", mode: "chat" },
+    ]);
+    expect(modelAvailableCallMock).toHaveBeenCalledWith("token", "", "");
+  });
+
+  it("falls back to /models when the model hub call fails", async () => {
+    modelHubCallMock.mockRejectedValue(new Error("network down"));
+    modelAvailableCallMock.mockResolvedValue({ data: [{ id: "gpt-4o", mode: "chat" }] });
+
+    expect(await fetchAvailableModels("token")).toEqual([{ model_group: "gpt-4o", mode: "chat" }]);
+  });
+
+  it("deduplicates the fallback list by model group", async () => {
+    modelHubCallMock.mockResolvedValue({ data: [] });
+    modelAvailableCallMock.mockResolvedValue({ data: [{ id: "gpt-4o" }, { id: "gpt-4o" }] });
+
+    expect(await fetchAvailableModels("token")).toEqual([{ model_group: "gpt-4o" }]);
+  });
+
+  it("returns an empty list when both routes come back empty", async () => {
+    modelHubCallMock.mockResolvedValue({ data: [] });
+    modelAvailableCallMock.mockResolvedValue({ data: [] });
 
     expect(await fetchAvailableModels("token")).toEqual([]);
   });
diff --git a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/llm_calls/fetch_models.tsx b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/llm_calls/fetch_models.tsx
index 1f812cf0377..03c06e0f155 100644
--- a/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/llm_calls/fetch_models.tsx
+++ b/ui/litellm-dashboard/src/components/llm_calls/fetch_models.tsx
@@ -29,6 +29,15 @@ const toModelGroup = (item: AvailableModel): ModelGroup => {
   };
 };
 
+const toModelGroups = (fetchedData: unknown): ModelGroup[] =>
+  (Array.isArray(fetchedData) ? fetchedData : [])
+    .map(toModelGroup)
+    .filter((model: ModelGroup) => model.model_group !== "")
+    .sort((a: ModelGroup, b: ModelGroup) => a.model_group.localeCompare(b.model_group));
+
+const dedupeByGroup = (models: ModelGroup[]): ModelGroup[] =>
+  Array.from(new Map(models.map((model) => [model.model_group, model])).values());
+
 export const fetchAvailableModelsForTeam = async (accessToken: string, teamId: string): Promise<ModelGroup[]> => {
   const response = await modelAvailableCall(accessToken, "", "", false, teamId);
   const modelNames: string[] = (response?.data ?? []).map((model: { id: string }) => model.id);
@@ -39,19 +48,27 @@ export const fetchAvailableModelsForTeam = async (accessToken: string, teamId: s
 };
 
 /**
- * Fetches available models using modelHubCall and formats them for the selection dropdown.
+ * Fetches the models the given credentials can call, for the selection dropdown.
+ *
+ * Primary source is /model_group/info (modelHubCall), which carries capability
+ * fields like supported_reasoning_efforts. That route returns an empty list for
+ * non-admin UI sessions (#38534), so when it comes back empty or fails we fall
+ * back to /models — the canonical list (same route as GET /v1/models) that
+ * works for both UI session tokens and virtual keys.
  */
 export const fetchAvailableModels = async (accessToken: string): Promise<ModelGroup[]> => {
+  let models: ModelGroup[] = [];
   try {
     const fetchedModels = await modelHubCall(accessToken);
-    const fetchedData: unknown = fetchedModels?.data;
-    const models: ModelGroup[] = (Array.isArray(fetchedData) ? fetchedData : [])
-      .map(toModelGroup)
-      .filter((model: ModelGroup) => model.model_group !== "")
-      .sort((a: ModelGroup, b: ModelGroup) => a.model_group.localeCompare(b.model_group));
-    return Array.from(new Map(models.map((model) => [model.model_group, model])).values());
+    models = toModelGroups(fetchedModels?.data);
   } catch (error) {
     console.error("Error fetching model info:", error);
-    throw error;
   }
+
+  if (models.length > 0) {
+    return dedupeByGroup(models);
+  }
+
+  const response = await modelAvailableCall(accessToken, "", "");
+  return dedupeByGroup(toModelGroups(response?.data));
 };