OpenAI
Complete guide to integrate OpenAI API with Portkey. Support for gpt-4o, o1, chat completions, vision, and audio APIs with built-in reliability and monitoring features.
OpenAI’s API offers powerful language, embedding, and multimodal models (gpt-4o, o1, whisper, dall-e, etc.). Portkey makes your OpenAI requests production-ready with its observability, fallbacks, guardrails, and more features. Portkey also lets you use OpenAI API’s other capabilities like
Integrate
Just paste your OpenAI API Key from here to Portkey to create your Virtual Key.
Your OpenAI personal or service account API keys can be saved to Portkey. Additionally, your OpenAI Admin API Keys can also be saved to Portkey so that you can route to OpenAI Admin routes through Portkey API.
Note: While OpenAI supports setting budget & rate limits at Project level, on Portkey, along with that, you can set granular budget & rate limits per each key.
Sample Request
Portkey is a drop-in replacement for OpenAI. You can make request using the official OpenAI or Portkey SDKs.
Popular libraries & agent frameworks like LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, etc. are also supported. All Azure OpenAI models & endpoints are also supported
Install the Portkey SDK with npm
Install the Portkey SDK with npm
Install the Portkey SDK with pip
Install the OpenAI & Portkey SDKs with pip
Install the OpenAI & Portkey SDKs with npm
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Viewing the Log
Portkey will log your request and give you useful data such as timestamp, request type, LLM used, tokens generated, and cost. For multimodal models, Portkey will also show the image sent with vision/image models, as well as the image generated.
Local Setup
If you do not want to use Portkey’s hosted API, you can also run Portkey locally:
Portkey runs on our popular open source Gateway. You can spin it up locally to make requests without sending them to the Portkey API.
Your Gateway is running on http://localhost:8080/v1 🚀 |
---|
Then, just change the baseURL
to the local Gateway URL, and make requests:
On-Prem Deployment (AWS, GCP, Azure) Portkey’s data & control planes can be fully deployed on-prem with the Enterprise license.
More details here →
Support for OpenAI Capabilities
Portkey works with all of OpenAI’s endpoints and supports all OpenAI capabilities like prompt caching, structured outputs, and more.
OpenAI Tool Calling
OpenAI Structured Outputs
OpenAI Vision
OpenAI Embeddings
OpenAI Prompt Caching
OpenAI Image Generation
OpenAI STT
OpenAI TTS
OpenAI Realtime API
OpenAI Moderations
OpenAI Reasoning
OpenAI Predicted Outputs
OpenAI Fine-tuning
OpenAI Assistants
OpenAI Batch Inference API
Find examples for each below:
OpenAI Tool Calling
Tool calling feature lets models trigger external tools based on conversation context. You define available functions, the model chooses when to use them, and your application executes them and returns results.
Portkey supports OpenAI Tool Calling and makes it interoperable across multiple providers. With Portkey Prompts, you can templatize various your prompts & tool schemas as well.
Tracing the Request
On Portkey you can easily trace the whole tool call - from defining tool schemas to getting the final LLM output:
OpenAI Structured Outputs
Use structured outputs for more consistent and parseable responses:
Structured Outputs Guide
Discover how to use structured outputs with OpenAI models in Portkey.
OpenAI Vision
OpenAI’s vision models can analyze images alongside text, enabling visual question-answering capabilities. Images can be provided via URLs or base64 encoding in user messages.
Tracing Vision Requests
You can see the image(s) sent on your Portkey log:
Uploading Base64 encoded images
If you have an image or set of images locally, you can pass those to the model in base 64 encoded format. Check out this example from OpenAI on how to do this.
OpenAI Embeddings
OpenAI’s embedding models (like text-embedding-3-small
) transform text inputs into lists of floating point numbers - smaller distances between vectors indicate higher text similarity. They power use cases like semantic search, content clustering, recommendations, and anomaly detection.
Simply send text to the embeddings API endpoint to generate these vectors for your applications.
OpenAI Prompt Caching
Prompt caching automatically reuses results from similar API requests, reducing latency by up to 80% and costs by 50%. This feature works by default for all OpenAI API calls, requires no setup, and has no additional fees.
Portkey accurately logs the usage statistics and costs for your cached requests.
Prompt Caching Guide
Read more about OpenAI Prompt Caching here.
OpenAI Image Generations (DALL-E)
OpenAI’s Images API enables AI-powered image generation, manipulation, and variation creation for creative and commercial applications. Whether you’re building image generation features, editing tools, or creative applications, the API provides powerful visual AI capabilities through DALL·E models.
The API offers three core capabilities:
- Generate new images from text prompts (DALL·E 3, DALL·E 2)
- Edit existing images with text-guided replacements (DALL·E 2)
- Create variations of existing images (DALL·E 2)
Tracing Image Generation Requests
Portkey logs the generated image along with your whole request:
OpenAI Transcription & Translation (Whisper)
OpenAI’s Audio API converts speech to text using the Whisper model. It offers transcription in the original language and translation to English, supporting multiple file formats and languages with high accuracy.
OpenAI Text to Speech
OpenAI’s Text to Speech (TTS) API converts written text into natural-sounding audio using six distinct voices. It supports multiple languages, streaming capabilities, and various audio formats for different use cases.
OpenAI Realtime API
OpenAI’s Realtime API enables dynamic, low-latency conversations combining text, voice, and function calling capabilities. Built on GPT-4o models optimized for realtime interactions, it supports both WebRTC for client-side applications and WebSockets for server-side implementations.
Portkey enhances OpenAI’s Realtime API with production-ready features:
- Complete request/response logging for realtime streams
- Cost tracking and budget management for streaming sessions
- Multi-modal conversation monitoring
- Session-based analytics and debugging
The API bridges the gap between traditional request-response patterns and interactive, real-time AI experiences, with Portkey adding the reliability and observability needed for production deployments. Developers can access this functionality through two model variants:
gpt-4o-realtime
for full capabilitiesgpt-4o-mini-realtime
for lighter applications
Realtime API Guide
More Capabilities
Streaming
Streaming
Predicted Outputs
Predicted Outputs
Fine-Tuning
Fine-Tuning
Batch Inference
Batch Inference
Assistants
Assistants
Moderations
Moderations
Reasoning
Reasoning
Portkey Features
Track End-User IDs
Track End-User IDs
Portkey allows you to track user IDs passed with the user parameter in OpenAI requests, enabling you to monitor user-level costs, requests, and more:
When you include the user parameter in your requests, Portkey logs will display the associated user ID, as shown in the image below:
In addition to the user
parameter, Portkey allows you to send arbitrary custom metadata with your requests. This powerful feature enables you to associate additional context or information with each request, which can be useful for analysis, debugging, or other custom use cases.
Setup Fallbacks & Loadbalancer
Setup Fallbacks & Loadbalancer
Here’s a simplified version of how to use Portkey’s Gateway Configuration:
Create a Gateway Configuration
You can create a Gateway configuration using the Portkey Config Dashboard or by writing a JSON configuration in your code. In this example, requests are routed based on the user’s subscription plan (paid or free).
Process Requests
When a user makes a request, it will pass through Portkey’s AI Gateway. Based on the configuration, the Gateway routes the request according to the user’s metadata.
Set Up the Portkey Client
Pass the Gateway configuration to your Portkey client. You can either use the config object or the Config ID from Portkey’s hosted version.
That’s it! Portkey seamlessly allows you to make your AI app more robust using built-in gateway features. Learn more about advanced gateway features:
Load Balancing
Distribute requests across multiple targets based on defined weights.
Fallbacks
Automatically switch to backup targets if the primary target fails.
Conditional Routing
Route requests to different targets based on specified conditions.
Caching
Enable caching of responses to improve performance and reduce costs.
Setup Guardrails
Setup Guardrails
Portkey’s AI gateway enables you to enforce input/output checks on requests by applying custom hooks before and after processing. Protect your user’s/company’s data by using PII guardrails and many more available on Portkey Guardrails:
Learn More About Guardrails
Explore Portkey’s guardrail features to enhance the security and reliability of your AI applications.
Cache Requests
Cache Requests
Send Custom Metadata
Send Custom Metadata
Send Custom Metadata
Send Custom Metadata
Setup Rate Limits
Setup Rate Limits
Create & Deploy Prompt Templates
Create & Deploy Prompt Templates
Popular Libraries
You can make your OpenAI integrations with popular libraries also production-ready and reliable with native integrations.
OpenAI with Langchain
OpenAI with LangGraph
OpenAI with LibreChat
OpenAI with CrewAI
OpenAI with Llamaindex
OpenAI with Vercel
More Libraries
Cookbooks
Setup a fallback from OpenAI to Azure OpenAI
A/B test your prompts
Appendix
OpenAI Projects & Organizations
Managing OpenAI Orgs on Portkey
Managing OpenAI Orgs on Portkey
Organization management is particularly useful if you belong to multiple organizations or are accessing projects through a legacy OpenAI user API key. Specifying the organization and project IDs also helps you maintain better control over your access rules, usage, and costs.
In Portkey, you can add your OpenAI Org & Project details by Using Virtual Keys, Using Configs, or While Making a Request.
Using Virtual Keys
Using Virtual Keys
When selecting OpenAI from the Virtual Key dropdown menu while creating a virtual key, Portkey displays optional fields for the organization ID and project ID alongside the API key field.
Portkey takes budget management a step further than OpenAI. While OpenAI allows setting budget limits per project, Portkey enables you to set budget limits for each virtual key you create. For more information on budget limits, refer to this documentation
Using Configs
Using Configs
You can also specify the organization and project details in your request config, either at the root level or within a specific target.
While Making a Request
While Making a Request
Pass OpenAI organization and project details directly when making a request:
Supported Parameters
List of supported & unsupported parameters from OpenAI
List of supported & unsupported parameters from OpenAI
Method / Endpoint | Supported Parameters |
---|---|
completions | model, prompt, max_tokens, temperature, top_p, n, stream, logprobs, echo, stop, presence_penalty, frequency_penalty, best_of, logit_bias, user, seed, suffix |
embeddings | model, input, encoding_format, dimensions, user |
chat.completions | model, messages, functions, function_call, max_tokens, temperature, top_p, n, stream, stop, presence_penalty, frequency_penalty, logit_bias, user, seed, tools, tool_choice, response_format, logprobs, top_logprobs, stream_options, service_tier, parallel_tool_calls, max_completion_tokens |
image.generations | prompt, model, n, quality, response_format, size, style, user |
create.speech | model, input, voice, response_format, speed |
create.transcription | All parameters supported |
create.translation | All parameters supported |
Supported Models
List of OpenAI models supported by Portkey
List of OpenAI models supported by Portkey
Limitations
Portkey does not support the following OpenAI features:
- Streaming for audio endpoints
Limitations for Vision Requests
- Medical images: Vision models are not suitable for interpreting specialized medical images like CT scans and shouldn’t be used for medical advice.
- Non-English: The models may not perform optimally when handling images with text of non-Latin alphabets, such as Japanese or Korean.
- Small text: Enlarge text within the image to improve readability, but avoid cropping important details.
- Rotation: The models may misinterpret rotated / upside-down text or images.
- Visual elements: The models may struggle to understand graphs or text where colors or styles like solid, dashed, or dotted lines vary.
- Spatial reasoning: The models struggle with tasks requiring precise spatial localization, such as identifying chess positions.
- Accuracy: The models may generate incorrect descriptions or captions in certain scenarios.
- Image shape: The models struggle with panoramic and fisheye images.
- Metadata and resizing: The models do not process original file names or metadata, and images are resized before analysis, affecting their original dimensions.
- Counting: May give approximate counts for objects in images.
- CAPTCHAS: For safety reasons, CAPTCHA submissions are blocked by OpenAI.
Image Generations Limitations
- DALL·E 3 Restrictions:
- Only supports image generation (no editing or variations)
- Limited to one image per request
- Fixed size options: 1024x1024, 1024x1792, or 1792x1024 pixels
- Automatic prompt enhancement cannot be disabled
- Image Requirements:
- Must be PNG format
- Maximum file size: 4MB
- Must be square dimensions
- For edits/variations: input images must meet same requirements
- Content Restrictions:
- All prompts and images are filtered based on OpenAI’s content policy
- Violating content will return an error
- Edited areas must be described in full context, not just the edited portion
- Technical Limitations:
- Image URLs expire after 1 hour
- Image editing (inpainting) and variations only available in DALL·E 2
- Response format limited to URL or Base64 data
Speech-to-text Limitations
- File Restrictions:
- Maximum file size: 25 MB
- Supported formats: mp3, mp4, mpeg, mpga, m4a, wav, webm
- No streaming support
- Language Limitations:
- Translation output available only in English
- Variable accuracy for non-listed languages
- Limited control over generated audio compared to other language models
- Technical Constraints:
- Prompt limited to first 244 tokens
- Restricted processing for longer audio files
- No real-time transcription support
Text-to-Speech Limitations
- Voice Restrictions:
- Limited to 6 pre-built voices (alloy, echo, fable, onyx, nova, shimmer)
- Voices optimized primarily for English
- No custom voice creation support
- No direct control over emotional range or tone
- Audio Quality Trade-offs:
- tts-1: Lower latency but potentially more static
- tts-1-hd: Higher quality but increased latency
- Quality differences may vary by listening device
- Usage Requirements:
- Must disclose AI-generated nature to end users
- Cannot create custom voice clones
- Performance varies for non-English languages
FAQs
General
Is is free to use the OpenAI API key?
Is is free to use the OpenAI API key?
The OpenAI API can be used by signing up to the OpenAI platform. You can find the pricing info here
I am getting rate limited on OpenAI API
I am getting rate limited on OpenAI API
You can find your current rate limits imposed by OpenAI here. For more tips, check out this guide.
Vision FAQs
Can I fine-tune OpenAI models on vision requests?
Can I fine-tune OpenAI models on vision requests?
Vision fine-tuning is available for some OpenAI models.
Can I use gpt-4o or other chat models to generate images?
Can I use gpt-4o or other chat models to generate images?
No, you can use dall-e-3 to generate images and gpt-4o and other chat models to understand images.
What type of files can I upload for vision requests?
What type of files can I upload for vision requests?
OpenAI currently supports PNG (.png), JPEG (.jpeg and .jpg), WEBP (.webp), and non-animated GIF (.gif).
For vision requests, Iis there a limit to the size of the image I can upload?
For vision requests, Iis there a limit to the size of the image I can upload?
OpenAI currently restricts image uploads to 20MB per image.
How do rate limits work for vision requests?
How do rate limits work for vision requests?
OpenAI processes images at the token level, so each image that’s processed counts towards your tokens per minute (TPM) limit. See how OpenAI calculates costs here for details on the formula used to determine token count per image.
Can models understand image metadata?
Can models understand image metadata?
No, the models do not receive image metadata.
Embedding FAQs
How can I tell how many tokens a string has before I embed it?
How can I tell how many tokens a string has before I embed it?
This cookbook by OpenAI illustrates how to leverage their Tiktoken library to count tokens for various embedding requests.
How can I retrieve K nearest embedding vectors quickly?
How can I retrieve K nearest embedding vectors quickly?
Using a specialized vector database helps here. Check out this cookbook by OpenAI for a deep dive.
Do V3 embedding models know about recent events?
Do V3 embedding models know about recent events?
The cutoff date for V3 embedding models (text-embedding-3-large
& text-embedding-3-small
) is September 2021 - so they do not know about the most recent events.
Prompt Caching FAQs
How is data privacy maintained for caches?
How is data privacy maintained for caches?
OpenAI Prompt caches are not shared between organizations. Only members of the same organization can access caches of identical prompts.
Does Prompt Caching affect output token generation or the final response of the API?
Does Prompt Caching affect output token generation or the final response of the API?
Prompt Caching does not influence the generation of output tokens or the final response provided by the API. Regardless of whether caching is used, the output generated will be identical. This is because only the prompt itself is cached, while the actual response is computed anew each time based on the cached prompt.
Is there a way to manually clear the cache?
Is there a way to manually clear the cache?
Manual cache clearing is not currently available. Prompts that have not been encountered recently are automatically cleared from the cache. Typical cache evictions occur after 5-10 minutes of inactivity, though sometimes lasting up to a maximum of one hour during off-peak periods.
Will I be expected to pay extra for writing to Prompt Caching?
Will I be expected to pay extra for writing to Prompt Caching?
No. Caching happens automatically, with no explicit action needed or extra cost paid to use the caching feature.
Do cached prompts contribute to TPM rate limits?
Do cached prompts contribute to TPM rate limits?
Yes, as caching does not affect rate limits.
Is discounting for Prompt Caching available on Scale Tier and the Batch API?
Is discounting for Prompt Caching available on Scale Tier and the Batch API?
Discounting for Prompt Caching is not available on the Batch API but is available on Scale Tier. With Scale Tier, any tokens that are spilled over to the shared API will also be eligible for caching.
Does Prompt Caching work on Zero Data Retention requests?
Does Prompt Caching work on Zero Data Retention requests?
Yes, Prompt Caching is compliant with existing Zero Data Retention policies.
Image Generations FAQs
What's the difference between DALL·E 2 and DALL·E 3?
What's the difference between DALL·E 2 and DALL·E 3?
DALL·E 3 offers higher quality images and enhanced capabilities, but only supports image generation. DALL·E 2 supports all three capabilities: generation, editing, and variations.
How long do the generated image URLs last?
How long do the generated image URLs last?
Generated image URLs expire after one hour. Download or process the images before expiration.
What are the size requirements for uploading images?
What are the size requirements for uploading images?
Images must be square PNG files under 4MB. For editing features, both the image and mask must have identical dimensions.
Can I disable DALL·E 3's automatic prompt enhancement?
Can I disable DALL·E 3's automatic prompt enhancement?
While you can’t completely disable it, you can add “I NEED to test how the tool works with extremely simple prompts. DO NOT add any detail, just use it AS-IS:” to your prompt.
How many images can I generate per request?
How many images can I generate per request?
DALL·E 3 supports 1 image per request (use parallel requests for more), while DALL·E 2 supports up to 10 images per request.
What image formats are supported?
What image formats are supported?
The API requires PNG format for all image uploads and manipulations. Generated images can be returned as either a URL or Base64 data.
How does image editing (inpainting) work?
How does image editing (inpainting) work?
Available only in DALL·E 2, inpainting requires both an original image and a mask. The transparent areas of the mask indicate where the image should be edited, and your prompt should describe the complete new image, not just the edited area.
Speech-to-text FAQs
What audio file formats are supported?
What audio file formats are supported?
The API supports mp3, mp4, mpeg, mpga, m4a, wav, and webm formats, with a maximum file size of 25 MB.
Can I translate audio to languages other than English?
Can I translate audio to languages other than English?
No, currently the translation API only supports output in English, regardless of the input language.
How do I handle audio files longer than 25 MB?
How do I handle audio files longer than 25 MB?
You’ll need to either compress the audio file or split it into smaller chunks. Tools like PyDub can help split audio files while avoiding mid-sentence breaks.
Does the API support all languages equally well?
Does the API support all languages equally well?
While the model was trained on 98 languages, only languages with less than 50% word error rate are officially supported. Other languages may work but with lower accuracy.
Can I get timestamps in the transcription?
Can I get timestamps in the transcription?
Yes, using the timestamp_granularities
parameter, you can get timestamps at the segment level, word level, or both.
How can I improve transcription accuracy for specific terms?
How can I improve transcription accuracy for specific terms?
You can use the prompt parameter to provide context or correct spellings of specific terms, or use post-processing with GPT-4 for more extensive corrections.
What's the difference between transcription and translation?
What's the difference between transcription and translation?
Transcription provides output in the original language, while translation always converts the audio to English text.
Text-to-Speech FAQs
What are the differences between TTS-1 and TTS-1-HD models?
What are the differences between TTS-1 and TTS-1-HD models?
TTS-1 offers lower latency for real-time applications but may include more static. TTS-1-HD provides higher quality audio but with increased generation time.
Which audio formats are supported?
Which audio formats are supported?
The API supports multiple formats: MP3 (default), Opus (for streaming), AAC (for mobile), FLAC (lossless), WAV (uncompressed), and PCM (raw 24kHz samples).
Can I create or clone custom voices?
Can I create or clone custom voices?
No, the API only supports the six built-in voices (alloy, echo, fable, onyx, nova, and shimmer). Custom voice creation is not available.
How well does it support non-English languages?
How well does it support non-English languages?
While the voices are optimized for English, the API supports multiple languages with varying effectiveness. Performance quality may vary by language.
Can I control the emotional tone or style of the speech?
Can I control the emotional tone or style of the speech?
There’s no direct mechanism to control emotional output. While capitalization and grammar might influence the output, results are inconsistent.
Is real-time streaming supported?
Is real-time streaming supported?
Yes, the API supports real-time audio streaming using chunk transfer encoding, allowing audio playback before complete file generation.
Do I need to disclose that the audio is AI-generated?
Do I need to disclose that the audio is AI-generated?
Yes, OpenAI’s usage policies require clear disclosure to end users that they are hearing AI-generated voices, not human ones.