OpenAI API Authentication

Use an API key through HTTP Bearer authentication. The important operational decisions are where the key is stored and which project receives the requests.

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Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

#Keep the key server-side

Set OPENAI_API_KEY through your local secret configuration or deployment secret manager. Do not place a real key in browser code, committed files, logs or a shared prompt.

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export OPENAI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

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$env:OPENAI_API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"

These values are placeholders. Follow the operating system's secure configuration practice for actual credentials.

#Project and organization context

Where required by the key/account configuration, requests can include OpenAI-Organization and OpenAI-Project headers. Confirm the intended environment instead of allowing development and production usage to become mixed.

The official SDK reads the key from the environment by default:

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from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(timeout=20.0)

Constructing a client does not verify that the key has access to the intended model. Treat authentication failures, project authorization and quota/billing failures as distinct diagnostics.

#References

• API authentication↗

#Related pages

• Quickstart
• OpenAI API overview