API key: read this first

Never put your API key in your script or Jupyter notebook. Do not start your script with the following:

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(api_key="<your OpenAI API key>")

Instead, add the API key as an environment variable called OPENAI_API_KEY:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="<your OpenAI API key>"

You can add this line to your .bashrc or .zshrc file for convenience. Then start your script or Jupyter notebook with:

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI()

The openai package reads the key from the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable automatically.

Alternatively, use the python-dotenv package to load the key from a .env file. Add .env to your .gitignore file so it is never committed. See .env.template for an example. The tutorial notebooks call load_dotenv() at the top, so a .env file in the notebook's folder is picked up automatically.

On Google Colab

Use Colab Secrets instead: click the key icon in the left sidebar, add a secret named OPENAI_API_KEY, and enable notebook access. The tutorial notebooks read the key from there automatically.