# OpenAI (/docs/configuration/pre_configured_ai/openai)

To get your OpenAI API key, you need to:

- Go to **[https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys](https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys)**
- Create an account or log in with your existing one
- Add a payment method to your account
- Go to https://platform.openai.com/api-keys to get a key.
- You will need to set the following environment variable to your key, or you can set it to `user_provided` for users to provide their own.

```bash filename=".env"
OPENAI_API_KEY=user_provided
```

- You can determine which models you would like to have available with `OPENAI_MODELS`
  - When `OPENAI_API_KEY` is set to `user_provided` → only the models put in this list will be available
    - ⚠️New models won't automatically show up; you'll need to add them to this list first
  - When `OPENAI_API_KEY` is set to the actual API key value → as long as `OPENAI_MODELS` is left commented-out, it will do an API call to find out what models are available, which should include any new ones

```bash filename=".env"
OPENAI_MODELS=gpt-3.5-turbo-0125,gpt-3.5-turbo-0301,gpt-3.5-turbo,gpt-4,gpt-4-0613,gpt-4-vision-preview,gpt-3.5-turbo-0613,gpt-3.5-turbo-16k-0613,gpt-4-0125-preview,gpt-4-turbo-preview,gpt-4-1106-preview,gpt-3.5-turbo-1106,gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct,gpt-3.5-turbo-instruct-0914,gpt-3.5-turbo-16k
```

**Notes:**

- Selecting a vision model for messages with attachments is not necessary as it will be switched behind the scenes for you. If you didn't outright select a vision model, it will only be used for the vision request and you should still see the non-vision model you had selected after the request is successful
- OpenAI Vision models allow for messages without attachments
- OpenAI endpoint supports all [Shared Endpoint Settings](/docs/configuration/librechat_yaml/object_structure/shared_endpoint_settings) via the `librechat.yaml` configuration file, including `streamRate`, `titleModel`, `titleMethod`, `titlePrompt`, `titlePromptTemplate`, and `titleEndpoint`