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OpenAI Provider

Integration with OpenAI's GPT models.

Supported Models

  • gpt-4o - Latest GPT-4 Optimized
  • gpt-4o-mini - Cost-effective model (recommended)
  • gpt-4-turbo - Fast GPT-4
  • gpt-3.5-turbo - Legacy model

Configuration

models:
  - provider: "openai"
    model_name: "gpt-4o-mini"
    env_api_key: "OPENAI_API_KEY"

Getting API Key

  1. Visit platform.openai.com
  2. Create new secret key
  3. Export: export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key

Pricing

  • gpt-4o-mini: $0.15/1M input, $0.60/1M output
  • gpt-4o: $2.50/1M input, $10/1M output

Web Search Tool

OpenAI supports web search through the web_search tool in the Responses API.

Basic Web Search Configuration

models:
  - provider: "openai"
    model_name: "gpt-4o-mini"
    env_api_key: "OPENAI_API_KEY"
    tools:
      - type: "web_search"
    tool_choice: "auto"  # Model decides when to search

Tool Choice Options

  • auto (recommended): Model decides when web search is needed
  • required: Force web search for every query
  • none: Disable web search

Web Search Pricing

Web search adds $10 per 1,000 calls plus content token costs.

Example cost (gpt-4o-mini): 

Base query: $0.0004 (tokens only)
+ Web search call: $0.01
+ Search content: $0.0012 (8k tokens @ $0.15/1M)
= Total: ~$0.0116 per query

Use OpenAI when: - ✅ Need explicit tool_choice control - ✅ Prefer OpenAI's LLM reasoning quality - ✅ Already invested in OpenAI ecosystem

Consider alternatives: - Google Gemini grounding: 290x cheaper (~$0.00004 vs $0.0116) - Perplexity: Built-in citations, always-on search

See Web Search Configuration for detailed setup and comparison.

Further Reading