If you want to make calls to any of the OpenAI models (including GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, GPT-4, and GPT-3.5 Turbo), you’ll need to buy OpenAI platform credits to access the API. If you’re a developer that’s building an application on top of these models, you’ve probably figured out how to do that already.
But you may also need to buy these credits if you want to use OpenAI steps in an automation tool like Relay.app, Zapier, or Make.com. For most tools, you'll need to buy credits to use OpenAI models in any automation. At Relay.app, we include reasonable usage of GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, and GPT-3.5 Turbo in all plans, but once you exceed that threshold, you'll also need to buy credits.
And here’s where it gets confusing: these credits are totally unrelated to your ChatGPT subscription! So even if you have a ChatGPT Plus account, you’ll need to buy platform credits separately to use them in your automations.
Here’s a simple guide to creating an OpenAI Platform account and purchasing credits.
1. Create an OpenAI Platform account
Go to https://platform.openai.com/ and click the Sign Up button in the top right. You can create a new account using an email address and password or via your Google, Microsoft, or Apple account.
2. Navigate to the Billing Page
Click the Settings gear in the top right and navigate to the billing page. You’ll see how many credits you have and whether a payment method is set up.
3. Add a Payment Method and Buy Some Credits
Next click “Add payment details” directly below the credit count (don’t click “Payment methods” as that will just tell you to go back to this page). Choose how many credits you want to buy and decide if you want to recharge credits automatically, but be careful here as costs can rack up really quickly.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll see your balance and auto-recharge settings.
4. Set Limits to Avoid Surprises
If you’re calling OpenAI APIs in frequent automations, you can end up spending a lot of money, really fast, so I recommend setting some limits, which you can do via the Limits option in the left nav directly below billing. Here you can configure your monthly budget and when you want to receive an email notification.
5. Connect your OpenAI account to your automation tool
Once you have your account set up with credits, you can connect it to your favorite automation tool. Here’s how to do it in Relay.app. Go to Settings -> Your integrations and scroll down to OpenA and hit Connect. From there you’ll be prompted for an API key, which you can generate by following the link which goes to the API keys settings page.
Create a new secret key and name it appropriately.
Then copy that resulting string and paste it into the text box in Relay.app. From there, you’re ready to start using OpenAI models in your automations!
