Get an OpenAI API key

OpenAI makes Whisper and the GPT models. Using it with Abe costs about 27 cents per hour of talking with the default model, gpt-transcribe. Unlike Groq, OpenAI has no free plan: you buy prepaid credit first, at least $5. This guide takes about ten minutes and you don’t need any technical knowledge.

Last verified 2026-10-22

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What you’ll need

• An email address (or an account you can sign in with, if OpenAI offers that option).
• A payment card for at least $5 of prepaid credit.
• Abe installed on your computer. See Getting started.

ChatGPT Plus is separate

A ChatGPT subscription (Plus, Pro and so on) doesn’t include API credit. You can log in with the same account, but the API is billed separately.

1. Create an OpenAI API account

1. Open platform.openai.com in your web browser. This is OpenAI’s website for developers, separate from the ChatGPT app. You won’t need to write any code.

2. Click Sign up (or Log in if you already use ChatGPT) and follow the instructions. OpenAI may ask you to confirm your email address or phone number.

2. Add prepaid credit

API keys don’t work until your account has credit.

1. Go to Settings → Billing (platform.openai.com/settings/organization/billing).

2. Click Add payment details and enter your card.

3. Choose how much credit to buy. The minimum is $5, which covers more than 18 hours of dictation with the default model.

4. Look at Use auto-reload before you confirm. It’s on by default and buys more credit automatically when your balance runs low. Turn it off if you’d rather top up by hand; your balance then acts as a natural spending cap.

5. Confirm the purchase. Your balance can take a few minutes to appear.

Purchased credit expires after one year.

3. Set a spend limit (recommended)

A spend limit stops your key from working once you reach a monthly amount you choose, so a leaked key can’t run up a bill.

1. Go to Settings → Limits (platform.openai.com/settings/organization/limits).

2. In the Spend section, click Edit spend limit.

3. Enter a Monthly spend limit, for example $5.

4. Turn on Enforce a hard limit. Without it you only get an email alert, and requests keep going through.

5. Click Save.

OpenAI’s tracking isn’t instant, so spending can go slightly over the limit. The limit resets each month.

4. Create your API key

1. Go to the API keys page: platform.openai.com/settings/organization/api-keys.

2. Click Create new secret key.

3. Fill in the form:

   • Name: something you’ll recognize later, such as Abe on my laptop.
   • Project: leave the default project selected.
   • Permissions: leave it on All, the default.

4. Click Create secret key.

5. OpenAI shows your new key. It’s a long line of characters that starts with sk-. Click Copy.

Copy the key now

You may not be able to view the key again after you close that window. If you lose it, delete it and create a new one. Paste it into Abe right away (next section), or keep it in a password manager. Never post it anywhere public.

5. Paste the key into Abe

1. Open Abe and go to Settings → Transcription. (The first-run setup screen asks the same question, so you can also do this there.)

2. Choose Use my own API key.

3. Pick OpenAI as the provider.

4. Click in the key box and paste your key (Ctrl + V, or Cmd + V on a Mac).

5. Click Test. After a moment, Abe confirms that your key works.

6. Try it: click into any text box, hold the dictation hotkey (Ctrl + Alt + Space by default), say a sentence and let go.

If the test fails, see Troubleshooting below.

6. Set up Voice Transform (optional)

Voice Transform rewrites selected text by voice. It needs a chat model, and your OpenAI key works for that too, even if you transcribe locally. In Settings, set the Transform provider to OpenAI and the model to gpt-6-luna (Abe’s default for OpenAI). A typical transform costs a tiny fraction of a cent.

Which model and why

Use	Model	Price (Oct 2026)	Why
Dictation	gpt-transcribe (Abe’s default for OpenAI)	$0.0045 per minute	OpenAI’s current transcription model: accurate across many languages
Voice Transform	gpt-6-luna (Abe’s default for OpenAI)	$0.10 / $0.50 per million tokens in / out	Cheap, quick and good at editing instructions

Deprecated models (retire early 2027)

OpenAI is retiring whisper-1, gpt-4o-transcribe and gpt-4o-mini-transcribe (26 February 2027) and gpt-4o-mini (14 January 2027). Abe’s defaults above already use their replacements.

Troubleshooting

Abe says	What it means	What to do
“Your API key was rejected. Check it in Settings.”	The key is wrong, incomplete, deleted, or from another provider	Copy the key again, making sure you got all of it and that OpenAI is selected. If you no longer have it, create a new key.
“Your provider account is out of credit.”	Your prepaid balance is used up, or you reached your spend limit	Add credit in Settings → Billing, or raise the limit in Settings → Limits.
“The provider is rate limiting you. Try again in a moment.”	Too many requests in a short time. New accounts have lower limits	Wait a moment and try again. Limits go up automatically as you use the API.
“The selected model is not available. Check Settings.”	The model name is misspelled, retired, or your key’s project can’t use it	Use gpt-transcribe for dictation and gpt-6-luna for Voice Transform. If you chose Restricted permissions, create a key with All.
“This recording is too long for the provider.”	OpenAI accepts recordings up to 25 MB	Keep recordings shorter, or lower Max Duration in Settings → Advanced.
“Couldn’t reach the provider. Check your connection.”	No internet, or a VPN, proxy or firewall is blocking OpenAI	Check your connection. OpenAI’s API also isn’t available in every country.
“The provider took too long to respond.”	OpenAI was slow or overloaded	Try again in a moment, or check status.openai.com.

Delete or replace a key

Delete a key if you lost it, think someone else saw it, or no longer use Abe on that computer:

1. Go to platform.openai.com/settings/organization/api-keys.

2. Find the key by its name and delete (revoke) it. It stops working within a few seconds.

3. To keep using Abe, create a new key and paste it into Settings → Transcription, then click Test.

To remove the key from Abe itself, click Remove next to it in Settings.

Sources

Checked on 2026-10-22: OpenAI pricing, prepaid billing, spend limits, API key permissions, error codes, file transcription and deprecations.