OpenAI

Connect an OpenAI API key from platform.openai.com to power your agent.

What this is

OpenAI provides the GPT family of models. To use OpenAI as your Beach agent's provider, you sign up at OpenAI, create an API key, and paste it into Beach Settings. Beach stores the key encrypted, and your agent uses it on every reply. You pay OpenAI directly for token usage — Beach doesn't mark up or resell.

Steps

  1. Go to platform.openai.com and sign in (or create an account).
  2. Add a payment method or credit balance. OpenAI requires funds on file before API keys will work for paid models. Without this, your agent's requests will fail with a billing error.
  3. In the OpenAI dashboard, open API keys and click Create new secret key. Give it a name like "Beach".
  4. Copy the key. It starts with sk-…. You'll only see it once — copy it carefully.
  5. Open Beach Settings and find the AI Provider section.
  6. Choose OpenAI, paste your key, and save.

Your agent will use OpenAI on its next message.

Common pitfalls

  • No credit on the OpenAI account. A common surprise: a new OpenAI account often has no balance, and the key will fail until you add one. If your agent goes silent after pasting an OpenAI key, check your billing balance at platform.openai.com.
  • Whitespace when pasting. A trailing space or newline will make the key look invalid. Double-check before saving.
  • Wrong key type. Use a standard secret key from the API keys page — not a session token or a project-scoped key with restrictive permissions.

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