Reference · Glossary

OpenAI API

Cloud HTTP API for **ChatGPT-class models** — chat completions, embeddings, images, audio, and assistants-style tool use.

When to use

Production apps, quick prototypes, embeddings for RAG, when you want managed scaling.

When not to

Strict data residency requirements without approved enterprise terms — check your org's policy first.

Example

client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o-mini",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}],
)