OpenAI account type needed to follow this course

Course Q&A AI Python for Beginners
1

I am looking for confirmation or advice on the account type I need to follow ‘AI Python for Beginners: Basics of AI Python Coding’ course.

I want to play in my own computer with code similar to the one showed in ‘Building LLM Prompts-with-Variables’ to send prompts to ChatGPT. I am subscribed with a ‘Plus’ plan, and paraphrasing ChatGPT:
“this plan typically provides access via the web interface (e.g., ChatGPT) and not directly through API access for Python applications. API access for GPT-4 and related services usually requires a separate billing setup and is not included in the standard “Plus” plan.”
So, it seems like you need to set up a separate billing account, https://platform.openai.com/account/billing/overview, to be able to connect via a Python Notebook.

I would appreciate if anybody could confirm.
Thanks.

2

@Rodolfo_social, yes, you are correct. You need a different type of account to use the OpenAI APIs in your own environment and to obtain an API key.

I’ve been playing with the notebooks for “AI Python for Beginners…” and many other short courses using my own API key. FWIW, I applied $10 to my OpenAI account and I still have a credit balance available to use. I’ve set a monthly budget and
an alert notification threshold on my account profile settings (Limits > Usage limits) so that I’ll get pinged when my consumption gets close to the budget amount.

3

Thank you Kelli @kwiseth, I appreciate your answer.

I found later in the course that it is explained how set up your key step by step. I asked OpenAI support and they confirmed that is a separate account and billing. I noticed that is less than a cent a prompt, so for learning purposes you can play a bit with 10 - 20 dollars. It is totally worth if you want to learn.

I have been playing with notebooks too, actually I built code to tailor my resume to job postings (I have been laid off) and it sped up my process. I am using both the web interface and the API connection, I find the API gives better results/answers.

Thanks again for getting back to my, it is very much appreciated.

Rodolfo