Setup guide 3 min

How to get your OpenAI API key

Create an OpenAI API key, put a little credit on it, and connect it to PlotStudio. No coding — just a few clicks, about three minutes.

Before you start
An OpenAI API key is not the same thing as a ChatGPT subscription. You create it at platform.openai.com (the developer platform), not chatgpt.com — and a ChatGPT Plus plan does not include API access. PlotStudio takes no cut of any of this: the key is yours, the credit is yours, and you pay OpenAI directly for exactly what you use.
1

Sign in to the OpenAI platform

Go to platform.openai.com and log in, or sign up if you don't have an account. Brand-new accounts get a short setup flow that starts by asking for an organization name and a project name. Anything sensible works — your own name or your lab's name for the organization, and leaving the project as Default project is completely fine. Then click Continue.

The Welcome to OpenAI Platform screen asking for an organization name and project name
Name your organization and project. “Default project” is fine — you can rename things later.
Don't click “I'm looking for ChatGPT”
That button sends you to the chat product. You want to stay on the platform (developer) side — that's where API keys live.
2

Choose a plan and add some credit

Next you'll see Choose your plan. Pick Prototype — it starts at $5 and gives you access to all of OpenAI's latest models, which is what PlotStudio needs.

OpenAI's Choose your plan screen showing the Free, Prototype and Accelerate options with Prototype selected
Choose your plan — Prototype is the one you want.

The API credits box is yours to set — put in whatever you're comfortable with. We suggest around $15 as a starting point. Then click Continue to checkout and pay. It's a one-off top-up, not a subscription — nothing recurring gets set up, and you can add more any time.

The API credits field set to $15, with the note that $15 covers about 75 million input tokens
Any amount works — $15 is just a comfortable place to start.

Why we suggest $15. PlotStudio isn't a chatbot — a single question runs a whole team of agents that profile your data, write and execute code, model it, and then write up the findings. That uses far more tokens than a chat message. The $5 minimum is plenty to try it out; $15 (roughly 75 million input tokens) just means you can explore a few datasets properly without thinking about topping up. Go higher or lower as you like.

Just want to try PlotStudio without paying OpenAI?
Use the 3-day PlotStudio free trial instead — it runs on our credits, so no API key is needed at all. You can add your own key later when you're ready.
The Free plan won't run PlotStudio
OpenAI's Free option lets you create a key, but it comes with limited model access, tight per-minute limits, and a $0.00 balance — so PlotStudio will stop with “Your OpenAI account is out of credit.” If you pick Free now, you can always add credit later (Step 6).
3

Name and generate your key

On the Make your first API call screen, type a name you'll recognise later —PlotStudio Key is a good one — and click Generate API Key.

The Make your first API call screen with the API key name PlotStudio Key entered
Name the key something you'll recognise — e.g. “PlotStudio Key”.
4

Copy the key — it's only shown once

Your key appears under My test key, starting with sk-proj-. Click Copy. You can ignore the curl example underneath — that's for developers testing the key from a terminal, and PlotStudio does all of that for you. Then click Continue.

The newly generated OpenAI secret key shown once with a Copy button, above a sample curl command
Your new key, shown once. Hit Copy — the curl sample below it doesn't matter for PlotStudio.
Close-up of the Copy button next to the newly generated OpenAI API key
The Copy button, up close.
This is the only time you'll see the whole key
OpenAI never shows it in full again — afterwards you only get the last few characters (sk-…pFcA). Lost it? No problem: delete that key and create a new one. Treat it like a password — anyone who has it can spend your credit.
5

Paste it into PlotStudio

Back in PlotStudio, on the AI Access setup step, paste the key into the box and click Validate & Continue. PlotStudio makes one quick call to check the key works, then stores it encrypted on your own device — it never reaches our servers.

A green Validated means you're done. If it comes back red, jump to the troubleshooting list at the bottom of this page.

6

Check your balance (and find your key again later)

Your OpenAI dashboard at platform.openai.com shows Credit remaining. If it says $0.00 with an amber Add credits button, the top-up in Step 2 didn't go through (or you chose the Free plan) — click Add credits and top up there. Credit can take a minute to show up after paying.

The OpenAI platform dashboard showing a Credit remaining panel reading $0.00 with an Add credits button
The dashboard after setup. Watch the “Credit remaining” panel.
Close-up of the Credit remaining panel showing $0.00 and an Add credits button
$0.00 with a warning triangle means PlotStudio can't run yet — add credit.

The API Keys page in the left menu lists every key you've made. This is where you go to create another one — Create new secret key, top right — if you skipped key creation earlier, lost your key, or want a separate key per machine.

The OpenAI API keys page listing a key named PlotStudio Key with a Create new secret key button
API Keys → “Create new secret key”. Note the key is only ever shown truncated here.

That's it — you're ready

Head back to PlotStudio, paste your OpenAI key into the setup screen, and hit Validate & Continue. Your key is stored encrypted on your own device — PlotStudio never sees it.

Troubleshooting

PlotStudio says my OpenAI account is out of credit.+
Open platform.openai.com and check the “Credit remaining” panel. If it reads $0.00, the checkout in Step 2 didn’t complete or you’re on the Free plan — click “Add credits”, top up by any amount, and retry. Your analysis picks up where it left off.
It says my key is invalid, or that OpenAI rejected it.+
Usually a stray space or a missing character from the paste. The key must start with “sk-”. If re-pasting doesn’t fix it, the key may have been deleted at OpenAI — go to the API Keys page, create a fresh one, and paste that instead.
It says my key can’t access the model PlotStudio needs.+
That key belongs to a project whose model permissions are restricted. Either grant the project access to the latest models in OpenAI’s project settings, or create a key inside your Default project (permissions “All”) and use that one.
I already had an OpenAI account — I never saw those screens.+
The welcome flow only appears for new accounts. Go straight to platform.openai.com/api-keys, click “Create new secret key”, and copy it (Steps 3–4). Then check your credit balance on the dashboard (Step 6) before running an analysis.
Do I need ChatGPT Plus as well?+
No. They’re separate products with separate billing. API credit is the only thing PlotStudio uses, and a Plus subscription doesn’t contribute to it.
How far does the credit actually go?+
That depends on how big your data is and how deep the analysis runs — a quick question costs a fraction of a full multi-step investigation. The Usage page in your OpenAI dashboard shows exactly what you’ve spent, broken down by day, so you can watch it for the first few analyses and top up whatever suits you.
Is my key safe?+
Yes. It’s encrypted and stored on your own device. PlotStudio never sees or stores it — we make a one-time check that it’s valid, and nothing more.