OpenAI
Bring your own OpenAI key for evaluation or sidecar tasks. Message ships with its own self-hosted AI by default.
About the integration.
Bring your own OpenAI key for evaluation runs, sidecar tasks, or as a fallback for specific surfaces. We default to our own self-hosted AI for chat, ticket, and phone (it is faster, cheaper, and private by default). OpenAI plugs into the same abstraction layer if you want a head-to-head comparison or a model-specific feature.
What you get on day one.
- ✓Bring your own OpenAI key. We never charge you a markup, you pay OpenAI directly.
- ✓Use for evaluation runs against our default self-hosted AI.
- ✓Sidecar tasks: KB writing, script generation, eval grading, nightly summaries.
- ✓Per-surface routing: use OpenAI for one surface, our default AI for the rest.
- ✓GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini, o1, and o3 all supported.
- ✓Full prompt and response logs available in your workspace.
Under the hood.
We expose an inference abstraction layer in the dashboard where you can register multiple LLM providers. Add your OpenAI API key, pick which models to enable, and optionally pin specific surfaces (e.g., the AI ticket writer) to OpenAI while leaving chat and phone on our default self-hosted AI. Every request is logged with provider, model, token count, and cost so you can compare quality and economics side-by-side.
Set up in 6 steps.
- 01Sign in to platform.openai.com and create an API key.
- 02Open Integrations, OpenAI in your message.com workspace.
- 03Paste the API key. Pick which models to enable.
- 04Optional: pin specific surfaces to OpenAI (KB writer, eval grader, etc.) under AI, Routing.
- 05Save. The key is encrypted at rest and never logged.
- 06Run a test inference from the AI Playground to verify the key works.
Questions people ask before they install.
Why would I use OpenAI when you ship your own AI?
Most customers do not. Our self-hosted AI is faster, cheaper, and good enough for every customer-facing surface we have measured. OpenAI is useful for evaluation, niche model features (o3 reasoning, vision on some surfaces), or if your procurement requires a brand-name LLM.
Will my customer data go to OpenAI?
Only if you explicitly route a surface to OpenAI. Default routing keeps everything on our self-hosted AI, so your conversations stay in your account and are never sent to a third-party model provider. Even when routed to OpenAI, we send only the necessary context, never raw CRM dumps.
Does OpenAI train on my data?
No. We send requests with the standard API opt-out header. OpenAI does not train on API data by default per their policy.
Can I use Azure OpenAI?
Yes. Azure OpenAI plugs into the same abstraction with an Azure endpoint and key. Useful if your procurement requires Azure.
Other AI tools apps.
Try the OpenAI integration free.
14 days free, no credit card needed. Install the integration in under 5 minutes.
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