OpenAI
OpenAI BYOK (“bring your own key”) lets OpenAI write chat answers with your own API key. OpenAI bills your account directly, and the same key can run the Smart Catalog, Rescue and learning search levels.
Get an API key
Section titled “Get an API key”- Sign in at platform.openai.com.
- Set up billing on your OpenAI account, if you haven’t already.
- Create a new secret key and copy it. OpenAI shows it only once.
Save the key
Section titled “Save the key”- Open Geeky Bot → AI & Privacy.
- Under AI connection, select OpenAI BYOK.
- Paste the key into OpenAI API key.
- Select Save settings.
The status changes to Key saved, and the page header shows OpenAI enabled.
The key is encrypted with your site’s WordPress salts before it is stored. It is never shown again, never sent to the storefront, and a copied database can’t read it. To replace it, paste a new key and save. Leaving the field empty keeps the saved key.
If you see “A provider key is still stored unencrypted.”, the key was saved by an earlier version. Enter it again and save to encrypt it.
Settings
Section titled “Settings”| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| OpenAI API key | Your secret key. Shown as dots after saving. |
| OpenAI model | The model that writes chat answers. Default gpt-4o-mini. You can type any OpenAI model ID; leave it empty to go back to the default. Used only in OpenAI BYOK mode. |
| AI answer token limit | The longest reply OpenAI may write, in tokens. Default 450, from 120 to 1,200. Keeps answers short and limits cost. |
Smart Catalog has its own OpenAI model for search words field on Geeky Bot → Product Search. Left empty, it uses the chat model.
What is sent to OpenAI
Section titled “What is sent to OpenAI”- Chat answers. When OpenAI mode is selected and a key is saved, Geeky Bot sends the shopper’s question, a grounding instruction, relevant visible-product summaries and relevant excerpts from approved policy pages to the OpenAI API to write the answer. A product summary holds its name, price, whether it is on sale, stock, type, rating, categories, short description and link.
- Smart Catalog. For each visible product, Geeky Bot sends the product title, categories, tags, attributes and a summary of up to 240 characters from the product description, and asks for the words shoppers use for that product. It is sent when Smart Catalog is switched on, when a product is added or changed, and when you ask for words to be rewritten. No shopper data is sent.
- Rescue (requires Commerce Pro). When a shopper’s search finds nothing, Geeky Bot sends the wording of that search and a list of your store’s category and product-type words, and asks which fit. Each answer is stored for 30 days and reused.
- Learning from missed searches (requires Commerce Pro, and the Smart Catalog or Rescue level). Once a day, Geeky Bot sends the text of recent shopper messages that found no products, with the same list of store words, and asks for synonym suggestions. You accept or dismiss each one.
The search levels are off until you select one under Geeky Bot → Product Search. A saved OpenAI key is used for them even when chat answers stay local, unless Zywrap is the answer mode. See Search levels.
OpenAI’s terms of use and privacy policy apply.
With gpt-4o-mini, a chat reply typically costs well under one US cent. Answers are cached for 30 minutes, and replies built locally cost nothing. To cap spending, set the daily and monthly limits described in AI limits and costs, and set a usage limit in your OpenAI account too.