How to Connect OpenAI GPT to OpenClaw?

OpenAI's GPT models are fully supported in OpenClaw. GPT-4o is the flagship model — fast, capable, and good at both text and image understanding.

Get your API key from platform.openai.com. Add billing credits (minimum $5), generate a key, and configure it in OpenClaw.

Available models: GPT-4o (best quality, $2.50/1M input, $10/1M output), GPT-4o-mini (cheaper, faster, $0.15/1M, $0.60/1M), and GPT-4.1 (latest generation). For most OpenClaw users, GPT-4o-mini offers excellent value — it handles common tasks well at a fraction of the cost.

Typical monthly cost: $5-15 for GPT-4o, $1-5 for GPT-4o-mini at moderate usage.

GPT-4o supports vision — your agent can analyze images sent in chat. It also has strong coding abilities, JSON mode for structured outputs, and function calling that works seamlessly with OpenClaw's MCP skills.

If you already use ChatGPT Plus, note that the API is billed separately. Your ChatGPT subscription doesn't include API access.

Tip: Use GPT-4o-mini for daily tasks and switch to GPT-4o for complex analysis or important conversations. OpenClaw makes it easy to switch models per workspace.

openclaw config set provider openai
openclaw config set model gpt-4o
openclaw config set apiKey sk-your-openai-key