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OpenAI Connections

In this tutorial, we will demonstrate how to configure multiple OpenAI (or compatible) API endpoints using environment variables. This setup allows you to easily switch between different API providers or use multiple providers simultaneously, while keeping your configuration between container updates, rebuilds or redeployments.

Docker Run​

Here's an example docker run command similar to what you might use for Open WebUI:

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 \
  -v open-webui:/app/backend/data \
  -e OPENAI_API_BASE_URLS="https://api.openai.com/v1;https://api.mistral.ai/v1" \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEYS="<OPENAI_API_KEY_1>;<OPENAI_API_KEY_2>" \
  --name open-webui \
  --restart always \
  ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

This command sets the following environment variables:

  • OPENAI_API_BASE_URLS: A list of API base URLs separated by semicolons (;). In this example, we use OpenAI and Mistral.
  • OPENAI_API_KEYS: A list of API keys corresponding to the base URLs specified in OPENAI_API_BASE_URLS. Make sure to replace <OPENAI_API_KEY_1> and <OPENAI_API_KEY_2> with your actual API keys.

You can adapt this command to your own needs, and add even more endpoint/key pairs, but make sure to include the environment variables as shown above.

Docker Compose​

Alternatively, you can use a docker-compose.yaml file to define and run the Open WebUI container. Here's an abridged version of what that might look like:

services:
  open-webui:
    environment:
      - 'OPENAI_API_BASE_URLS=${OPENAI_API_BASE_URLS}'
      - 'OPENAI_API_KEYS=${OPENAI_API_KEYS}'

You can edit the ${VARIABLES} directly, or optionally define the values of these variables in an .env file, which should be placed in the same directory as the docker-compose.yaml file:

OPENAI_API_BASE_URLS="https://api.openai.com/v1;https://api.mistral.ai/v1"
OPENAI_API_KEYS="<OPENAI_API_KEY_1>;<OPENAI_API_KEY_2>"