Migrate from OpenAI

Switch from OpenAI to Venice AI in minutes — same SDK, more privacy, uncensored

Venice AI is a drop-in replacement for OpenAI. Same SDK, same code — just change two lines. Get privacy-first inference, uncensored models, and competitive pricing.

The 2-Line Migration

Python

# Before (OpenAI)
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI()

# After (Venice) — change api_key and base_url
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your-venice-api-key",          # ← Change 1
    base_url="https://api.venice.ai/api/v1"  # ← Change 2
)

Node.js

// Before (OpenAI)
import OpenAI from 'openai';
const client = new OpenAI();

// After (Venice)
import OpenAI from 'openai';
const client = new OpenAI({
  apiKey: 'your-venice-api-key',
  baseURL: 'https://api.venice.ai/api/v1',
});

cURL

# Before
curl https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions ...

# After — just change the URL and key
curl https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/chat/completions ...

Environment Variables

# Before
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1

# After
OPENAI_API_KEY=your-venice-api-key
OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.venice.ai/api/v1

Many libraries and tools read OPENAI_API_KEY and OPENAI_BASE_URL automatically. Just updating these env vars may be all you need.

Model Mapping

OpenAI Model	Venice Equivalent	Type	Pricing (Input/Output per 1M)
gpt-4o	zai-org-glm-4.7 (Private)	Text	$0.55 /$2.65
gpt-4o	openai-gpt-52 (Anonymized)	Text	$2.19 /$17.50
gpt-4o-mini	qwen3-4b	Text	$0.05 /$0.15
gpt-4-turbo	mistral-31-24b	Text	$0.50 /$2.00
o1 / o3	qwen3-235b-a22b-thinking-2507 (Private)	Reasoning	$0.45 /$3.50
o1 / o3	grok-41-fast (Anonymized)	Reasoning	$0.50 /$1.25
gpt-4-vision	mistral-31-24b or qwen3-vl-235b-a22b	Vision	$0.50 /$2.00
text-embedding-3-small	text-embedding-bge-m3	Embeddings	$0.15 /$0.60
dall-e-3	qwen-image (Private, $0.01) or flux-2-pro	Image	From $0.01
whisper	nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v3	STT	$0.0001/sec
tts-1	tts-kokoro	TTS	$3.50/1M chars

Feature Compatibility

Feature	OpenAI	Venice	Notes
Chat Completions	✅	✅	Fully compatible
Streaming	✅	✅	SSE format identical
Function Calling	✅	✅	Same tools parameter
Structured Output	✅	✅	Same response_format
Vision	✅	✅	Same content array format
Embeddings	✅	✅	Same API
Image Generation	✅	✅	OpenAI-compatible via /images/generations*
TTS	✅	✅	Compatible
STT	✅	✅	Compatible
Assistants API	✅	❌	Use Characters or Minds instead
Batch API	✅	❌	Not yet available
Fine-tuning	✅	❌	Not available

*Venice also provides an OpenAI-compatible endpoint at POST /images/generations for easier migration from DALL-E. For Venice’s native image API with additional options, see Image Generate.

Venice-Only Features

Venice offers capabilities OpenAI doesn’t:

1. Built-in Web Search

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="venice-uncensored",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Latest AI news today"}],
    extra_body={
        "venice_parameters": {
            "enable_web_search": "auto"
        }
    }
)

2. Web Scraping

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="venice-uncensored",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize https://example.com/article"}],
    extra_body={
        "venice_parameters": {
            "enable_web_scraping": True
        }
    }
)

3. Characters (AI Personas)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="venice-uncensored",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Tell me about yourself"}],
    extra_body={
        "venice_parameters": {
            "character_slug": "venice-ai"
        }
    }
)

4. Uncensored Models

Venice’s private models have no content filtering, making them suitable for:

• Creative writing without guardrails
• Security research and red teaming
• Honest analysis without refusal patterns
• Medical/legal information without disclaimers

5. Video Generation

# Queue a video generation job
import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.venice.ai/api/v1/video/queue",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}", "Content-Type": "application/json"},
    json={
        "model": "wan-2.6-text-to-video",
        "prompt": "A serene lake at sunset with gentle waves",
        "resolution": "720p",
        "duration": 5,
    }
)
job_id = response.json()["id"]

Why Migrate?

Privacy

• Zero data retention on private models — your prompts are never stored
• No training on your data — ever
• OpenAI retains data for 30 days and may use it for safety research

Cost

• Private models are often cheaper than OpenAI equivalents
• qwen3-4b at $0.05/1M input is 10x cheaper than gpt-4o-mini
• venice-uncensored at $0.20/1M input vs gpt-4o at$2.50/1M

Freedom

• No content filtering on uncensored models
• No account suspensions for controversial use cases
• Web3-native with crypto payment options
• DIEM staking for daily credits

Model Diversity

• Access to models from multiple providers (Qwen, Llama, Mistral, Gemma, Claude, GPT, Grok, etc.)
• Switch between private and anonymized models per request
• New models added regularly

Framework Migration

Most AI frameworks work with Venice by changing the base URL:

Framework	Change Required
LangChain	base_url in ChatOpenAI
Vercel AI SDK	baseURL in createOpenAI
CrewAI	OPENAI_API_BASE env var
LlamaIndex	api_base in OpenAI
AutoGen	base_url in config
Haystack	api_base_url in OpenAIGenerator
Claude Code	--api-base flag or env var
Cursor	Custom API endpoint in settings
Continue.dev	apiBase in config.json

Get Your API Key

Generate a Venice API key and start migrating in minutes