OpenAI coverage and cost

Which OpenAI capabilities OpenClaw exposes, embeddings, and spend reporting

Usage and cost tracking

OpenClaw keeps subscription quota and Platform API billing distinct:

ChatGPT/Codex OAuth shows the subscription plan, quota windows, and credit balance.
OPENAI_ADMIN_KEY shows 30 days of provider-reported organization cost and completions usage in Control UI Usage, including daily spend, request/token totals, top models, and cost categories.
OPENAI_PROJECT_ID optionally scopes Admin API history to one project.
OpenClaw never sends OPENAI_API_KEY or an openai inference profile to organization APIs; those credentials may belong to custom, Azure, or agent-local endpoints.

An explicit Admin key takes precedence over OAuth. Provider-reported history is not merged with OpenClaw's session-derived estimated cost; it can include API activity from other clients and provider-side billing adjustments.

OpenAI's API Usage Dashboard documentation describes the organization-owner and explicit Usage Dashboard permission requirements for usage data.

Provider, model, runtime, and channel are separate layers. If those labels are getting mixed together, read Agent runtimes before changing config.

OpenClaw feature coverage

OpenAI capability	OpenClaw surface	Status
Chat / Responses	`openai/<model>` model provider	Yes
Codex subscription models	`openai/<model>` with OpenAI OAuth	Yes
Legacy Codex model refs	old Codex model refs, `codex-cli/<model>`	Repaired by doctor to `openai/<model>`
Codex app-server harness	Codex-compatible HTTPS route with runtime unset/`auto`, or explicit `agentRuntime.id: codex`	Yes
Server-side web search	Native OpenAI Responses tool	Yes, when web search is enabled and no other provider is pinned
Images	`image_generate`	Yes
Text-to-speech	`tts.provider: "openai"` / `tts`	Yes
Batch speech-to-text	`tools.media.audio` / media understanding	Yes
Streaming speech-to-text	Voice Call `streaming.provider: "openai"`	Yes
Realtime voice	Voice Call `realtime.provider: "openai"` / Control UI Talk `talk.realtime.provider: "openai"`	Yes (auth order depends on the selected Realtime route; see below)
Embeddings	memory embedding provider	Yes

Released GPT-Live browser and Gateway-relay WebRTC try an OpenClaw ChatGPT OAuth profile first and fall back to Platform API-key auth. Ordinary GA browser Realtime tries Platform auth first and falls back to OAuth only when no Platform credential source is configured. Direct backend sockets and unlisted or private realtime routes require Platform API-key auth.

Platform auth is resolved in this order: configured realtime API key, openai API-key profile, then OPENAI_API_KEY. Voice Call, Discord realtime voice, direct backend sockets, unlisted or private realtime routes, and realtime transcription still require Platform auth.

If API-key auth reports missing billing, top up Platform credits at platform.openai.com/account/billing for the organization backing your realtime credentials when using API-key auth. Realtime voice accepts the openai API-key auth profile created by openclaw onboard --auth-choice openai-api-key, a Platform API key set via talk.realtime.providers.openai.apiKey for Control UI Talk, or plugins.entries.voice-call.config.realtime.providers.openai.apiKey for Voice Call, or the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable.

In Control UI Video Talk with Platform auth, OpenAI WebRTC receives camera context on demand: when the model calls describe_view, the browser sends one bounded JPEG over the realtime data channel. OpenClaw does not attach a continuous camera track to the OpenAI session.

Memory embeddings

OpenClaw can use OpenAI, or an OpenAI-compatible embedding endpoint, for memory_search indexing and query embeddings:

{
  memory: {
    search: {
      provider: "openai",
      model: "text-embedding-3-small",
    },
  },
}

For OpenAI-compatible endpoints that require asymmetric embedding labels, set queryInputType and documentInputType under memory.search. OpenClaw forwards these as provider-specific input_type request fields: query embeddings use queryInputType; indexed memory chunks and batch indexing use documentInputType. See the Memory configuration reference for the full example.