How much does the OpenAI API cost with SmartSearchWP?

This is an FAQ entry for the WordPress chatGPT SmartSearchWP plugin.

SmartSearchWP uses your OpenAI API key. You are billed directly by OpenAI based on your usage (selected model, length of questions/answers, embedding generation for RAG).

Official pricing: Visit openai.com/pricing (GPT models and embeddings). Prices are subject to change—always check the official page.

Orders of magnitude (approximate) #

• Chat / responses — typically a few cents to a few euros per hundred conversations, depending on the model (e.g., GPT-4o vs. mini) and the length of the RAG context.
• Embeddings (RAG indexing) — a one-time cost incurred when generating or regenerating embeddings (Contexts). A medium-sized website is often modest in scale compared to a continuous chat system.
• No credits included —even with the free version of SmartSearchWP, you pay OpenAI on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Control costs: The Usage Control premium add-on lets you restrict access (quotas, schedules, roles, pages). The RAG Auto Sync add-on displays warnings before any automation that uses the API.

See also: Credits and free version.