How to connect OpenAI to SEO Ops for AI drafting

Plan: Premium. AI drafting is not included in the Free plugin. See pricing.

SEO Ops can use OpenAI to draft tasks, summaries and report text. AI is optional: without a provider, everything else works and the AI actions are simply not offered. This guide covers the setup.

Before you start

• You need an OpenAI account with an API key and billing set up. You use your own account, so you decide the model and what you spend.
• You need to be able to manage integrations in SEO Ops.

Step 1: Create an API key

In your OpenAI account, create a new API key and copy it. Treat it like a password.

Step 2: Add it to SEO Ops

1. Go to Settings › Integrations and find AI providers.
2. On the OpenAI card, choose Add API key.
3. Paste the API key.
4. Enter the Model. This must be the exact model name from your OpenAI account, so copy it from OpenAI’s list of models.
5. Choose Save. The key is stored encrypted and never shown again, apart from its last four characters.

Step 3: Test it, then check the speed

1. Choose Test. SEO Ops checks that OpenAI accepts the key and knows the model.
2. Choose Speed check. It sends a tiny request and shows how long the model took. If it takes more than about 15 seconds, SEO Ops warns you that drafting will be slow and suggests trying a faster model.

SEO Ops waits up to 45 seconds for a draft before it gives up. A faster model is usually the best fix for slow or timed-out drafts. SEO Ops also asks reasoning models to think minimally, which keeps drafting quick.

What the AI actions do

• Generate tasks from a strategy or a workstream.
• Break down into subtasks from a task.
• Analyse opportunity from an opportunity.
• Suggest tasks from notes on a meeting.
• Summarise strategy and Draft strategy sections on a strategy.
• Draft report summary on a report.
• Summarise discussion on a task, strategy, campaign, opportunity or meeting.

Keeping control

• AI output is always labelled AI-generated, and it must be reviewed by a person before a client can see it.
• SEO Ops is built so nothing the AI writes is sent to a client automatically.
• Give the AI real data to work from. Check any figure or claim it adds.

If something goes wrong

• “OpenAI rejected the key”: check you copied the whole key, and that billing is active on the account.
• The model is not found: the model name must match exactly. Copy it from OpenAI.
• “The AI provider did not answer within 45 seconds”: try again, or choose a faster model.
• Keys will not save: see the integrations overview for how the plugin stores secrets.

Only one AI provider is used at a time: the one you saved most recently becomes the active one, so saving a Gemini key later switches SEO Ops over to Gemini. Prefer Google’s models? See how to connect Google Gemini. For the thinking behind this, read Using AI for SEO drafts without losing control.