OpenAI opens GPT-3 to developers through a private API beta

OpenAI opened a commercial API on 11 June 2020 giving developers access to GPT-3 for what it called virtually any English language task. The private beta included about a dozen partner companies, among them Algolia, Quizlet, and Reddit.

Why it mattered Renting access to a hosted model rather than releasing its weights set the commercial and review pattern that OpenAI and other laboratories used for later models.

Corrections

  • 2026-09-01 - This entry originally said the private beta’s dozen partner companies worked on “search, sentiment analysis and moderation.” Neither cited source supports that description; corrected to name three of the actual partners (Algolia, Quizlet, and Reddit) per OpenAI’s own post.