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Spring Boot + OpenAI ChatGPT API Integration Tutorial
4 min readApr 21, 2025
Integrating ChatGPT into your Java applications has never been easier — thanks to the OpenAI API and Spring Boot’s powerful REST capabilities.
In this step-by-step tutorial, we’ll show you how to build a complete Spring Boot backend that connects to the OpenAI ChatGPT API, handles user prompts, and returns AI-generated responses. Whether you’re building a chatbot, coding assistant, or a smart content generator — this guide gives you everything you need.
🚀 What You Will Learn
- How to get an OpenAI API key
- How to configure Spring Boot for ChatGPT API access
- How to send prompts and receive responses
- Build a REST API endpoint that integrates with ChatGPT
- Real-world-ready architecture using
RestClient, DTOs, and service layers
YouTube Video with Live Demo
🔐 Step 1: Get Your OpenAI API Key
Before anything else, you need access to OpenAI’s API.
✅ Steps to Get API Key
- Go to https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys
- Log in or sign up with your OpenAI account.
- Click “Create new secret key”
- Copy the API key (you won’t see it again!)
⚠️ Never share this key publicly or commit it to GitHub.
Before proceeding, create a Spring Boot project using Spring Initializr and import it into Intellij IDEA or STS.
Next, create the following project structure:
springboot-chatgpt/
│
├── controller/
│ └── ChatGPTController.java
│
├── dto/
│ ├── ChatGPTRequest.java
│ ├── ChatGPTResponse.java
│ └── PromptRequest.java
│
├── service/
│ └── ChatGPTService.java
│
├── config/
│ └── OpenAPIConfiguration.java
│
├── resources/
│ └── application.properties
