Access Azure OpenAI Service

  • 2 minutes

The first step in building a generative AI solution with Azure OpenAI is to provision an Azure OpenAI resource in your Azure subscription. Azure OpenAI Service is currently in limited access. Users need to apply for service access at https://aka.ms/oai/access.

Note

Azure OpenAI Service has been released with limited access to support the ethical use of the service. You can read Microsoft's Transparency note for Azure OpenAI Service here.

Once you have access to Azure OpenAI Service, you can get started by creating a resource in the Azure portal or with the Azure command line interface (CLI).

Create an Azure OpenAI Service resource in the Azure portal

When you create an Azure OpenAI Service resource, you need to provide a subscription name, resource group name, region, unique instance name, and select a pricing tier. Screenshot of the Azure portal's page to create an Azure OpenAI Service resource.

Create an Azure OpenAI Service resource in Azure CLI

To create an Azure OpenAI Service resource from the CLI, refer to this example and replace the following variables with your own:

  • MyOpenAIResource: replace with a unique name for your resource
  • OAIResourceGroup: replace with your resource group name
  • eastus: replace with the region to deploy your resource
  • subscriptionID: replace with your subscription ID
az cognitiveservices account create \
-n MyOpenAIResource \
-g OAIResourceGroup \
-l eastus \
--kind OpenAI \
--sku s0 \
--subscription subscriptionID

Note

You can find the regions available for a service through the CLI command az account list-locations. To see how to sign into Azure and create an Azure group via the CLI, you can refer to the documentation here.

Regional availability

Azure OpenAI Service provides access to many types of models. Certain models are only available in select regions. Consult the Azure OpenAI model availability guide for region availability. You can create two Azure OpenAI resources per region.