In this guide, you will find instructions about the Azure OpenAI API service.

The Department of Information Technology (ITO) of the University of Tartu, in cooperation with a development partner, has created a new solution that allows using the Azure OpenAI API service. This service uses the OpenAI 3.5 Turbo and 4.0 language models, known for their ability to generate content, summarize large data, perform semantic searches, translate natural language into code, and more.

In addition to the technical API solution, it is possible to use the Microsoft Copilot (Bing Chat Enterprise) application based on ChatGPT models, which can be used to ask for help from artificial intelligence through a convenient user interface, similar to the ChatGPT text robot. More information about this solution can be found in the Bing Chat Enterprise guide.

The following description focuses on requesting Azure OpenAI API accesses. The Azure OpenAI API service uses various ChatGPT language models as input, including GPT 3.5, 4.0 and others (more details about the models in this link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/openai/concepts/models).

Requesting access

To request API access, the following options must be considered:

• The requester is the user with the highest rights in the Azure portal (contributor) and this user can set various other attributes such as limits, notifications, and permissions for other users.
• The choice of regions must be made when giving access to the API key. The following regions and their corresponding language models are available:
  • Switzerland North region: gpt-35-turbo, gpt-35-turbo-16k, gpt-4, gpt-4-32k, text-embedding-ada-002
  • West Europe region: gpt-35-turbo, text-embedding-ada-002, whisper
  • NB! The newest ChatGPT-4o for Azure OpenAI API is currently unavailable in Europe and to stay up to date users are advised to follow this page for public cloud region updates

NB! Due to the selection of regions, you can choose one or the other, for example, to use the whisper model, you have to select the West Europe region and you cannot use the GPT 4.0 model, which is used in the Switzerland North region.

• Pricing: This is a paid service, invoices are provided on a quarterly basis. By default, 1000 requests per 24 hours can be made, but the number of characters (tokens) must be taken into account. The price of characters can be calculated based on Microsoft's pricing model.
  You can find detailed information about pricing here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cognitive-services/openai-service/. To display the prices, you have to select the desired region and the prices will be displayed accordingly.
• Financial account: must be specified when requesting access to the service. The request to IT helpdesk must be sent to the e-mail address computer helpdesk@ut.ee, where the owner of the financial source has been entered in the cc. The applicant is responsible for coordination with the financial source manager.
• Limits and usage: In the Azure portal, a financial limit can be set in the resource group section. In addition, you can set an amount that will be notified when it is reached. The amount already spent can be viewed in the Azure portal (Cost Management → Budgets). This can be done by the user who is the owner of the resource group (contributor rights). More about limits and using the Azure portal can be found in the guide below (in English). By default, the monthly limit is 1,000 euros, but we recommend specifying your limit request. Later, the owner of the resource group (contributor) can also change it himself in the Azure portal. PS! Please be aware that users will be notified if they exceed the set limit for the service, and exceeding the monthly limit will not interrupt the regular use of the service. More information about managing limits and the Azure OpenAI service can be found in Microsoft's documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/openai/how-to/manage-costs.
• User permissions can be configured in the Azure portal and should be specified when prompted for permissions. For example, the roles of reader and contributor are available, about which you can find detailed information here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/openai/how-to/role-based-access-control.

Request form

To access the Azure OpenAI API service, send the following details to IT helpdesk:

• To: helpdesk@ut.ee
• Cc: financial account holder
• Subject: Azure OpenAI API service request

Service request:
Name:
Email:
Financial account number:
Name and e-mail of the financial account holder:
Desired monthly limit (default 1000 euros per month):
Desired number of requests per 24 hours (default 1000 requests per 24 hours): 
Language model(s):
Desired rights for user(s):

API service setup guide