If I want to prompt gpt4 in my plugin do I need an API key?

Help! I want my plugin to be able to register a user query and then send it to the plugin. Can I make the prompt initially call gpt to answer the question and then have it send keywords to the plugin to return the final result?

First, consider that a “plugin” is exclusively used within the context of ChatGPT by (currently) “plus” account users.

Then consider what a plugin does at a basic level, either:
a. Better informs ChatGPT how to answer a question after being called to access an API (“latest news”);
b. Affects the outside world with its call (“post a tweet”; “order a pizza”).

So it seems “query” means you want to inform the chatbot better how to answer.
If you need the chatbot AI to provide “answers” or “more information” to the plugin call, you’d write the API spec so the AI has to complete part of the API call with its own language.

Here’s a scenario:

I write a website/server/api and a ChatGPT plugin called “multibot”. The plugin returns the answers to the user’s question provided by Bard, Anthropic, HuggingChat, so that ChatGPT can see how other AIs answer.

The API specification tells ChatGPT to provide or summarize the user’s question as part of the call.

The API returns all the answers back from various other AIs.

I have my own API keys on my server for each of the alternate AIs, and pay per use. The plugin user gets a free trial (as OpenAI forbids a “paywall”), but must eventually pay for more calls or service by creating an account on my service.

So you haven’t really laid out what you are trying to accomplish, but you can start thinking about the steps. Ultimately, plugins are for interacting with outside APIs.

Thank you for your previous response. I’m still trying to fully understand how to implement a specific feature in my plugin and I was hoping you could provide some further clarification.

Thanks for your help.

In that scenario, you have a ChatGPT user that has added “eBay auction plugin” to the active list of plugins that can be called for information.

(it is likely that such a plugin would need to be officially sanctioned by the website if calling directly by name, and an existing API like one for eBay would have parameters and outputs that are not suitable for an AI. You can set up your middleman “AI auction search” plugin and server API site that can be understood and have parameters filled in by the AI, translating AI parameters into eBay API parameters and useful responses.)

The AI calls the plugin with the parameters that are needed and given in the API manifest and specification. Documentation: OpenAI Platform

ChatGPT decides for itself what plugins would be useful for answers, and also would have to figure out how “pink” figures into its search for other mom gifts it considers searching for on its own from its knowledge of what moms like.

Consider a user has also activated an Etsy or Amazon plugin, your example question could have it invoke any or all, and then it synthesizes an answer “I found three great auction items based on their descriptions, and also two Etsy handcrafted items that might make good gifts!”.