# What the difference between open ai assistant api and chat api **URL:** \ **Category:** API\ **Tags:** chatgpt, api, assistants-api\ **Created:** [January 26, 2024, 1:47pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740 "2024-01-26T13:47:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ataeforbusiness](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/ataeforbusiness/32/146390_2.png) [@ataeforbusiness](https://community.openai.com/u/ataeforbusiness)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 1:47pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/1 "2024-01-26T13:47:09Z")
I am planning to use open ai api in my project, but i didn’t know which one should I use gpt assistant api or chat api ---
**Author:** ![trenton.dambrowitz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/trenton.dambrowitz/32/146436_2.png) [@trenton.dambrowitz](https://community.openai.com/u/trenton.dambrowitz)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 1:53pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/2 "2024-01-26T13:53:54Z")
[Assistants overview - OpenAI API](https://platform.openai.com/docs/assistants/overview) [Text generation - OpenAI API](https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/text-generation) Here’s some of the API documentation I recommend reading. If you could share much more detail about what your project entails we could help better. ---
**Author:** ![ataeforbusiness](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/ataeforbusiness/32/146390_2.png) [@ataeforbusiness](https://community.openai.com/u/ataeforbusiness)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 12:30pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/3 "2024-01-27T12:30:28Z")
I am going to use on a AI powered counselor, just providing information and guidance. ---
**Author:** ![dlaytonj2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/dlaytonj2/32/23157_2.png) [@dlaytonj2](https://community.openai.com/u/dlaytonj2)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 7:29pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/4 "2024-01-27T19:29:12Z")
I have spent considerable time with both APIs. My observation is that the _Assistants API_ is intended for a class of problems that are more complex than what is normally done through a Chat API. Problems that are best solved through a collaboration of specialized _Assistants_ . It’s one thing to ask GPT to write a chapter in a book, or a code fragment for a program, it’s another thing to ask GPT to write a book or a software product. Chat Completion APIs are for the former, Assistants API are for the latter. ---
**Author:** ![anon10827405](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@anon10827405](https://community.openai.com/u/anon10827405)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 7:31pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/5 "2024-01-27T19:31:20Z")
Agreed. I’d consider Assistants a framework, while Completion models are a tool ---
**Author:** ![snow-crash](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/snow-crash/32/511382_2.png) [@snow-crash](https://community.openai.com/u/snow-crash)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2024, 7:48pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/6 "2024-01-27T19:48:03Z")
Yes, my experience as well. If it involves more complex problems/applications, the Assistant API may be the better fit. For just text generation, QA, the Chat API might suffice. ---
**Author:** ![ning.li](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/ning.li/32/614126_2.png) [@ning.li](https://community.openai.com/u/ning.li)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2024, 6:39pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/7 "2024-05-24T18:39:14Z")
How about performance or limitation of the two APIs? If you want to do the same task, for example, entity recognition, on millions of documents, do you expect to see a difference between the two? ---
**Author:** ![dlaytonj2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/dlaytonj2/32/23157_2.png) [@dlaytonj2](https://community.openai.com/u/dlaytonj2)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 1:39am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/8 "2024-05-25T01:39:17Z")
The Assistants API provides File Search (tool) capabilities. File Search parses and chunks your documents, creates and stores the embeddings, and use both vector and keyword search to retrieve relevant content to answer user queries. The Chat completion API does not. ---
**Author:** ![siavosh87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@siavosh87](https://community.openai.com/u/siavosh87)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2024, 11:34am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/what-the-difference-between-open-ai-assistant-api-and-chat-api/602740/9 "2024-05-25T11:34:43Z")
My opinion is actually opposite to most other people. _Assistants API_ in my opinion is for when you want to have a _range of different functionality_ but _without having to customise_ or tweak anything too much. For example, you can add documents and have them automatically indexed in order to do embedding based retrievals. However, the _Chat API_ is more powerful if you are willing to implement some of the functionality yourself (or by using libraries like Langchain). You will have alot more control over the whole process. For instance, you can control how you want your documents to be chunked and the chunk length for the embeddings part, and so on.