Connecting AI to your cellar
The Cellar Schematic uses AI to read your wine labels, answer questions about your collection, and fill in what an imported cellar arrives without. Reading a label needs no key. The Sommelier, the Concierge, tasting notes, the tools that help you buy and those that complete an imported cellar all run on your own OpenAI key — a short, one-time setup. This page shows you how, in about five minutes.
Why your own key
Most apps that use AI charge you a monthly subscription and keep the arrangement to themselves. We'd rather you owned it.
You pay for what you use, and nothing else. A label scan or a question to the Sommelier costs a fraction of a cent. Most people spend well under a dollar a month, and if you don't use the AI features, you pay nothing at all.
Your key stays on your device. On iPhone and iPad it's held in the iOS Keychain. On Android it's encrypted with a key held in the Android Keystore — hardware-backed on devices that provide it. Either way it never leaves your device except to talk to OpenAI, it's never synced between devices, and it never reaches us. We don't hold it, can't see it, and don't have a copy to lose.
Your cellar isn't ours to monetise. Nothing about your wines passes through our servers. The app talks to OpenAI directly, on your account, under your control.
You can end it in a moment. Revoke the key at OpenAI and the AI features simply stop. Everything else in the app carries on exactly as before.
What it costs
OpenAI bills you directly, for usage. To give you a sense of scale: scanning a label, asking the Sommelier what to open, or completing the details of an imported wine each cost a fraction of a cent. Looking up current market prices costs a little more — a few cents per wine — because each one is searched for individually, and the app tells you the estimated cost before it starts.
US$5 of credit lasts most people a very long time.
One thing worth knowing: a ChatGPT Plus subscription does not cover this. The API is billed separately. It's the single most common thing people trip over, and it catches almost everyone the first time.
Watch it done
Recorded August 2026. OpenAI occasionally changes the look of their site; the steps stay the same.
Or read it
Create an OpenAI account. Go to platform.openai.com and sign up or sign in. This is OpenAI's developer platform — separate from the ChatGPT app you may already use.
Add a small amount of credit. On the platform, open Settings → Billing and add credit. US$5 is plenty to start with.
Create your key. Open the API keys page, choose "Create new secret key", name it "The Cellar Schematic", and create it. Copy it straight away — OpenAI shows it only once.
Paste it into the app. In The Cellar Schematic, go to Settings → OpenAI API Key, paste, and tap Save.
The app checks the key for you the moment you save it, and tells you exactly what it found — whether it's working, whether the account still needs credit, or whether the key didn't come across in one piece. You'll know straight away, rather than finding out later.
If something doesn't look right
Open Settings → OpenAI API Key and tap Check my key. It'll tell you which of these it is:
Working — you're set; the AI features are ready.
No credit yet — the key is fine, the account just needs topping up. (This is usually the ChatGPT Plus mix-up.)
Not recognised — the key didn't arrive in full. Keys are long and begin sk-; copy the whole thing and paste it again.
Couldn't be reached — a connection problem rather than a key problem. Try again when you're back online.
Still stuck? Email us at support@thecellarschematic.com and we'll sort it out with you.
What works without a key
Scanning a label needs no key. On an iPhone or iPad that supports Apple Intelligence the reading happens on the device; on Android the camera reads the label on its own — and in both cases the photograph never leaves your phone. If you connect a key, it is used for scanning in preference, and the photograph goes to OpenAI. Typing a wine in draws on the same knowledge: producer, wine and vintage are enough, and where Apple's private cloud is available the region, grape and colour are completed for you.
Everything else that isn't AI works without a key: adding wines by hand, organising your cellar, laying out racks and fridges in the Plans, the world map, drawing and sharing your Cellar Schematic, your wine log, and backup and restore.
The key adds the Virtual Sommelier, the Virtual Concierge, tasting notes, critics' summaries, retailer lookups, and the tools that complete an imported cellar.