Quickstart

Get Started

This quickstart guide will help you make your first request to the Concentrate AI API. You’ll be generating AI responses in minutes.

Get your API key

Visit concentrate.ai
Sign up or log in
Navigate to API Keys
Click Create API Key
Copy your key (it starts with sk-cn)

Keep your API key secure. Never commit it to version control or share it publicly.

Optional: configure guardrails

Guardrails are API-key-level redaction settings.

Go to Guardrails in the dashboard
Select your API key
Enable redaction and choose target (input, output, or both)
Select entity types and save

Output redaction is applied to non-streamed responses. Streamed output ("stream": true) is not redacted.

See Guardrails & Redaction for details.

Make your first request

Try the API with a simple cURL request:

curl https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-5.2",
    "input": "What is the capital of France?"
  }'

You should receive a response like this:

{
  "id": "abcd1234-ab12-cd34-ef56-abcdef12356",
  "object": "response",
  "created_at": 1702934400,
  "status": "completed",
  "error": null,
  "incomplete_details": null,
  "instructions": null,
  "reasoning": {
    "effort": null,
    "summary": null
  },
  "model": "openai/gpt-5.2",
  "output": [
    {
      "type": "message",
      "role": "assistant",
      "id": "abcd1234-ab12-cd34-ef56-abcdef12356",
      "status": "completed",
      "content": [
        {
          "type": "output_text",
          "text": "The capital of France is Paris."
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tools": [],
  "usage": {
    "input_tokens": 8,
    "input_tokens_details": {
      "cached_tokens": 0
    },
    "output_tokens": 8,
    "output_tokens_details": {
      "reasoning_tokens": 0
    },
    "total_tokens": 16
  }
}

Usage in practice

Below are examples of usage in a variety of different programming languages:

Python
TypeScript
Go

Install the requests library:

pip install requests

Create a file called test.py:

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses",
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    json={
        "model": "gpt-5.2",
        "input": "Explain quantum computing in simple terms"
    }
)

data = response.json()
print(data["output"][0]["content"][0]["text"])

Run it:

python test.py

Create a file called test.ts:

interface ResponseRequest {
  model: string;
  input: string;
}

async function makeRequest() {
  const response = await fetch("https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses", {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
      "Content-Type": "application/json"
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      model: "gpt-5.2",
      input: "Explain quantum computing in simple terms"
    } as ResponseRequest)
  });

  const data = await response.json();
  console.log(data.output[0].content[0].text);
}

makeRequest();

Run it:

ts-node test.ts

Create a file called test.go:

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "encoding/json"
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "net/http"
)

func main() {
    reqBody := map[string]interface{}{
        "model": "gpt-5.2",
        "input": "Explain quantum computing in simple terms",
    }

    jsonData, _ := json.Marshal(reqBody)

    req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST",
        "https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses",
        bytes.NewBuffer(jsonData))

    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
    req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY")

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, _ := client.Do(req)
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)

    var result map[string]interface{}
    json.Unmarshal(body, &result)

    output := result["output"].([]interface{})[0].(map[string]interface{})
    content := output["content"].([]interface{})[0].(map[string]interface{})
    fmt.Println(content["text"])
}

Run it:

go run test.go

Try Different Models

Concentrate AI supports 50+ models. Try different ones to compare:

curl https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "claude-opus-4-5",
    "input": "Write a haiku about programming"
  }'

Try Streaming

Enable real-time streaming for a better user experience:

curl https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-5.2",
    "input": "Write a short story about a robot",
    "stream": true
  }'

Try Tool Calling

Enable your AI to call functions and use external tools:

curl https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-5.2",
    "input": "What is 25 * 17?",
    "tools": [
      {
        "type": "function",
        "name": "calculate",
        "description": "Perform mathematical calculations",
        "parameters": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "expression": {"type": "string"}
          },
          "required": ["expression"]
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

The model will respond with a function_call indicating it wants to use the tool. See the Tool Calling Guide for the complete multi-turn workflow.

Common Patterns

Multi-Turn Conversation

input = [
    {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
    {"role": "user", "content": "What is Python?"},
    {"role": "assistant", "content": "Python is a high-level programming language."},
    {"role": "user", "content": "What is it used for?"}
]

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={
        "model": "gpt-5.2",
        "input": input
    }
)

Control Parameters

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
    json={
        "model": "gpt-5.2",
        "input": "Write a creative story",
        "temperature": 1.5,  # More creative
        "max_output_tokens": 500,  # Limit length
        "top_p": 0.95  # Nucleus sampling
    }
)

Error Handling

try:
    response = requests.post(
        "https://api.concentrate.ai/v1/responses",
        headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
        json={
            "model": "gpt-5.2",
            "input": "Hello"
        }
    )

    if response.status_code == 200:
        data = response.json()
        print(data["output"][0]["content"][0]["text"])
    elif response.status_code == 402:
        print("Insufficient credits - please add funds")
    elif response.status_code == 424:
        print("Provider error - try a different provider")
        # Retry with alternative provider/model
    else:
        print(f"Error: {response.status_code}")
        print(response.json())

except Exception as e:
    print(f"Request failed: {e}")

Next Steps

Now that you’ve made your first request, explore more features:

API Reference

Complete API documentation

Streaming Responses

Real-time streaming guide

Auto Routing

Automatic model selection

Error Handling

Handle errors gracefully

Best Practices

Set token limits

Always set max_output_tokens to prevent unexpectedly long responses:

{
  "model": "gpt-5.2",
  "input": "Your prompt",
  "max_output_tokens": 500
}

Use environment variables

Never hardcode API keys. Use environment variables:

import os

api_key = os.environ.get("CONCENTRATE_API_KEY")

Implement retry logic

Handle transient errors with exponential backoff:

import time

for attempt in range(3):
    try:
        response = make_request()
        break
    except Exception as e:
        if attempt < 2:
            time.sleep(2 ** attempt)

Monitor usage

Track token usage to manage costs:

response = requests.post(
  .....
)
data = response.json()
usage = data["usage"]
print(f"Tokens used: {usage['total_tokens']}")

Getting started

Integrations

Alerts

Get Started

Try Different Models

Try Streaming

Try Tool Calling

Common Patterns

Multi-Turn Conversation

Control Parameters

Error Handling

Next Steps

API Reference

Streaming Responses

Auto Routing

Error Handling

Best Practices

Need Help?

View Examples

Contact Support

Getting started

Integrations

Alerts

Documentation Index

​Get Started

​Try Different Models

​Try Streaming

​Try Tool Calling

​Common Patterns

​Multi-Turn Conversation

​Control Parameters

​Error Handling

​Next Steps

API Reference

Streaming Responses

Auto Routing

Error Handling

​Best Practices

​Need Help?

View Examples

Contact Support

Get Started

Try Different Models

Try Streaming

Try Tool Calling

Common Patterns

Multi-Turn Conversation

Control Parameters

Error Handling

Next Steps

Best Practices

Need Help?