Azure Openai Service

Azure OpenAI Service provides the same OpenAI models in Azure's infrastructure — with Azure AD auth, private endpoints, and compliance certifications (SOC2, HIPAA, FedRAMP) that enterprise customers require. For agents already in the Azure ecosystem: use Azure OpenAI to access GPT-4o, embeddings (text-embedding-3-large), Whisper (speech-to-text), and DALL-E with Azure IAM access control rather than OpenAI API keys. OpenAI SDK compatible — just change the base_url and auth. Confidence is docs-derived.

Python SDK (openai): from openai import AzureOpenAI. client = AzureOpenAI(azure_endpoint=endpoint, api_key=api_key, api_version="2024-08-01-preview"). response = client.chat.completions.create(model=deployment_name, messages=[...]). Embeddings: client.embeddings.create(model="text-embedding-3-large-deployment", input=text). Whisper: client.audio.transcriptions.create(model="whisper-deployment", file=audio_file). REST: POST {endpoint}/openai/deployments/{deployment}/chat/completions?api-version={version}.

Two auth modes: (1) API key: api-key header. Keys from Azure Portal → Azure OpenAI resource → Keys and Endpoint. (2) Azure AD: DefaultAzureCredential() — managed identity or service principal with Cognitive Services User role. HTTPS enforced. Private endpoint available for VNet isolation. Content filtering configurable per deployment.

ThrottlingException (429) with Retry-After header — per-deployment TPM/RPM limits. Model deployment required before invoking — create deployment via Azure Portal or Management SDK. ContentFilteredException if content violates Azure filters. Azure OpenAI SLA: 99.9% for Standard tier. Model capacity by region — check availability before deployment.

learn.microsoft.com/azure/ai-services/openai is Microsoft Learn documentation — quickstart (Python, REST, Portal), deployment guide, API reference, and migration from OpenAI API. Getting started: create Azure OpenAI resource (requires application/approval), create deployment, first completion in under 10 minutes. Free tier: not available (charged per token). Community via Microsoft Q&A and Azure OpenAI GitHub samples.