Build Your First AI Text Summarizer in Python Using OpenAI

In this beginner-friendly tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a simple AI tool that summarizes text using OpenAI’s GPT API.

No advanced coding required!

✨ What You’ll Learn

How to install the OpenAI Python library
How to set up your API key
How to send prompts to GPT
How to turn long text into short summaries

🛠️ Step 1: Install the OpenAI Library

Open your terminal and run:

pip install openai

🛠️ Step 2: Get Your API Key

Create a .env file and add:

OPENAI_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Or set it directly in your script:

import os
os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = "your_api_key_here"

🛠️ Step 3: Write the Summarizer Script

Here is the complete Python code to create your summarizer:

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI()

def summarize(text):
    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        model="gpt-4o-mini",
        messages=[
            {"role": "system", "content": "You summarize text."},
            {"role": "user", "content": f"Summarize this:\n\n{text}"}
        ],
        temperature=0.3,
    )
    return response.choices[0].message.content.strip()

# Example usage
article = """
Artificial Intelligence is transforming industries worldwide...
"""
summary = summarize(article)
print("Summary:", summary)

🎉 That’s it!

You’ve built your first AI text summarizer in Python. Experiment with different text inputs and tweak the temperature for more creative or precise summaries.

👉 Ready to Learn More?

Join our free beginner AI course and start building real-world projects today!