Choose your API to see its connection steps and session events.
Connect a server to GPT-Live
We recommend WebRTC for GPT-Live audio connections, including server-to-server integrations.
WebSockets are also supported. A primary WebSocket carries audio and JSON events in both directions. Keep the project API key on your trusted server.
This guide covers streaming audio to GPT-Live. To monitor or control an existing session, see Server-side controls. To connect a reasoning and tool backend to the Responses API, see Responses WebSocket mode.
Authenticate and start the session
- Connect to
wss://api.openai.com/v1/live/sessionswith no query parameters. Authenticate withAuthorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEYand include the connection headers shown in the example. - Send
session.startas the first message. Put the model, conversation instructions, audio format, voice, and delegation configuration inside thesessionobject. - Wait for
session.startedbefore sending audio or application commands. It contains the resolved session configuration and session ID.
The example below uses Marin, PCM16 audio at 24 kHz, and a Responses backend with web search. Keep conversation instructions short. Configure backend instructions, tools, and tool permissions through Delegation and tools.
Stream audio with an SDK
For Node.js, install openai and ws with npm install openai ws and save the JavaScript example as client.mjs. For Python on macOS or Linux, install openai[realtime] and save the Python example as client.py. Set OPENAI_API_KEY in the server environment. These examples require an SDK version with Live support. The example reads raw, mono PCM16 audio at 24 kHz from standard input and writes returned audio in the same format to standard output. Connect these streams to your application’s audio capture and playback. Logs and transcript events go to standard error so they do not corrupt the audio stream.
import OpenAI from "openai";
import { LiveWS } from "openai/resources/live/ws";
// stdin and stdout carry raw mono PCM16 audio at 24 kHz, not WAV files.
// Supply microphone bytes continuously and play stdout in the same format.
process.stdin.pause();
const ws = new LiveWS(new OpenAI());
let started = false;
let closing = false;
let finalized = false;
let pendingByte = Buffer.alloc(0);
let closeTimeout;
ws.socket.on("open", () => {
ws.send({
type: "session.start",
event_id: "event_start",
session: {
model: "gpt-live-1",
instructions:
"Be concise. Delegate requests needing current information to the backend, which can search the web.",
audio: {
format: { type: "audio/pcm", rate: 24000 },
output: { voice: "marin" },
},
delegation: {
type: "responses",
responses: {
model: "gpt-5.6-luna",
tools: [{ type: "web_search" }],
tool_choice: "auto",
},
},
},
});
});
process.stdin.on("data", (chunk) => {
if (!started || closing || ws.socket.readyState !== 1) return;
const bytes = Buffer.concat([pendingByte, chunk]);
const completeLength = bytes.length - (bytes.length % 2);
pendingByte = bytes.subarray(completeLength);
if (completeLength) {
ws.send({
type: "session.input_audio.append",
audio: bytes.subarray(0, completeLength).toString("base64"),
});
}
});
// Register the final-event handler before any close command can be sent.
ws.on("event", (event) => {
if (event.type === "session.started") {
started = true;
console.error("Session ready", event.session.id);
process.stdin.resume();
} else if (event.type === "session.output_audio.delta") {
process.stdout.write(Buffer.from(event.delta, "base64"));
} else if (event.type === "session.closed") {
finalized = true;
clearTimeout(closeTimeout);
process.stdin.pause();
console.error("Final session usage", event.usage);
ws.close();
} else {
// Includes transcript deltas and nested response.event usage.
console.error(JSON.stringify(event));
}
});
process.on("SIGINT", () => {
if (closing) return;
if (!started || ws.socket.readyState !== 1) {
ws.socket.platformSocket.terminate();
return;
}
closing = true;
process.stdin.pause();
ws.send({ type: "session.close" });
closeTimeout = setTimeout(() => {
console.error("Incomplete finalization: session.closed was not received");
process.exitCode = 1;
ws.socket.platformSocket.terminate();