Deploy and Host Chat2API on Railway

Chat2API is a simple proxy tool that converts the ChatGPT web interface into a standard, perfectly formatted OpenAI API. It offers free, login-free access to GPT-3.5 and allows you to utilize premium models (GPT-4o, O1, O3-mini) by passing an AccessToken, all while providing a native web UI mirror.

About Hosting Turn ChatGPT into OpenAI API - Chat2API

Deploying Chat2API on Railway provides a highly available, self-healing gateway for your AI requests without relying on official API billing. By linking the GitHub repository, the platform automatically builds the Docker container. Hosting it yourself means you have full control over environment variables to route traffic through proxies (avoiding 403/429 errors), rotate multiple AccessTokens for load balancing, and spin up a private web UI mirror. Continuous deployment ensures that automated backend tasks, like the mandatory 4-day Token refreshes, run seamlessly, giving your applications a stable and consistent API endpoint.

Common Use Cases

Serving as a free, login-free GPT-3.5 drop-in replacement for standard /v1/chat/completions API calls in custom SaaS applications or third-party UIs.
Pooling and rotating multiple Plus or Team account AccessTokens to load-balance requests for high-tier models like GPT-4o, O1-Pro, and O3-mini, effectively circumventing individual rate limits.
Hosting a private, shared ChatGPT web UI gateway for a team where users can log in with anonymous Seed Tokens without exposing underlying account credentials.

Dependencies for Turn ChatGPT into OpenAI API - Chat2API Hosting

A Railway account connected to your GitHub for automatic deployment and environment variable management.
Valid ChatGPT AccessTokens or RefreshTokens (extracted from https://chatgpt.com/api/auth/session) to utilize advanced GPT-4 or O1 series models.
(Optional) HTTP/Socks5 Proxy URLs if the deployment region is blocked by OpenAI, leading to 403 or 429 errors.

Deployment Dependencies

Chat2API Source Repository: https://github.com/LanQian528/chat2api
Official Telegram Support Group: https://t.me/chat2api
Docker (Handled automatically via the repository's docker-compose-warp.yml or Dockerfile).

Implementation Details

To configure the application on Railway, navigate to the Variables tab of your deployment and add the following parameters. (String values do not require quotes).

1. Security & Authentication Variables:

API_PREFIX: (Default: None) Sets an API prefix to secure endpoints against public scanning. If set to my_prefix, the endpoint becomes /my_prefix/v1/chat/completions.
AUTHORIZATION: (Default: []) A comma-separated list of custom authorization codes you define. You use these codes in your API calls to trigger the rotation of the actual ChatGPT tokens stored in the backend.
AUTH_KEY: (Default: None) A required header key if you are setting up a private gateway.

2. Network Routing Variables:

CHATGPT_BASE_URL: (Default: https://chatgpt.com) The upstream gateway. You can comma-separate multiple gateways.
PROXY_URL: (Default: []) Global proxies used to bypass 403/429 errors. Format: http://username:password@ip:port.
EXPORT_PROXY_URL: (Default: None) An exit proxy for requesting images or files without leaking the origin server IP.

3. Functional Logic Variables:

HISTORY_DISABLED: (Default: true) Disables chat history saving and returns a conversation_id.
POW_DIFFICULTY: (Default: 00003a) Proof of work difficulty. Do not change unless you understand the implications.
RETRY_TIMES: (Default: 3) The number of automated retry attempts before polling the next Token on failure.
CONVERSATION_ONLY: (Default: false) Uses the conversation interface directly.
ENABLE_LIMIT: (Default: true) Adheres to official rate limits to actively safeguard against account bans.
UPLOAD_BY_URL: (Default: false) Parses URL contents in user prompts (URL + space + text) for automatic downloading and uploading to the chat.
SCHEDULED_REFRESH: (Default: false) Auto-refreshes AccessTokens on boot and automatically every 4 days at 3:00 AM.
RANDOM_TOKEN: (Default: true) Randomizes backend token selection instead of polling them sequentially.

4. Gateway Mirror Variables:

ENABLE_GATEWAY: (Default: false) Enables the native ChatGPT web UI mirror directly at your deployment domain.
AUTO_SEED: (Default: true) Automatically assigns matching user sessions to random internal profile seeds. Disable to manually control Tokens.

How to Test the API Endpoint:

Once your service is live, replace `` with your actual assigned domain to test the implementation.

UI & Management URLs:

Token Management Dashboard: Visit https:///tokens (or //tokens if configured) to upload, view, or clear your ChatGPT tokens.

Native Web UI Login: Visit https:///login (Requires ENABLE_GATEWAY set to true).

Why Deploy Turn ChatGPT into OpenAI API - Chat2API on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying Turn ChatGPT into OpenAI API - Chat2API on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.