AI has been the buzzword of recent years and will continue to be so for the next few years. In my view, however, there are differences in AI. There are those that supposedly take our jobs away, those that make social media almost unusable with their AI slop, those where companies simply label it AI even though it’s just hundreds of if/else statements, but also those that are really helpful. With Home Assistant, AI definitely belongs to the latter category.
In this article, I would like to discuss in general terms how AI can be added to Home Assistant and what possibilities this opens up.
OpenAI (paid service)
Initial setup
Let’s start with probably the best-known AI company: OpenAI.
They have an official OpenAI integration for Home Assistant.
All you need is a credit card and an API key.
If you don’t have an OpenAI account yet, you can create one here: https://platform.openai.com/
Add your credit card under ‘Billing – Payment Methods’. Nothing will be charged here yet!
Directly under Billing, you can then top up your credit, just like with a prepaid card. The requests generated usually cost less than 1 cent per request.
You can then generate an API key under ‘API Keys’. Make sure to save this, as we will need it shortly.
Home Assistant integration
In Home Assistant, click on ‘Settings – Devices & Services – Add Integration’. Search for OpenAI and install the integration. Then click on ‘Add Service’ and enter your previously saved API key. Done!
Google Gemini (limited free version)
Initial setup
Go to https://aistudio.google.com/app/api-keys to generate an API key. This works without specifying a payment method. However, please note that the free version is limited (e.g. with Gemini 2.5 Flash, a maximum of 5 requests per minute and 20 requests per day can be generated). In addition, your data will be used to further train the AI.
Home Assistant integration
In Home Assistant, click on ‘Settings – Devices & Services – Add Integration’. Search for Google and then Google Gemini. Install the integration. Then click on ‘Add Service’ and enter your previously saved API key.
The sky is the limit
But what can you do with it now? There are really no limits here, and it depends on your use case. For example, I have two cats, and when movement is detected, I have the video stream from the indoor surveillance cameras converted into text and sent to me via Telegram, including a photo.
I have also built my own voice assistant using M5Stack Atom Echo* devices, which are distributed throughout my flat. This assistant can control my Home Assistant and also uses ChatGPT as a source of information. You can find the article about this here.
The practical examples of AI in Home Assistant are virtually limitless.
