Docker Container Receives API Key with Extra Quotes Causing 401 Authentication Error

I have a simple test code to verify the OPENAI_API_KEY both locally and in a Docker container.

The application runs fine on my local machine, printing the key and returning a response. However, when run in Docker, it prints the key correctly but fails with the error:

"openai.AuthenticationError: Error code: 401 - {'error': {'message': 'Incorrect API key provided: "sk-proj****"'}"

Below are my setup details:

testcode.py

PYTHONCopied
from openai import Client
from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

load_dotenv()
OPENAI_API_KEY = os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")

print(f"Key is : {OPENAI_API_KEY}")

openai_client = Client()

response = openai_client.chat.completions.create(
  model="gpt-3.5-turbo",
  messages=[
        {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful assistant."},
        {"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}
    ]
)

Dockerfile

DOCKERFILECopied
FROM python:3.11-slim

WORKDIR /app

COPY . /app

RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt

EXPOSE 8000

CMD ["python", "testcode.py"]

.env file

ENVCopied
OPENAI_API_KEY="<my_key>"

Run command

BASHCopied
docker run --env-file .env -it -p 8000:8000 testapp_1:v1

I have confirmed on the OpenAI website that the API key has full access permissions. Given that the key prints correctly inside the container, what could be causing the API call to fail with an authentication error? Any help is appreciated!