How can I create multiple student accounts under one OpenAI billing account without individual phone verifications?

Overview
The requirement for an individual phone number per user account is part of our security and verification process for standard user accounts. For scenarios like teaching, where you need multiple access points under one billing (and where privacy is a concern), using dedicated user accounts can indeed be challenging.

Recommended Approaches

• Use of Service Accounts:
  Service accounts are designed as bot users that operate independently of individual user accounts. They remain functional even if an individual leaves the organization and are managed within a project. Since service accounts are not tied to personal user data, they offer an alternative for scenarios where you need to provide controlled access (for example, in a classroom setting) without requiring an individual phone number per account.

• Isolate Data by Using Separate Projects:
  The documentation advises that you create separate projects for different applications. This not only aids with data isolation and organization but also allows you to manage access under a single billing setup. In this way, you might consider organizing your classroom environment into a single project and provisioning access via service accounts or controlled sub-accounts that fall under that project.

Considerations

• While service accounts bypass some of the limitations (like phone verification for individual user accounts), they can still be deleted or modified within a project. Ensure you have adequate management practices in place.
• If you need to maintain persistent access for your students without using their personal phone numbers, a combination of service accounts within a dedicated project might be the best approach.

Conclusion
For your classroom use-case, leveraging project service accounts and organizing your environment into separate projects aligns with our recommended best practices. This approach should allow you to provide API access under one billing account without needing every participant’s personal phone number for verification. For further details on managing service accounts and projects, please refer to our API and production best practices documentation.