🛠️ Prep work – get your keys ready
- OpenAI API key: To use ChatGPT through an API you need an OpenAI key. Create an account at OpenAI, buy some credits, then go to User → API keys and choose “Create new secret key.” Copy the secret key and keep it safe . Without this key, neither plugins nor custom code can call ChatGPT.
- WordPress authentication: For any custom script or integration you’ll need a way to authenticate with your WordPress site. Since WordPress 5.6 there’s a built‑in application password system. You can generate a password via the /wp/v2/users/me/application-passwords endpoint and use it with Basic Auth. The WordPress documentation notes that these credentials can then be sent in REST API requests using Basic Auth – for example, curl –user “USERNAME:PASSWORD” https://HOSTNAME/wp-json/wp/v2/posts . Keep your credentials secure and transmit them only over HTTPS.
🚀 Option 1 – Use a WordPress AI plugin (no coding)
There are several WordPress plugins that integrate ChatGPT. One of the most popular is AI Engine by Meow Apps. After installing and activating the plugin:
- Go to AI Engine → Settings and paste in your OpenAI API key .
- In AI Engine → Content, enter a topic, decide on the number of sections and paragraphs, and click Generate . You can set tone, model parameters, etc.
- Once the content is generated you can click Create Post. AI Engine saves it as a draft; you edit, add images, and publish when ready .
Other plugins such as GPT AI Power, AiBud WP and ContentBot work similarly – you supply an API key and the plugins let you create posts or pages directly from the WordPress dashboard . They take care of calling OpenAI behind the scenes. This is the quickest route if you want a mostly no‑code solution.
🔄 Option 2 – Use an automation plugin (Uncanny Automator)
If you want to automate the entire workflow (e.g., when a form is submitted, ChatGPT writes a post outline, and WordPress creates a draft), check out Uncanny Automator. The process is:
- Install and activate Uncanny Automator. Go to Automator → Integrations and connect the OpenAI integration by entering your API secret .
- Create a recipe: choose a trigger (for example, a form submission), then choose actions (call ChatGPT, create a WordPress post). Enable both the trigger and the action and test the recipe .
- In the MemberPress guide, an example recipe has the following steps: (a) form submission via a form‑builder plugin; (b) ChatGPT receives the form data, generates a post outline; (c) WordPress receives the outline and saves it as a draft post . The result is a ready‑to‑edit draft without touching any code.
Uncanny Automator is flexible and can chain together multiple services. It’s especially helpful if you want to integrate other WordPress plugins or form builders with ChatGPT.
🔧 Option 3 – No‑code automation platforms (Zapier/Make.com)
For people who prefer a visual drag‑and‑drop interface, platforms like Make.com (formerly Integromat) or Zapier can build multi‑step workflows:
- Daniel Detlaf’s tutorial uses Make.com to create a scenario where keywords in a Google Sheet trigger ChatGPT to draft a post, format it, and then push it to WordPress . You need a Google account, an OpenAI API key (create it at platform.openai.com ), a Make connector plugin key for your WordPress site , and a Make.com account .
- In Make.com, you build modules: one watches the Google Sheet for new keywords, another calls OpenAI’s “Create a Chat Completion” action where you supply the prompt and model , and a final module posts to WordPress.
- Zapier offers similar capabilities: you can create a “Zap” that triggers on new data (e.g., a Google Doc or a form), sends the prompt to OpenAI, then uses the WordPress app to create a post.
These services handle the API calls and authentication for you and are great for non‑developers.
🧑💻 Option 4 – Write your own script or plugin
If you’re comfortable coding, you can directly integrate ChatGPT and WordPress by using their APIs. The basic workflow looks like this:
- Call OpenAI API: Use your preferred language (Python, Node.js, PHP, etc.) to call https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions with your prompt and get back an essay. The OpenAI Python library or fetch in Node.js makes this straightforward.
- Authenticate with WordPress: Use the username and application password to create a Basic Auth token. The WordPress guide shows that credentials can be passed in a REST API request using Basic Auth, e.g. curl –user “USERNAME:PASSWORD” https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts . In Python this is requests.post(url, headers={‘Authorization’:’Basic ‘+token}, json=payload).
- Publish the post: The Python example below (adapted from Chris Lever’s script) demonstrates how to publish posts with the WordPress REST API. Replace the credentials and site URL with your own:
import openai, requests, base64
# Step 1 – call OpenAI to get content
openai.api_key = ‘YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY’
prompt = “Write a 500-word essay about visiting Angkor Wat.”
response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(model=”gpt-4-turbo”,
messages=[{“role”: “user”, “content”: prompt}],
max_tokens=1000)
essay = response.choices[0].message[‘content’]
# Step 2 – set up WordPress API auth using application password
user = “YOUR_USERNAME”
password = “YOUR_APPLICATION_PASSWORD”
wp_url = “https://your-site.com/wp-json/wp/v2”
token = base64.b64encode(f”{user}:{password}”.encode()).decode()
headers = {‘Authorization’: f’Basic {token}’}
# Step 3 – send post to WordPress
post = {
‘title’: “Exploring Angkor Wat”,
‘status’: ‘publish’, # use ‘draft’ if you want to review first
‘content’: essay,
‘author’: 1, # your WordPress user ID
‘format’: ‘standard’
}
response = requests.post(f”{wp_url}/posts”, headers=headers, json=post)
if response.status_code == 201:
print(“Post created!”, response.json()[‘link’])
else:
print(“Error:”, response.text)
The critical part is generating the Basic Auth header. The forum’s code sample shows using username:password, base64‑encoding it, and passing it to requests.post() . You can loop through multiple prompts and send each result to WordPress .
- Turn it into a plugin (optional): If you prefer a WordPress‑native solution, you can wrap the above logic in a custom plugin. Use wp_remote_post() in PHP to call OpenAI and then wp_insert_post() to insert the new post. Register an admin menu or a shortcode to trigger the generation. Remember to securely store API keys (e.g., using wp-config.php constants or environment variables).
✨ Tips & considerations
- Edit before publishing. Even though automation saves time, the human element remains essential. The MemberPress guide reminds us that AI‑generated drafts still need editing to give real value to readers . Always fact‑check and adjust tone.
- Keep your secrets safe. Store API keys and WordPress application passwords securely (environment variables, secret managers) and use HTTPS for all requests.
- Start with drafts. When experimenting, set the post status to draft rather than publish. This allows you to review the output before it goes live.
- Mind usage costs. Each call to OpenAI consumes tokens and will be charged. Monitor your usage and choose appropriate models (GPT‑3.5 vs. GPT‑4) based on your budget.
🎉 Conclusion
Yes – you can absolutely build a system that writes an essay with ChatGPT and automatically posts it to WordPress! Whether you prefer the plug‑and‑play simplicity of AI Engine, the flexibility of Uncanny Automator, the visual power of Make.com/Zapier, or rolling your own script or plugin, the tools are at your fingertips. With a little setup – getting your API keys, choosing a workflow, and adding your creative touch – you’ll have an AI‑assisted publishing pipeline humming along. Happy blogging, and have fun watching your WordPress site fill up with brilliant content!