OpenAI: text-embedding-3-small

Overview

Smaller, cheaper OpenAI text embedding model.

Provider

OpenAI

Modality

Embeddings

Input

text

Output

embeddings

Weights

Closed

Distillable

NoLicence or terms, checked October 8, 2026.

Tags

embeddings, retrieval, low-cost

Docs

Provider documentation

Data policy

Prompts go to

OpenAI (no processing-region constraint by default)

Retention

API data not used for training unless you opt in, abuse monitoring logs that can include prompts and responses kept up to 30 days by default, some features store application state

Zero data retention

Available

Region

Global by default, data residency projects in US, EU and other regions (approval required, 10% uplift for models released on or after 2026-03-05)

Policy

OpenAI data policy

Summarised from the provider's published terms. The provider's own policy is what applies.

Where you can run it

How text-embedding-3-small can be deployed, bought and reached through Safeguard.

Deployment

Public cloudPrivate cloud

Procurement

Not published yet

Inference regions

🇦🇪United Arab Emirates🇦🇺Australia🇨🇦Canada🇨🇭SwitzerlandEUEuropean Union🇯🇵Japan🇺🇸United StatesCloud provider's availability page, checked October 8, 2026.

Closed weights stay with the provider, so this model runs in the provider's cloud, never on-prem or air-gapped.

Pricing

Notes

Embeddings: input tokens only.

Source

OpenAI pricing , last verified October 8, 2026

No markup on model usage: you pay the provider's list price.

API

OpenAI-compatible. Your API key and access to this model are set up for your workspace when you choose Use with Safeguard.

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.safeguard.sh/gpt/v1",
    api_key="SAFEGUARD_API_KEY",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="openai/text-embedding-3-small",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Base URL https://api.safeguard.sh/gpt/v1, model openai/text-embedding-3-small.