NEAR AI Cloud API Adds OpenAI Compatibility and Tiered Privacy

NEAR AI said its Cloud API is now OpenAI-compatible, allowing developers to point existing clients at a new base URL while keeping the rest of their code unchanged. The company also said requests are proxied through NEAR AI, so the model provider sees NEAR AI as the source rather than the end user or the workload owner.

The launch was outlined in NEAR AI’s announcement post, which describes the API as private-chat focused and says the privacy level depends on the model selected. According to the post, third-party models are proxied through NEAR AI, while models marked TEE are designed to keep prompts and outputs unreadable to anyone else, including NEAR.

Compatibility is the main change; privacy depends on the route

For developers, the practical change is that an OpenAI-style integration can be redirected to NEAR AI without rewriting the application logic. NEAR AI said the same API surface can be used while the underlying model choice determines how the request is handled and how much of the data remains visible outside the secure environment.

The company’s description suggests two layers of privacy handling. In the proxy setup, the lab receives the request from NEAR AI rather than from the original user. In the TEE path, NEAR AI said the prompt and output remain unreadable to anyone else, including NEAR itself.

The announcement does not change the basic fact that this is still a cloud API service, but it does position the product as a compatibility layer for teams that want to move existing OpenAI-based workflows without changing the client code structure.