diff --git a/troi/external/gpt.py b/troi/external/gpt.py
index 6fc5cc0..eb88971 100644
--- a/troi/external/gpt.py
+++ b/troi/external/gpt.py
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
 import json
 
 from troi import Element, Artist, Recording, PipelineError
-from openai import OpenAI
+
+try:
+    from openai import OpenAI
+except ImportError:
+    OpenAI = None
 
 PLAYLIST_PROMPT_PREFIX = "Create a playlist of 50 songs that are suitable for a playlist with the given description:"
 PLAYLIST_PROMPT_SUFFIX = "The output should strictly adhere to the following JSON format: the top level JSON object should have three keys, playlist_name to denote the name of the playlist, playlist_description to denote the description of the playlist, and recordings a JSON array of objects where each element JSON object has the recording_name and artist_name keys."
@@ -12,7 +16,10 @@ class GPTRecordingElement(Element):
 
     def __init__(self, api_key, prompt):
         super().__init__()
-        self.client = OpenAI(api_key=api_key)
+        if OpenAI is not None:
+            self.client = OpenAI(api_key=api_key)
+        else:
+            raise PipelineError("OpenAI module needs to be installed to use this patch.")
         self.prompt = prompt
 
     @staticmethod