Bring your own AI model to Odoo 20 through the MCP server.

This guide shows how to use an AI model of your own choice with Odoo 20 Enterprise, and when that still spends Odoo AI credits. The short answer: Odoo 20's AI app no longer lets you choose a provider or a model, or enter your own API key. Its requests go to Odoo's own AI service and are paid in Odoo AI credits. To use your own model, connect an outside AI client to the MCP server that comes with Odoo 20 Enterprise. Your model does the thinking and Odoo runs the data lookups. The tools the server offers by default only read your database and spend no Odoo AI credits.

It is written for administrators and owners who want to work with their Odoo data from an AI assistant they already pay for. The steps were verified on Odoo 20.

Before you start

• Version and edition: Odoo 20 Enterprise. Community has neither the AI app nor the MCP server, in Odoo 19 or Odoo 20.
• Apps: the AI app. The AI MCP Server module installs automatically alongside Odoo's AI features, so there is usually nothing extra to install.
• Access rights: any internal user can create an API key for themselves. Choosing which tools the client may use, and changing the sign-in settings, need the Administrator role.
• An AI client that supports MCP, set up with the model and the provider account you want to use. Odoo's documentation gives setups for Claude, Antigravity and Codex that also need Node.js installed on the computer.
• Terms used: MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets an AI client call actions in another application. An AI client is the AI assistant program you type into. A tool is an action the client is allowed to ask Odoo to run, such as searching records. Odoo AI credits are prepaid credits for Odoo's own AI service.

What changed from Odoo 19 to Odoo 20

In Odoo 19 Enterprise, the AI settings offered Use your own ChatGPT account and Use your own Google Gemini account, each with a field for your API key, and every AI agent had an LLM Model field listing OpenAI and Google models. In Odoo 20 those settings and that field are gone. The AI app's requests go to Odoo's AI service, using your database's Odoo AI credits, and no setting changes the provider or model. Odoo 20's documentation page on AI API keys was marked as under construction in October 2026 and pointed to the Odoo AI credits page.

How the MCP server connects your model

The MCP server is an address on your database: your Odoo URL with /mcp added, for example https://example.odoo.com/mcp. The AI client signs in with an API key that has the MCP scope. A key with the RPC scope, the one used for other integrations, is refused at this address, and an MCP key is refused elsewhere.

The client works as the user who owns the key, with that user's access rights. When it connects, it asks Odoo for its tools and receives only the ones marked as available to MCP that the user is allowed to run.

Step 1: create an MCP key

1. Click your profile picture at the top right and choose My Preferences.
2. Open the Security tab and click Create API Key. Confirm your password when asked.
3. Enter a Key Name, select MCP as the Scope, and choose a period under Expires: 1 Day, 1 Month or 1 Year. Administrators can also choose Never. Click Create Key.
4. A window titled Write down your key shows the key, with the Server URL and the header to use. Copy them now; Odoo does not show the key again.

Step 2: add Odoo to your AI client

1. Open your AI client's MCP server settings and add a new server with a name of your choice.
2. Enter the Server URL from Step 1, and the header Authorization: Bearer followed by your key.
3. Store the key in a password or credential field if the client has one, never in a plain text field. Anyone holding the key can use Odoo as you.

Some clients can sign in without a pasted key. In the Settings app, the Integrations section has an MCP OAuth setting that lists the clients allowed to request a sign-in. By default it lists ChatGPT, Claude, Claude Code and Grok. Such a client shows an Odoo consent page with Allow and Deny. The option Allow Dynamic Client Registration (DCR), off by default, lets any MCP client register itself.

Step 3: choose the tools the client can use

By default, Odoo 20 offers five tools, all read-only: Get Models, Get Fields, Search, Read group, and MCP Retrieve initial context, which tells the client who the user is, their time zone and their companies. Others, such as creating or updating records, must be switched on.

1. Open the AI app and go to Configuration > Tools. The built-in tools have names starting with AI Tool:.
2. Open the tool you want, for example AI Tool: Update Records.
3. On the Usage tab, tick Available in MCP. A Readonly Tool box appears next to it.
4. Tick Readonly Tool only for tools that do not change data. It does not hide anything; it tells the client the tool is safe to run without asking you first.
5. Save, then start a new session in your client so it fetches the updated list.

When Odoo AI credits are spent

• The five default tools: no credits. They run inside Odoo and do not call Odoo's AI service. Your own AI provider bills you for the model, under your account with them.
• Tools that run Odoo's own AI: if an administrator makes AI Tool: Generate an Image or AI Tool: Web Search available in MCP, each call goes through Odoo's AI service and spends credits. Both are off for MCP by default.
• The AI app inside Odoo: its requests also go through Odoo's AI service and spend credits.

Odoo's in-app services page lists Odoo AI at 1.00 euro per credit, in packs of 10 to 1,000 credits, with 20 free credits, and says usage varies with the feature and the size of the request (checked 13 October 2026). Odoo does not publish a per-call rate for web search or image generation. Its pricing page lists External API and Agentic AI as Custom plan features and does not say where MCP falls, so confirm with Odoo if you are on the Standard plan.

Check that it worked

1. In your client, check the server's connection status. The Odoo server should show as connected, with five tools unless you added more.
2. Ask the client which companies you can access. It should name your companies from Odoo.
3. Ask for a count you can verify, such as how many confirmed sales orders were created this month, then compare it with the same filter in the Sales app.
4. To confirm no credits were used, open the Settings app, click View My Services under Odoo In-App Purchase, and compare the Odoo AI balance before and after.

If the client reports an invalid key, check that the key's scope is MCP and that it has not expired. If a tool is missing, check that it is available in MCP and that the key's user has access to that data.

Steps verified on Odoo 20. Menus and labels can differ on other versions.

Common questions

Can you use your own OpenAI or Gemini API key in Odoo 20?

Not in the AI app. The own-key settings and the per-agent LLM Model field from Odoo 19 are gone in Odoo 20, and the AI app uses Odoo's AI service. To use your own model, connect an AI client to Odoo 20's MCP server.

What is the Odoo 20 MCP server address?

It is your database URL with /mcp added, for example https://example.odoo.com/mcp. The client signs in with an API key created with the MCP scope under My Preferences, on the Security tab.

Does using the Odoo MCP server spend Odoo AI credits?

Not for the five tools available by default, which only read your database and do not call Odoo's AI service. Tools that run Odoo's own AI, such as Generate an Image and Web Search, spend credits on each call if an administrator makes them available in MCP.

Which tools does the Odoo 20 MCP server expose by default?

Get Models, Get Fields, Search, Read group and MCP Retrieve initial context, all read-only. Others are switched on per tool with the Available in MCP checkbox on the tool's Usage tab.

Is the Odoo MCP server available in Community?

No. The AI app and the MCP server are Enterprise modules, and Odoo 19 and Odoo 20 Community include neither.