SmartyPress AI Engine Documentation Article

Yandex GPT Provider

Connect Yandex GPT with a service account API key and Folder ID: roles, scopes, billing, and SmartyPress setup.

Yandex GPT Provider is the focus of this documentation page. Connect Yandex GPT with an API key and Folder ID for Russian-language text generation and YandexART images in SmartyPress AI Engine.

Yandex GPT is available only when your WordPress locale is ru_RU (get_locale() === 'ru_RU'). On other locales the Yandex provider card does not appear in Settings.

Note: Yandex GPT only appears in Settings when your site locale is ru_RU (Settings → General → Site Language → Russian). Always-available providers on every locale are OpenAI, DeepSeek, Claude, and OpenRouter.
Important: Switching the site language away from Russian hides Yandex GPT from the Settings UI and prevents the provider from being initialized, even if credentials were saved earlier.

Getting Your Yandex API Key and Folder ID

Use a Yandex Cloud service account API key with permission to execute Foundation Models requests. SmartyPress sends the key as Authorization: Api-Key. The same key powers YandexGPT text, YandexART images, and the SEO analyzer (competitor search and Wordstat).

  1. Sign in to console.yandex.cloud, open your folder, and copy the Folder ID from the URL (the string after /folders/). Then open the Identity and Access Management tile.
  2. On the Service accounts page, click Create service account.
  3. Name the account (for example, smartypress-ai-engine), add a short description, and assign these folder roles:
    • ai.languageModels.user — YandexGPT text generation
    • ai.imageGeneration.user — YandexART images
    • search-api.webSearch.user — SEO analyzer: competitor search and Wordstat

    Then click Create.

  4. Open the new service account, click + Create new key, and choose Create API key (not a static access key).
  5. In the New key dialog, select all three scopes:
    • yc.ai.languageModels.execute
    • yc.ai.imageGeneration.execute
    • yc.search-api.execute

    A key limited to a single scope will not work for the SEO analyzer. Click Create and copy the secret immediately — it is shown only once.

Yandex Cloud Console dashboard with the Folder ID in the URL and the Identity and Access Management tile highlighted
Open console.yandex.cloud, select your folder, and copy the Folder ID from the URL, then open Identity and Access Management.
Yandex Cloud service accounts page with the Create service account button highlighted
In Identity and Access Management → Service accounts, click Create service account.
Create service account dialog in Yandex Cloud with the required roles assigned
Name the account (e.g. smartypress-ai-engine) and assign ai.languageModels.user, ai.imageGeneration.user, and search-api.webSearch.user, then click Create.
Yandex Cloud service account page with the Create new key menu open and Create API key highlighted
On the service account page, click + Create new key and choose Create API key — not a static access key.
New key dialog in Yandex Cloud with the required API key scopes selected
Select the yc.ai.languageModels.execute, yc.ai.imageGeneration.execute, and yc.search-api.execute scopes, then click Create and copy the secret immediately.
Billing required: Link a payment card to the cloud billing account. Without active billing the Search API responds with 403 Permission denied, so the SEO analyzer cannot run competitor search or Wordstat.

Configuring in SmartyPress

  1. Go to SmartyPress AI → Settings (#/settings) and open the Yandex provider card.
  2. Paste the secret into API Key (sent as Authorization: Api-Key) and enter the Folder ID you copied from the console URL.
  3. Click Save Provider Settings — SmartyPress saves the credentials and automatically tests the connection. There is no separate Test Connection button.
  4. Return to General Settings, select Yandex as the Default Provider if needed, choose a Default Model (YandexGPT Lite is the plugin default), and click Save Changes.

Available Models

Text models are a static list shipped with the plugin:

  • YandexGPT Lite — fast and affordable (default)
  • YandexGPT Pro — higher quality output

Image generation uses YandexART when you run image features through the Yandex provider.

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