diff --git a/rust/lancedb/Cargo.toml b/rust/lancedb/Cargo.toml
index b9ac536f..ea606727 100644
--- a/rust/lancedb/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rust/lancedb/Cargo.toml
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ url.workspace = true
 regex.workspace = true
 serde = { version = "^1" }
 serde_json = { version = "1" }
+async-openai = { version = "0.20.0", optional = true }
 serde_with = { version = "3.8.1" }
 # For remote feature
 reqwest = { version = "0.11.24", features = ["gzip", "json"], optional = true }
@@ -62,4 +63,10 @@ default = []
 remote = ["dep:reqwest"]
 fp16kernels = ["lance-linalg/fp16kernels"]
 s3-test = []
+openai = ["dep:async-openai", "dep:reqwest"]
 polars = ["dep:polars-arrow", "dep:polars"]
+
+
+[[example]]
+name = "openai"
+required-features = ["openai"]
diff --git a/rust/lancedb/examples/openai.rs b/rust/lancedb/examples/openai.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ce5f811f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rust/lancedb/examples/openai.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+use std::{iter::once, sync::Arc};
+
+use arrow_array::{Float64Array, Int32Array, RecordBatch, RecordBatchIterator, StringArray};
+use arrow_schema::{DataType, Field, Schema};
+use futures::StreamExt;
+use lancedb::{
+    arrow::IntoArrow,
+    connect,
+    embeddings::{openai::OpenAIEmbeddingFunction, EmbeddingDefinition, EmbeddingFunction},
+    query::{ExecutableQuery, QueryBase},
+    Result,
+};
+
+#[tokio::main]
+async fn main() -> Result<()> {
+    let tempdir = tempfile::tempdir().unwrap();
+    let tempdir = tempdir.path().to_str().unwrap();
+    let api_key = std::env::var("OPENAI_API_KEY").expect("OPENAI_API_KEY is not set");
+    let embedding = Arc::new(OpenAIEmbeddingFunction::new_with_model(
+        api_key,
+        "text-embedding-3-large",
+    )?);
+
+    let db = connect(tempdir).execute().await?;
+    db.embedding_registry()
+        .register("openai", embedding.clone())?;
+
+    let table = db
+        .create_table("vectors", make_data())
+        .add_embedding(EmbeddingDefinition::new(
+            "text",
+            "openai",
+            Some("embeddings"),
+        ))?
+        .execute()
+        .await?;
+
+    // there is no equivalent to '.search(<query>)' yet
+    let query = Arc::new(StringArray::from_iter_values(once("something warm")));
+    let query_vector = embedding.compute_query_embeddings(query)?;
+    let mut results = table
+        .vector_search(query_vector)?
+        .limit(1)
+        .execute()
+        .await?;
+
+    let rb = results.next().await.unwrap()?;
+    let out = rb
+        .column_by_name("text")
+        .unwrap()
+        .as_any()
+        .downcast_ref::<StringArray>()
+        .unwrap();
+    let text = out.iter().next().unwrap().unwrap();
+    println!("Closest match: {}", text);
+
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+fn make_data() -> impl IntoArrow {
+    let schema = Schema::new(vec![
+        Field::new("id", DataType::Int32, true),
+        Field::new("text", DataType::Utf8, false),
+        Field::new("price", DataType::Float64, false),
+    ]);
+
+    let id = Int32Array::from(vec![1, 2, 3, 4]);
+    let text = StringArray::from_iter_values(vec![
+        "Black T-Shirt",
+        "Leather Jacket",
+        "Winter Parka",
+        "Hooded Sweatshirt",
+    ]);
+    let price = Float64Array::from(vec![10.0, 50.0, 100.0, 30.0]);
+    let schema = Arc::new(schema);
+    let rb = RecordBatch::try_new(
+        schema.clone(),
+        vec![Arc::new(id), Arc::new(text), Arc::new(price)],
+    )
+    .unwrap();
+    Box::new(RecordBatchIterator::new(vec![Ok(rb)], schema))
+}
diff --git a/rust/lancedb/src/embeddings.rs b/rust/lancedb/src/embeddings.rs
index 007d0543..614f2ec3 100644
--- a/rust/lancedb/src/embeddings.rs
+++ b/rust/lancedb/src/embeddings.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 // WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 // See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 // limitations under the License.
+#[cfg(feature = "openai")]
+pub mod openai;
 
 use lance::arrow::RecordBatchExt;
 use std::{
@@ -51,8 +53,10 @@ pub trait EmbeddingFunction: std::fmt::Debug + Send + Sync {
     /// The type of the output data
     /// This should **always** match the output of the `embed` function
     fn dest_type(&self) -> Result<Cow<DataType>>;
-    /// Embed the input
-    fn embed(&self, source: Arc<dyn Array>) -> Result<Arc<dyn Array>>;
+    /// Compute the embeddings for the source column in the database
+    fn compute_source_embeddings(&self, source: Arc<dyn Array>) -> Result<Arc<dyn Array>>;
+    /// Compute the embeddings for a given user query
+    fn compute_query_embeddings(&self, input: Arc<dyn Array>) -> Result<Arc<dyn Array>>;
 }
 
 /// Defines an embedding from input data into a lower-dimensional space
@@ -266,7 +270,7 @@ impl<R: RecordBatchReader> Iterator for WithEmbeddings<R> {
                 // todo: parallelize this
                 for (fld, func) in self.embeddings.iter() {
                     let src_column = batch.column_by_name(&fld.source_column).unwrap();
-                    let embedding = match func.embed(src_column.clone()) {
+                    let embedding = match func.compute_source_embeddings(src_column.clone()) {
                         Ok(embedding) => embedding,
                         Err(e) => {
                             return Some(Err(arrow_schema::ArrowError::ComputeError(format!(
diff --git a/rust/lancedb/src/embeddings/openai.rs b/rust/lancedb/src/embeddings/openai.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..88528919
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rust/lancedb/src/embeddings/openai.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,257 @@
+use std::{borrow::Cow, fmt::Formatter, str::FromStr, sync::Arc};
+
+use arrow::array::{AsArray, Float32Builder};
+use arrow_array::{Array, ArrayRef, FixedSizeListArray, Float32Array};
+use arrow_data::ArrayData;
+use arrow_schema::DataType;
+use async_openai::{
+    config::OpenAIConfig,
+    types::{CreateEmbeddingRequest, Embedding, EmbeddingInput, EncodingFormat},
+    Client,
+};
+use tokio::{runtime::Handle, task};
+
+use crate::{Error, Result};
+
+use super::EmbeddingFunction;
+
+#[derive(Debug)]
+pub enum EmbeddingModel {
+    TextEmbeddingAda002,
+    TextEmbedding3Small,
+    TextEmbedding3Large,
+}
+
+impl EmbeddingModel {
+    fn ndims(&self) -> usize {
+        match self {
+            Self::TextEmbeddingAda002 => 1536,
+            Self::TextEmbedding3Small => 1536,
+            Self::TextEmbedding3Large => 3072,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl FromStr for EmbeddingModel {
+    type Err = Error;
+
+    fn from_str(s: &str) -> std::result::Result<Self, Self::Err> {
+        match s {
+            "text-embedding-ada-002" => Ok(Self::TextEmbeddingAda002),
+            "text-embedding-3-small" => Ok(Self::TextEmbedding3Small),
+            "text-embedding-3-large" => Ok(Self::TextEmbedding3Large),
+            _ => Err(Error::InvalidInput {
+                message: "Invalid input. Available models are: 'text-embedding-3-small', 'text-embedding-ada-002', 'text-embedding-3-large' ".to_string()
+            }),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl std::fmt::Display for EmbeddingModel {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter) -> std::fmt::Result {
+        match self {
+            Self::TextEmbeddingAda002 => write!(f, "text-embedding-ada-002"),
+            Self::TextEmbedding3Small => write!(f, "text-embedding-3-small"),
+            Self::TextEmbedding3Large => write!(f, "text-embedding-3-large"),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl TryFrom<&str> for EmbeddingModel {
+    type Error = Error;
+
+    fn try_from(value: &str) -> std::result::Result<Self, Self::Error> {
+        value.parse()
+    }
+}
+
+pub struct OpenAIEmbeddingFunction {
+    model: EmbeddingModel,
+    api_key: String,
+    api_base: Option<String>,
+    org_id: Option<String>,
+}
+
+impl std::fmt::Debug for OpenAIEmbeddingFunction {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter) -> std::fmt::Result {
+        // let's be safe and not print the full API key
+        let creds_display = if self.api_key.len() > 6 {
+            format!(
+                "{}***{}",
+                &self.api_key[0..2],
+                &self.api_key[self.api_key.len() - 4..]
+            )
+        } else {
+            "[INVALID]".to_string()
+        };
+
+        f.debug_struct("OpenAI")
+            .field("model", &self.model)
+            .field("api_key", &creds_display)
+            .field("api_base", &self.api_base)
+            .field("org_id", &self.org_id)
+            .finish()
+    }
+}
+
+impl OpenAIEmbeddingFunction {
+    /// Create a new OpenAIEmbeddingFunction
+    pub fn new<A: Into<String>>(api_key: A) -> Self {
+        Self::new_impl(api_key.into(), EmbeddingModel::TextEmbeddingAda002)
+    }
+
+    pub fn new_with_model<A: Into<String>, M: TryInto<EmbeddingModel>>(
+        api_key: A,
+        model: M,
+    ) -> crate::Result<Self>
+    where
+        M::Error: Into<crate::Error>,
+    {
+        Ok(Self::new_impl(
+            api_key.into(),
+            model.try_into().map_err(|e| e.into())?,
+        ))
+    }
+
+    /// concrete implementation to reduce monomorphization
+    fn new_impl(api_key: String, model: EmbeddingModel) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            model,
+            api_key,
+            api_base: None,
+            org_id: None,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// To use a API base url different from default "https://api.openai.com/v1"
+    pub fn api_base<S: Into<String>>(mut self, api_base: S) -> Self {
+        self.api_base = Some(api_base.into());
+        self
+    }
+
+    /// To use a different OpenAI organization id other than default
+    pub fn org_id<S: Into<String>>(mut self, org_id: S) -> Self {
+        self.org_id = Some(org_id.into());
+        self
+    }
+}
+
+impl EmbeddingFunction for OpenAIEmbeddingFunction {
+    fn name(&self) -> &str {
+        "openai"
+    }
+
+    fn source_type(&self) -> Result<Cow<DataType>> {
+        Ok(Cow::Owned(DataType::Utf8))
+    }
+
+    fn dest_type(&self) -> Result<Cow<DataType>> {
+        let n_dims = self.model.ndims();
+        Ok(Cow::Owned(DataType::new_fixed_size_list(
+            DataType::Float32,
+            n_dims as i32,
+            false,
+        )))
+    }
+
+    fn compute_source_embeddings(&self, source: ArrayRef) -> crate::Result<ArrayRef> {
+        let len = source.len();
+        let n_dims = self.model.ndims();
+        let inner = self.compute_inner(source)?;
+
+        let fsl = DataType::new_fixed_size_list(DataType::Float32, n_dims as i32, false);
+
+        // We can't use the FixedSizeListBuilder here because it always adds a null bitmap
+        // and we want to explicitly work with non-nullable arrays.
+        let array_data = ArrayData::builder(fsl)
+            .len(len)
+            .add_child_data(inner.into_data())
+            .build()?;
+
+        Ok(Arc::new(FixedSizeListArray::from(array_data)))
+    }
+
+    fn compute_query_embeddings(&self, input: Arc<dyn Array>) -> Result<Arc<dyn Array>> {
+        let arr = self.compute_inner(input)?;
+        Ok(Arc::new(arr))
+    }
+}
+impl OpenAIEmbeddingFunction {
+    fn compute_inner(&self, source: Arc<dyn Array>) -> Result<Float32Array> {
+        // OpenAI only supports non-nullable string arrays
+        if source.is_nullable() {
+            return Err(crate::Error::InvalidInput {
+                message: "Expected non-nullable data type".to_string(),
+            });
+        }
+
+        // OpenAI only supports string arrays
+        if !matches!(source.data_type(), DataType::Utf8 | DataType::LargeUtf8) {
+            return Err(crate::Error::InvalidInput {
+                message: "Expected Utf8 data type".to_string(),
+            });
+        };
+
+        let mut creds = OpenAIConfig::new().with_api_key(self.api_key.clone());
+
+        if let Some(api_base) = &self.api_base {
+            creds = creds.with_api_base(api_base.clone());
+        }
+        if let Some(org_id) = &self.org_id {
+            creds = creds.with_org_id(org_id.clone());
+        }
+
+        let input = match source.data_type() {
+            DataType::Utf8 => {
+                let array = source
+                    .as_string::<i32>()
+                    .into_iter()
+                    .map(|s| {
+                        s.expect("we already asserted that the array is non-nullable")
+                            .to_string()
+                    })
+                    .collect::<Vec<String>>();
+                EmbeddingInput::StringArray(array)
+            }
+            DataType::LargeUtf8 => {
+                let array = source
+                    .as_string::<i64>()
+                    .into_iter()
+                    .map(|s| {
+                        s.expect("we already asserted that the array is non-nullable")
+                            .to_string()
+                    })
+                    .collect::<Vec<String>>();
+                EmbeddingInput::StringArray(array)
+            }
+            _ => unreachable!("This should not happen. We already checked the data type."),
+        };
+
+        let client = Client::with_config(creds);
+        let embed = client.embeddings();
+        let req = CreateEmbeddingRequest {
+            model: self.model.to_string(),
+            input,
+            encoding_format: Some(EncodingFormat::Float),
+            user: None,
+            dimensions: None,
+        };
+
+        // TODO: request batching and retry logic
+        task::block_in_place(move || {
+            Handle::current().block_on(async {
+                let mut builder = Float32Builder::new();
+
+                let res = embed.create(req).await.map_err(|e| crate::Error::Runtime {
+                    message: format!("OpenAI embed request failed: {e}"),
+                })?;
+
+                for Embedding { embedding, .. } in res.data.iter() {
+                    builder.append_slice(embedding);
+                }
+
+                Ok(builder.finish())
+            })
+        })
+    }
+}
diff --git a/rust/lancedb/tests/embedding_registry_test.rs b/rust/lancedb/tests/embedding_registry_test.rs
index 36ac5dd1..f2e8c9de 100644
--- a/rust/lancedb/tests/embedding_registry_test.rs
+++ b/rust/lancedb/tests/embedding_registry_test.rs
@@ -302,7 +302,7 @@ impl EmbeddingFunction for MockEmbed {
     fn dest_type(&self) -> Result<Cow<DataType>> {
         Ok(Cow::Borrowed(&self.dest_type))
     }
-    fn embed(&self, source: Arc<dyn Array>) -> Result<Arc<dyn Array>> {
+    fn compute_source_embeddings(&self, source: Arc<dyn Array>) -> Result<Arc<dyn Array>> {
         // We can't use the FixedSizeListBuilder here because it always adds a null bitmap
         // and we want to explicitly work with non-nullable arrays.
         let len = source.len();
@@ -317,4 +317,8 @@ impl EmbeddingFunction for MockEmbed {
 
         Ok(Arc::new(arr))
     }
+
+    fn compute_query_embeddings(&self, input: Arc<dyn Array>) -> Result<Arc<dyn Array>> {
+        unimplemented!()
+    }
 }