diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 6602f1d3..3e3a1761 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -498,6 +498,10 @@ pip install fastapi uvicorn pydantic
 2. Set up your environment variables:
 ```bash
 export RAG_DIR="your_index_directory"  # Optional: Defaults to "index_default"
+export OPENAI_BASE_URL="Your OpenAI API base URL"  # Optional: Defaults to "https://api.openai.com/v1"
+export OPENAI_API_KEY="Your OpenAI API key"  # Required
+export LLM_MODEL="Your LLM model" # Optional: Defaults to "gpt-4o-mini" 
+export EMBEDDING_MODEL="Your embedding model" # Optional: Defaults to "text-embedding-3-large" 
 ```
 
 3. Run the API server: