diff --git a/autogen/oai/client.py b/autogen/oai/client.py
index 8f6e3f185b6a..fcf2df24b3f1 100644
--- a/autogen/oai/client.py
+++ b/autogen/oai/client.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 from autogen.cache import Cache
 from autogen.io.base import IOStream
 from autogen.logger.logger_utils import get_current_ts
-from autogen.oai.openai_utils import OAI_PRICE1K, get_key, is_valid_api_key
+from autogen.oai.openai_utils import OAI_PRICE1K, get_key
 from autogen.runtime_logging import log_chat_completion, log_new_client, log_new_wrapper, logging_enabled
 from autogen.token_count_utils import count_token
 
@@ -163,11 +163,7 @@ class OpenAIClient:
 
     def __init__(self, client: Union[OpenAI, AzureOpenAI]):
         self._oai_client = client
-        if (
-            not isinstance(client, openai.AzureOpenAI)
-            and str(client.base_url).startswith(OPEN_API_BASE_URL_PREFIX)
-            and not is_valid_api_key(self._oai_client.api_key)
-        ):
+        if not isinstance(client, openai.AzureOpenAI) and str(client.base_url).startswith(OPEN_API_BASE_URL_PREFIX):
             logger.warning(
                 "The API key specified is not a valid OpenAI format; it won't work with the OpenAI-hosted model."
             )
diff --git a/autogen/oai/openai_utils.py b/autogen/oai/openai_utils.py
index 41b94324118a..3844795c24f5 100644
--- a/autogen/oai/openai_utils.py
+++ b/autogen/oai/openai_utils.py
@@ -99,19 +99,6 @@ def get_key(config: Dict[str, Any]) -> str:
     return json.dumps(config, sort_keys=True)
 
 
-def is_valid_api_key(api_key: str) -> bool:
-    """Determine if input is valid OpenAI API key.
-
-    Args:
-        api_key (str): An input string to be validated.
-
-    Returns:
-        bool: A boolean that indicates if input is valid OpenAI API key.
-    """
-    api_key_re = re.compile(r"^sk-([A-Za-z0-9]+(-+[A-Za-z0-9]+)*-)?[A-Za-z0-9]{32,}$")
-    return bool(re.fullmatch(api_key_re, api_key))
-
-
 def get_config_list(
     api_keys: List[str],
     base_urls: Optional[List[str]] = None,
diff --git a/test/oai/test_utils.py b/test/oai/test_utils.py
index fd81d3f9f548..b7aeaa5c2549 100755
--- a/test/oai/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/oai/test_utils.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 from conftest import MOCK_OPEN_AI_API_KEY
 
 import autogen  # noqa: E402
-from autogen.oai.openai_utils import DEFAULT_AZURE_API_VERSION, filter_config, is_valid_api_key
+from autogen.oai.openai_utils import DEFAULT_AZURE_API_VERSION, filter_config
 
 # Example environment variables
 ENV_VARS = {
@@ -414,24 +414,5 @@ def test_tags():
     assert len(list_5) == 0
 
 
-def test_is_valid_api_key():
-    assert not is_valid_api_key("")
-    assert not is_valid_api_key("sk-")
-    assert not is_valid_api_key("SK-")
-    assert not is_valid_api_key("sk-asajsdjsd2")
-    assert not is_valid_api_key("FooBar")
-    assert not is_valid_api_key("sk-asajsdjsd22372%23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS")
-    assert is_valid_api_key("sk-asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS")
-    assert is_valid_api_key("sk-asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS1212121221212sssXX")
-    assert is_valid_api_key("sk-proj-asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS12121212212")
-    assert is_valid_api_key("sk-0-asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS12121212212")
-    assert is_valid_api_key("sk-aut0gen-asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS12121212212")
-    assert is_valid_api_key("sk-aut0-gen-asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS12121212212")
-    assert is_valid_api_key("sk-aut0--gen-asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS12121212212")
-    assert not is_valid_api_key("sk-aut0-gen--asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS12121212212")
-    assert not is_valid_api_key("sk--aut0-gen-asajsdjsd22372X23kjdfdfdf2329ffUUDSDS12121212212")
-    assert is_valid_api_key(MOCK_OPEN_AI_API_KEY)
-
-
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     pytest.main()