diff --git a/litellm/tests/test_completion.py b/litellm/tests/test_completion.py
index 4856b5553..7a7c4185e 100644
--- a/litellm/tests/test_completion.py
+++ b/litellm/tests/test_completion.py
@@ -184,6 +184,7 @@ def test_completion_cohere_stream():
 
 def test_completion_openai():
     try:
+        litellm.api_key = os.environ['OPENAI_API_KEY']
         response = completion(model="gpt-3.5-turbo", messages=messages)
         
         response_str = response["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
diff --git a/litellm/utils.py b/litellm/utils.py
index 8bf798dff..004ab2eb2 100644
--- a/litellm/utils.py
+++ b/litellm/utils.py
@@ -1977,8 +1977,6 @@ def get_secret(secret_name):
         except:
             secret = None
         return secret
-    elif litellm.api_key != None:  # if users use litellm default key
-        return litellm.api_key
     else:
         return os.environ.get(secret_name)