diff --git a/textgrad/engine/engine_utils.py b/textgrad/engine/engine_utils.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 51caff9..0000000
--- a/textgrad/engine/engine_utils.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-def is_jpeg(data):
-    jpeg_signature = b'\xFF\xD8\xFF'
-    return data.startswith(jpeg_signature)
-
-def is_png(data):
-    png_signature = b'\x89\x50\x4E\x47\x0D\x0A\x1A\x0A'
-    return data.startswith(png_signature)
-
-
-def get_image_type_from_bytes(data):
-    if is_jpeg(data):
-        return "jpeg"
-    elif is_png(data):
-        return "png"
-    else:
-        raise ValueError("Image type not supported, only jpeg and png supported.")
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/textgrad/engine_experimental/__init__.py b/textgrad/engine_experimental/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..abe0de9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/textgrad/engine_experimental/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+from textgrad.engine_experimental.openai import OpenAIEngine
+from textgrad.engine_experimental.litellm import LiteLLMEngine
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/textgrad/engine_experimental/base.py b/textgrad/engine_experimental/base.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3203a85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/textgrad/engine_experimental/base.py
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+from functools import wraps
+from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
+import hashlib
+from typing import List, Union
+import diskcache as dc
+import platformdirs
+import os
+
+
+
+def cached(func):
+    @wraps(func)
+    def wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs):
+
+        if self.cache is False:
+            return func(self, *args, **kwargs)
+
+        # get string representation from args and kwargs
+        key = hash(str(args) + str(kwargs))
+        key = hashlib.sha256(f"{key}".encode()).hexdigest()
+
+        if key in self.cache:
+            return self.cache[key]
+
+        result = func(self, *args, **kwargs)
+        self.cache[key] = result
+        return result
+
+    return wrapper
+
+
+class EngineLM(ABC):
+    system_prompt: str = "You are a helpful, creative, and smart assistant."
+    model_string: str
+    is_multimodal: bool
+    cache: Union[dc.Cache, bool]
+
+    def __init__(self, model_string: str,
+                 system_prompt: str = "You are a helpful, creative, and smart assistant.",
+                 is_multimodal: bool = False,
+                 cache=Union[dc.Cache, bool]):
+
+        root = platformdirs.user_cache_dir("textgrad")
+        default_cache_path = os.path.join(root, f"cache_model_{model_string}.db")
+
+        self.model_string = model_string
+        self.system_prompt = system_prompt
+        self.is_multimodal = is_multimodal
+
+        if isinstance(cache, dc.Cache):
+            self.cache = cache
+        elif cache is True:
+            self.cache = dc.Cache(default_cache_path)
+        elif cache is False:
+            self.cache = False
+        else:
+            raise ValueError("Cache argument must be a diskcache.Cache object or a boolean.")
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _generate_from_multiple_input(self, prompt, system_prompt=None, **kwargs) -> str:
+        pass
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def _generate_from_single_prompt(self, prompt, system_prompt=None, **kwargs) -> str:
+        pass
+
+    def generate(self, content, system_prompt=Union[str | List[Union[str, bytes]]], **kwargs):
+        sys_prompt_arg = system_prompt if system_prompt else self.system_prompt
+
+        if isinstance(content, str):
+            return self._generate_from_single_prompt(content=content, system_prompt=sys_prompt_arg, **kwargs)
+
+        elif isinstance(content, list):
+            has_multimodal_input = any(isinstance(item, bytes) for item in content)
+            if has_multimodal_input and not self.is_multimodal:
+                raise NotImplementedError("Multimodal generation flag is not set, but multimodal input is provided. "
+                                          "Is this model multimodal?")
+
+            return self._generate_from_multiple_input(content=content, system_prompt=sys_prompt_arg, **kwargs)
+
+    def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+        pass
diff --git a/textgrad/engine_experimental/engine_utils.py b/textgrad/engine_experimental/engine_utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e6b4de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/textgrad/engine_experimental/engine_utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+from typing import List, Union
+import base64
+
+def is_jpeg(data):
+    jpeg_signature = b'\xFF\xD8\xFF'
+    return data.startswith(jpeg_signature)
+
+def is_png(data):
+    png_signature = b'\x89\x50\x4E\x47\x0D\x0A\x1A\x0A'
+    return data.startswith(png_signature)
+
+def get_image_type_from_bytes(data):
+    if is_jpeg(data):
+        return "jpeg"
+    elif is_png(data):
+        return "png"
+    else:
+        raise ValueError("Image type not supported, only jpeg and png supported.")
+
+def open_ai_like_formatting(content: List[Union[str, bytes]]) -> List[dict]:
+    """Helper function to format a list of strings and bytes into a list of dictionaries to pass as messages to the API.
+    """
+    formatted_content = []
+    for item in content:
+        if isinstance(item, bytes):
+            # For now, bytes are assumed to be images
+            image_type = get_image_type_from_bytes(item)
+            base64_image = base64.b64encode(item).decode('utf-8')
+            formatted_content.append({
+                "type": "image_url",
+                "image_url": {
+                    "url": f"data:image/{image_type};base64,{base64_image}"
+                }
+            })
+        elif isinstance(item, str):
+            formatted_content.append({
+                "type": "text",
+                "text": item
+            })
+        else:
+            raise ValueError(f"Unsupported input type: {type(item)}")
+    return formatted_content
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/textgrad/engine_experimental/litellm.py b/textgrad/engine_experimental/litellm.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..48b4c10
--- /dev/null
+++ b/textgrad/engine_experimental/litellm.py
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+from litellm import completion
+from textgrad.engine_experimental.base import EngineLM, cached
+import diskcache as dc
+from typing import Union, List
+from .engine_utils import open_ai_like_formatting
+from tenacity import (
+    retry,
+    stop_after_attempt,
+    wait_random_exponential,
+)
+
+class LiteLLMEngine(EngineLM):
+    def lite_llm_generate(self, content, system_prompt=None, **kwargs) -> str:
+        messages = [
+            {"role": "system", "content": system_prompt},
+            {"role": "user", "content": content},
+        ]
+
+        return completion(model=self.model_string,
+                          messages=messages)['choices'][0]['message']['content']
+
+    DEFAULT_SYSTEM_PROMPT = "You are a helpful, creative, and smart assistant."
+
+    def __init__(self,
+                 model_string: str,
+                 system_prompt: str = DEFAULT_SYSTEM_PROMPT,
+                 is_multimodal: bool = True,
+                 cache=Union[dc.Cache, bool]):
+
+        super().__init__(
+            model_string=model_string,
+            system_prompt=system_prompt,
+            is_multimodal=is_multimodal,
+            cache=cache
+        )
+
+    @cached
+    @retry(wait=wait_random_exponential(min=1, max=5), stop=stop_after_attempt(3))
+    def _generate_from_single_prompt(
+            self, content: str, system_prompt: str = None, temperature=0, max_tokens=2000, top_p=0.99
+    ):
+
+        return self.lite_llm_generate(content, system_prompt)
+
+    @cached
+    @retry(wait=wait_random_exponential(min=1, max=5), stop=stop_after_attempt(3))
+    def _generate_from_multiple_input(
+            self, content: List[Union[str, bytes]], system_prompt=None, temperature=0, max_tokens=2000, top_p=0.99
+    ):
+        formatted_content = open_ai_like_formatting(content)
+
+        return self.lite_llm_generate(formatted_content, system_prompt)
+
+    def __call__(self, content, **kwargs):
+        return self.generate(content, **kwargs)
+
+
+
+
+
+
diff --git a/textgrad/engine_experimental/openai.py b/textgrad/engine_experimental/openai.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2fea80f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/textgrad/engine_experimental/openai.py
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+try:
+    from openai import OpenAI
+except ImportError:
+    raise ImportError("If you'd like to use OpenAI models, please install the openai package by running `pip install openai`, and add 'OPENAI_API_KEY' to your environment variables.")
+
+import os
+from typing import List, Union
+from textgrad.engine_experimental.engine_utils import open_ai_like_formatting
+from textgrad.engine_experimental.base import EngineLM, cached
+import diskcache as dc
+from tenacity import (
+    retry,
+    stop_after_attempt,
+    wait_random_exponential,
+)
+
+class OpenAIEngine(EngineLM):
+    DEFAULT_SYSTEM_PROMPT = "You are a helpful, creative, and smart assistant."
+
+    def __init__(self, model_string: str,
+                 system_prompt: str = DEFAULT_SYSTEM_PROMPT,
+                 is_multimodal: bool = False,
+                 cache=Union[dc.Cache, bool]):
+
+        self.validate()
+
+        super().__init__(
+            model_string=model_string,
+            system_prompt=system_prompt,
+            is_multimodal=is_multimodal,
+            cache=cache
+        )
+
+        self.client = OpenAI(
+            api_key=os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY")
+        )
+
+    def validate(self) -> None:
+        if os.getenv("OPENAI_API_KEY") is None:
+            raise ValueError(
+                "Please set the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable if you'd like to use OpenAI models.")
+
+    def openai_call(self, user_content, system_prompt, temperature, max_tokens, top_p):
+        response = self.client.chat.completions.create(
+            model=self.model_string,
+            messages=[
+                {"role": "system", "content": system_prompt},
+                {"role": "user", "content": user_content},
+            ],
+            frequency_penalty=0,
+            presence_penalty=0,
+            stop=None,
+            temperature=temperature,
+            max_tokens=max_tokens,
+            top_p=top_p,
+        )
+
+        return response.choices[0].message.content
+
+    @cached
+    @retry(wait=wait_random_exponential(min=1, max=5), stop=stop_after_attempt(3))
+    def _generate_from_single_prompt(
+            self, content: str, system_prompt: str = None, temperature=0, max_tokens=2000, top_p=0.99
+    ):
+
+        return self.openai_call(content, system_prompt, temperature, max_tokens, top_p)
+
+    @cached
+    @retry(wait=wait_random_exponential(min=1, max=5), stop=stop_after_attempt(3))
+    def _generate_from_multiple_input(
+            self, content: List[Union[str, bytes]], system_prompt=None, temperature=0, max_tokens=2000, top_p=0.99
+    ):
+        formatted_content = open_ai_like_formatting(content)
+
+        return self.openai_call(formatted_content, system_prompt, temperature, max_tokens, top_p)
+
+    def __call__(self, content, **kwargs):
+        return self.generate(content, **kwargs)
+
+
+
+class OpenAICompatibleEngine(OpenAIEngine):
+    """
+        This is the same as engine.openai.ChatOpenAI, but we pass in an external OpenAI client.
+        """
+
+    DEFAULT_SYSTEM_PROMPT = "You are a helpful, creative, and smart assistant."
+    client = None
+
+    def __init__(self,
+                 client,
+                 model_string: str,
+                 system_prompt: str = DEFAULT_SYSTEM_PROMPT,
+                 is_multimodal: bool = False,
+                 cache=Union[dc.Cache, bool]):
+
+            self.client = client
+
+            super().__init__(
+                model_string=model_string,
+                system_prompt=system_prompt,
+                is_multimodal=is_multimodal,
+                cache=cache
+            )
+
+