diff --git a/application/core/settings.py b/application/core/settings.py
index 25a3295d..da6de245 100644
--- a/application/core/settings.py
+++ b/application/core/settings.py
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 from pathlib import Path
+from typing import Optional
 import os
 
-from pydantic import BaseSettings
+from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings
 current_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))))
 
 
@@ -18,25 +19,25 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
 
     API_URL: str = "http://localhost:7091"  # backend url for celery worker
 
-    API_KEY: str = None  # LLM api key
-    EMBEDDINGS_KEY: str = None  # api key for embeddings (if using openai, just copy API_KEY)
-    OPENAI_API_BASE: str = None  # azure openai api base url
-    OPENAI_API_VERSION: str = None  # azure openai api version
-    AZURE_DEPLOYMENT_NAME: str = None  # azure deployment name for answering
-    AZURE_EMBEDDINGS_DEPLOYMENT_NAME: str = None  # azure deployment name for embeddings
+    API_KEY: Optional[str] = None  # LLM api key
+    EMBEDDINGS_KEY: Optional[str] = None  # api key for embeddings (if using openai, just copy API_KEY)
+    OPENAI_API_BASE: Optional[str] = None  # azure openai api base url
+    OPENAI_API_VERSION: Optional[str] = None  # azure openai api version
+    AZURE_DEPLOYMENT_NAME: Optional[str] = None  # azure deployment name for answering
+    AZURE_EMBEDDINGS_DEPLOYMENT_NAME: Optional[str] = None  # azure deployment name for embeddings
 
     # elasticsearch
-    ELASTIC_CLOUD_ID: str = None # cloud id for elasticsearch
-    ELASTIC_USERNAME: str = None # username for elasticsearch
-    ELASTIC_PASSWORD: str = None # password for elasticsearch
-    ELASTIC_URL: str = None # url for elasticsearch
-    ELASTIC_INDEX: str = "docsgpt" # index name for elasticsearch
+    ELASTIC_CLOUD_ID: Optional[str] = None # cloud id for elasticsearch
+    ELASTIC_USERNAME: Optional[str] = None # username for elasticsearch
+    ELASTIC_PASSWORD: Optional[str] = None # password for elasticsearch
+    ELASTIC_URL: Optional[str] = None # url for elasticsearch
+    ELASTIC_INDEX: Optional[str] = "docsgpt" # index name for elasticsearch
 
     # SageMaker config
-    SAGEMAKER_ENDPOINT: str = None # SageMaker endpoint name
-    SAGEMAKER_REGION: str = None # SageMaker region name
-    SAGEMAKER_ACCESS_KEY: str = None # SageMaker access key
-    SAGEMAKER_SECRET_KEY: str = None # SageMaker secret key
+    SAGEMAKER_ENDPOINT: Optional[str] = None # SageMaker endpoint name
+    SAGEMAKER_REGION: Optional[str] = None # SageMaker region name
+    SAGEMAKER_ACCESS_KEY: Optional[str] = None # SageMaker access key
+    SAGEMAKER_SECRET_KEY: Optional[str] = None # SageMaker secret key
 
 
 path = Path(__file__).parent.parent.absolute()
diff --git a/application/requirements.txt b/application/requirements.txt
index c0a16bfa..ede39bcf 100644
--- a/application/requirements.txt
+++ b/application/requirements.txt
@@ -96,6 +96,7 @@ pycryptodome==3.19.0
 pycryptodomex==3.19.0
 pydantic==2.5.3
 pydantic_core==2.14.6
+pydantic_settings-2.1.0
 PyJWT==2.8.0
 pymongo==4.6.1
 pyowm==3.3.0