diff --git a/openmemory/api/app/utils/categorization.py b/openmemory/api/app/utils/categorization.py
index bcfbe657..60ab7602 100644
--- a/openmemory/api/app/utils/categorization.py
+++ b/openmemory/api/app/utils/categorization.py
@@ -1,15 +1,13 @@
-import json
 import logging
-
-from openai import OpenAI
 from typing import List
+
 from dotenv import load_dotenv
+from openai import OpenAI
 from pydantic import BaseModel
 from tenacity import retry, stop_after_attempt, wait_exponential
 from app.utils.prompts import MEMORY_CATEGORIZATION_PROMPT
 
 load_dotenv()
-
 openai_client = OpenAI()
 
 
@@ -19,19 +17,28 @@ class MemoryCategories(BaseModel):
 
 @retry(stop=stop_after_attempt(3), wait=wait_exponential(multiplier=1, min=4, max=15))
 def get_categories_for_memory(memory: str) -> List[str]:
-    """Get categories for a memory."""
     try:
-        response = openai_client.responses.parse(
+        messages = [
+            {"role": "system", "content": MEMORY_CATEGORIZATION_PROMPT},
+            {"role": "user", "content": memory}
+        ]
+
+        # Let OpenAI handle the pydantic parsing directly
+        completion = openai_client.chat.completions.with_response_format(
+            response_format=MemoryCategories
+        ).create(
             model="gpt-4o-mini",
-            instructions=MEMORY_CATEGORIZATION_PROMPT,
-            input=memory,
-            temperature=0,
-            text_format=MemoryCategories,
+            messages=messages,
+            temperature=0
         )
-        response_json =json.loads(response.output[0].content[0].text)
-        categories = response_json['categories']
-        categories = [cat.strip().lower() for cat in categories]
-        # TODO: Validate categories later may be
-        return categories
+
+        parsed: MemoryCategories = completion.choices[0].message.parsed
+        return [cat.strip().lower() for cat in parsed.categories]
+
     except Exception as e:
-        raise e
+        logging.error(f"[ERROR] Failed to get categories: {e}")
+        try:
+            logging.debug(f"[DEBUG] Raw response: {completion.choices[0].message.content}")
+        except Exception as debug_e:
+            logging.debug(f"[DEBUG] Could not extract raw response: {debug_e}")
+        raise