BYOK and AI Providers

What is BYOK?

BYOK stands for Bring Your Own Key.

With a BYOK plan, Scribeist uses your own provider connections for supported AI features instead of consuming Scribeist-managed AI usage. You keep the same Scribeist plan features, but the AI request is billed through the provider you connected.

How BYOK works in Scribeist

With a BYOK plan:

• AI chat uses one of your connected providers
• Blog generation uses one of your connected providers
• Editor actions, SEO generation, keyword generation, research extraction, Mythos AI, and writing style analysis also use your connected providers
• Scribeist does not consume monthly managed AI usage for those requests

With a standard plan:

• Scribeist provides a managed list of models based on your plan
• Requests consume your included managed AI usage
• Some AI models use more managed usage than others

If your account has a legacy purchased balance and you switch to BYOK, that balance stays on your account. It does not disappear.

Supported BYOK providers

Scribeist supports these providers on BYOK plans and AppSumo Tier 3 or Tier 4:

• OpenRouter
• OpenAI
• Google Gemini
• Anthropic
• Mistral
• Ollama
• LM Studio

Local providers work differently:

• Ollama shows the models installed in your local Ollama instance
• LM Studio shows the models currently available from its local API server

Set up hosted providers →

Set up local providers →

Credits and billing

Standard plans

Standard plans use Scribeist-managed AI usage. That includes free trials, Hobby, and Pro unless you are specifically on a BYOK plan.

BYOK plans

BYOK plans bill through your connected provider.

AppSumo Tier 3 and Tier 4

AppSumo Tier 3 and Tier 4 can turn BYOK on or off. When it is on, supported requests use a connected provider. When it is off, managed requests use the account's AppSumo credits. Monthly AppSumo credits continue to renew while BYOK is enabled.

Learn more about AppSumo tiers →

Model selection and visibility

Scribeist only shows models that match your current plan and provider setup.

On BYOK plans:

• OpenRouter can import its available writing models into Scribeist
• direct hosted providers show supported models for that provider
• local providers show the models available from your local server
• you can hide providers or models in workspace settings without disconnecting them

On standard plans:

• managed usage varies based on the selected model
• you can hide models in workspace settings without disconnecting them

Common questions

Do I still need a Scribeist subscription?

Yes. BYOK changes billing for supported AI features, but it does not replace the Scribeist subscription requirement.

Do BYOK plans use my Scribeist-managed AI usage?

No. Supported BYOK AI requests use your provider account.

What happens to a previously purchased balance if I switch to BYOK?

They stay on your account. They are not deleted.

Can I remove a provider later?

Yes. You can remove it in Account > Integrations. If you are still on a BYOK plan after removing it, AI features that depend on provider access will stop working until another supported provider is connected.

Troubleshooting

"My BYOK plan requires a provider connection"

You are on a BYOK plan but no valid provider connection is saved yet.

Fix:

1. Go to Account > Integrations
2. Add one of the supported provider connections
3. Save again

"Failed to save API key"

Usually this means one of the following:

• the key was pasted incorrectly
• the key is no longer valid
• the provider account is not ready to serve requests
• the base URL is wrong for a local provider
• or the local provider server is not running