Why you bring your own key
Promptly runs your assistant on your own AI provider account. You create an API key at OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Zhipu, or Moonshot, paste it into Promptly, and every answer the bot writes is billed by that provider directly to you.
This is called BYOK — bring your own key.
What this means for you
- You pick the model. Any chat-capable model your key can reach is selectable, including ones released after your Promptly subscription started. See Choosing a model.
- You pay the provider directly. Promptly does not resell tokens and takes no margin on them. Your provider's invoice is your model cost; your Promptly subscription is separate.
- There is no message quota. Because the model cost isn't ours, we don't meter conversations. Messages are unlimited on your own key — the only ceiling is your provider's credit balance and rate limits.
- You can leave with your data and your account intact. The key belongs to you; revoke it at the provider and Promptly immediately loses access.
🖼️ [Image] — The AI Keys page with one verified primary key and one backup key.
Your key is required, including during the trial
There is no shared Promptly model key to fall back on. A workspace without a usable key of its own cannot chat — during the 14-day trial exactly as much as after it.
If you haven't added a key yet, the dashboard shows a banner reading "Your assistant is inactive." with an Add your AI key button, and the widget replies with a temporary-unavailability message instead of an answer. See Troubleshooting keys.
Your provider account must have credits
A brand-new provider account with no payment method or no remaining credit will authenticate but fail on the first real request. Promptly detects this and marks the key Out of credits — see Key statuses. Top up at the provider, then click Verify key.
How the key is stored
The key is write-only: you paste it once, Promptly encrypts it at rest, and the dashboard only ever shows it back to you in masked form (sk-…abcd). Deleting a credential wipes the stored secret. This is the same handling described in API keys & encryption.