AI costs
Bring your own key: what BYOK means for AI costs and data control
With your own AI provider key, usage runs on your contract with the provider. What that changes for costs, model choice and control.
BYOK stands for bring your own key. Instead of paying an AI tool for the model usage it buys for you, you connect the API key of a provider you already have a contract with. The requests then run on your account with that provider.
It sounds like a technical detail. For a company, it changes three things: costs, choice and control.
Costs: usage on your own contract
With your own key, the model usage is billed by the provider, at the prices in your contract with them. In sqemes, a workspace's own key is used before any included credits, there is no markup on it, and usage with your own key is not limited by your plan.
That makes costs easier to see. The AI usage shows up where your other AI usage already shows up, on the provider's invoice, instead of being hidden in a per-seat price.
Choice: the models you want
A key also decides which models you can use. Connect keys for the providers you trust, and pick the model that fits each task. With an OpenRouter key, sqemes Chat offers exactly the models your workspace added.
Different teams can use different models for different work, while the knowledge they work with stays the same. The skills and personas do not care which model reads them.
Control: whose terms apply
When a request goes to a provider on your key, it is governed by your contract with that provider. For many companies, that is the point: the AI usage falls under an agreement their legal team has already reviewed.
Independent of the key, a few things stay the same in sqemes: the library is hosted in the EU, your content is never used to train a model, and your keys are stored encrypted.
When included credits are enough
Not every team needs its own key on day one. Every sqemes plan includes a monthly allowance of AI credits for writing playbooks, the Setup Wizard and sqemes Chat. One credit is 1,000 tokens, and the allowance resets every month.
A sensible path for many teams:
- Start with the included credits while you build your first skills.
- Connect your own key once usage grows, or when a team wants a specific model.
- Keep the credits as a fallback for people or tasks without a key.
Self-hosting
If you run sqemes on your own servers, your own keys are the only way: the self-hosted version has no plans and no credits. It is free for your own internal use under the Sustainable Use License.
See pricing and what each plan includes or learn about sqemes Chat.