Bring Your Own Keys — Guide
Supply your own API keys for the services TruVerifAI calls on your behalf. When you do, those calls run on your own provider accounts — you pay the provider directly, and TruVerifAI charges only its platform fee per query.
What BYOK does
Every query TruVerifAI runs makes calls to external providers — the four frontier models for the deliberation, plus web-search services in Verify mode. Normally those calls run on TruVerifAI's keys and the cost is folded into the credits a query charges.
With BYOK, you give TruVerifAI your own key for a service. From then on, that service's calls in your queries run on your account — the provider bills you directly at their rates. TruVerifAI no longer pays for those calls, so it charges you only the fixed platform fee per query for the work it does (orchestration, aggregation, streaming).
The six services
You can bring a key for any or all of these. A service with no key configured keeps running on TruVerifAI's key, billed normally.
| Service | Used for |
|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude — a deliberation model, and the aggregator |
| OpenAI | GPT — a deliberation model |
| Google Gemini | Gemini — a deliberation model |
| xAI Grok | Grok — a deliberation model |
| Tavily | Web search (per-model round-1 search + Verify mode) |
| Perplexity | Claim verification in Verify mode |
What happens if a key fails
- A deliberation model's key fails (your OpenAI, Google, or xAI key): that one model is dropped and the query continues on the others — the same graceful degradation as any model outage. A failed call consumes no tokens, so nothing is mischarged.
- Your Anthropic key fails: Anthropic also powers aggregation — the step a query cannot finish without — so the whole query fails with an actionable error. Because there was no fallback, the query is not charged. Fix or remove the key in BYOK settings and try again.
- A search key fails (Tavily / Perplexity): Verify mode degrades per its own rules, just as it does when a search provider is down.
Getting a key from each provider
For each service you want to bring, create an API key in the provider's console, then paste it into the BYOK page. TruVerifAI runs one tiny test call (~$0.0001 on your account) to confirm the key works before saving it.
Anthropic
Keys start with sk-ant-. Get one at console.anthropic.com.
OpenAI
Keys start with sk-. Get one at platform.openai.com.
Google Gemini
Keys start with AIza. Get one at aistudio.google.com.
xAI Grok
Keys start with xai-. Get one at console.x.ai.
Tavily
Keys start with tvly-. Get one at app.tavily.com.
Perplexity
Keys start with pplx-. Get one at perplexity.ai/settings/api.
Security & storage
- Keys are encrypted at rest with authenticated encryption (the same Fernet scheme used for Bring Your Own Model credentials).
- A key is never shown again after you save it. The BYOK page only displays the last four characters as a hint. To change a key, paste a new one.
- Keys are never logged in plaintext and never appear in API responses or error messages.
- Keys are scoped to your account. The BYOK page has an activity log so you can confirm when each key was added, tested, or changed.
BYOK vs. Bring Your Own Model
They are parallel features for two different needs:
- Bring Your Own Keys swaps the API key used for a service already in the standard pipeline. You still run the standard four-model deliberation — just billed to your own accounts.
- Bring Your Own Model adds a non-standard model (a fine-tuned, specialist, or self-hosted model) as an extra deliberation participant.
Seeing where your calls run
The BYOK page shows a month-to-date breakdown: how many provider calls ran on your keys versus on TruVerifAI's.