Use your own AI key

Add your own provider API key and AI generation runs on your account — free of OwlCAD credits.

Bring-your-own-key runs OwlCAD’s AI on your account with the provider instead of ours. That provider bills you directly at their own rates, and the run costs you no OwlCAD credits — so if you already pay for an API key, generation stops competing with your monthly allotment. It is a Pro feature. The card groups providers by what they make: editable parametric models, precise CAD, and sculpted meshes. **One OpenRouter key is the simplest way to unlock everything at once** — it reaches every parametric model we offer, and the row tells you how many that is. Keys direct from a vendor (Gemini, Claude, GPT, Grok, DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen, GLM) are cheaper than routing the same model through OpenRouter, and OwlCAD prefers the cheaper path automatically. Your key is encrypted before it is stored, is never sent back to the browser or shown again, and is used only to run your own generations — we cannot read it, so if you lose it, remove the row and paste a new one. Some providers’ terms let them train on what is sent with your key, and a few leave that to your own plan with them; those rows carry a warning before you paste, because it is your prompt and your decision. Your generations still appear in your history and still go through the same safety and validation steps.

1. Go to your Account page and open “Bring your own AI key”.
2. Find the provider you want and press “Get a key ↗” to open their console, then create a key there.
3. Paste it into the row and press Save — the row switches to Connected and shows only the last four characters.
4. Generate as usual: the models that key unlocks now read “Your key · free” instead of a credit price, and are picked automatically ahead of ours.
5. Press Remove on a row to disconnect it — those models go back to spending credits, or disappear if we hold no key of our own.