Bring your own key

Bring your own key (BYOK) means Endue makes model calls with your provider credentials. The provider bills you directly, and those calls do not draw on your Endue allowance.

When to use it

• You already have provider credit or negotiated pricing.
• Your organization requires model traffic to run under its own account for billing or audit reasons.
• You want a model that your own account has access to.

If none of those apply, the built-in allowance is simpler — there is nothing to set up and nothing to keep topped up.

Set it up

1. Create a key in your model provider’s dashboard. You can register OpenRouter, xAI, and OpenAI keys.

2. Open Settings → Account → LLM key in Endue, choose Register on that provider’s row, and paste it. The key is checked once against the provider when you register it.

3. Check that it works by running a normal conversation and watching the run complete.

A key is a credential

Anyone who can spend your key can run up a bill against it. Set a spending limit at the provider, and rotate the key if you suspect it has leaked. Rotating means creating a new key at the provider and replacing it in Endue — old and new keys are not interchangeable mid-run.

Keys you can register

Key	Used for	Requests go to
OpenRouter	Every model	OpenRouter
xAI	Grok models	xAI
OpenAI	GPT models	OpenAI

If you register more than one key, the model’s own provider key is used first. Grok models go to your xAI key, GPT models go to your OpenAI key, and other models go to your OpenRouter key. A model with no matching key runs on endue credits.

Some models cannot be requested with an xAI or OpenAI key. This applies to OpenAI’s Codex and Pro lines and to Grok 4.20. These run on your OpenRouter key if you have one, and on endue credits otherwise.

Three things differ when a run uses an xAI or OpenAI key.

• A PDF attached to a Grok model is passed as extracted text. Figures and table layout are not passed.
• GPT models do not show their thinking while they work. The answer is the same.
• Turning audio and video attachments into text goes through OpenRouter. If you registered only an xAI or OpenAI key, audio and video attachments are not passed to the model. Register an OpenRouter key as well and they are.

What changes and what does not

Changes	Stays the same
Who pays for model calls	Everything about how agents behave
Which models you can reach — your account’s access applies	Approvals, connectors, memory, outputs
Where the bill arrives	Endue’s own subscription, which still applies

BYOK covers model calls. It does not change your Endue plan or make the product free.

If the key stops working

If the provider rejects the key during a run, or the provider account is out of credit, that run fails at the model step. A notice above the message box names the provider, and its LLM key settings button takes you to the setting.

When a key is rejected, endue checks it with the provider once more. If the rejection is confirmed, the key is marked Rejected in settings and later runs continue on another key or on endue credits. The notice above the message box says which one was used. Registering a new key or deleting the rejected one clears the notice.

Check, in order: the key is still valid at the provider, the account has credit, and the model you selected is one your account can reach.

Limits

• The key is set per account, not per agent.
• A run fails if the key is rejected partway through. It does not switch to another key or to credits mid-run.
• A run that starts on your key calls models only with your keys. If the agent’s fallback model cannot be reached with your keys, the fallback is not used in that run.
• Provider rate limits are yours. A busy routine can hit them.
• Costs incurred under your own key are visible at the provider, not in Endue’s usage view.

Related

Plans and usageWhat consumes the built-in allowance.

Choosing a modelThe catalog, and what each model costs to run.

Security and permissionsHow credentials are handled.