Bring your own key

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Bring your own key (BYOK) means Endue makes model calls with your provider keys. The provider bills you directly, and those calls do not draw on your Endue allowance. You decide which agents and which models each key is used for.

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 some agents to run on your organization’s key and others on your Endue allowance.
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

Create a key in your model provider’s dashboard. Anthropic and OpenAI keys can be set per agent. OpenRouter and xAI keys apply to your whole account.
Open Resources › Models from the left sidebar. Under My LLM keys, expand Anthropic or OpenAI and choose Add key. Give the key a name if you like, paste it, and register it. The key is checked once with the provider.
Choose where the key is used. Under Agents, keep All or switch to Selected and pick agents by their profile. Under Models, keep All or pick the models this key is for.
Choose what happens when the key can’t be used. Continue on endue credits is the default. Stop and let me know never spends endue credits for the agents and models this key covers.
Check that it works. Open a conversation with one of those agents. In the model picker, a model that runs on your key shows a key icon and the provider name next to it.

Set keys for one agent

In an agent’s Agent Builder, the model section has Run keys. It lists your Anthropic and OpenAI keys, each with a switch that turns that key on or off for this agent only. The same choice shows on the key’s card under Resources › Models, and a change in either place shows in the other.

The line above the list says how the agent’s default model runs right now, for example on your Anthropic key or on endue credits. To add, reorder, or delete keys, choose Manage Keys.

Keys you can register

Key	Used for	Set per agent	Requests go to
Anthropic	Claude models	Yes	Anthropic
OpenAI	GPT models	Yes	OpenAI
OpenRouter	Every model	No, whole account	OpenRouter
xAI	Grok models	No, whole account	xAI

You can register more than one Anthropic or OpenAI key. Keys are tried in the order they are listed, and Move Up and Move Down change that order.

For each model, Endue uses the first working key of that model’s provider that applies to the agent and the model. If there is none, it uses your OpenRouter key, and then endue credits.

Some models cannot be requested with a provider’s own key: OpenAI’s Codex and Pro lines, Grok 4.20, and Claude models that Anthropic has retired from its API. These run on your OpenRouter key if you have one, and on endue credits otherwise.

What you see

Next to a model name. In the model picker, on the agent’s card, and in the message box, a key icon and the provider name mark a model that runs on your key. Models that run on endue credits show nothing extra.
In the model details. The Runs on line names the key and the account that is billed.
Under an answer. If an answer ran on a different key than expected, a small key icon appears under it. Point to the icon to see what was used instead.

Differences when a run uses a provider’s own key

Anthropic. PDFs are passed as they are, and thinking is shown while the model works. Repeated parts of long, tool-heavy conversations are billed at Anthropic’s cached rate.
xAI. A PDF attached to a Grok model is passed as extracted text. Figures and table layout are not passed.
OpenAI. GPT models do not show their thinking while they work. The answer is the same.
Temperature. The agent’s temperature setting is not sent to Anthropic or OpenAI.
Audio and video. Turning audio and video attachments into text goes through OpenRouter. If you have no OpenRouter key, audio and video attachments are not passed to models that run on your Anthropic, OpenAI, or xAI key.

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 a key stops working

If the provider rejects a key, reports a billing problem, or a spending limit is reached, Endue moves on within the same answer: to the next key that applies, then to your OpenRouter key, then to endue credits. A notice above the message box says what happened, for example: Anthropic rejected “Company”, so the reply continued on “Personal”.

If one of the keys for that model is set to Stop and let me know, Endue does not move on to endue credits. It still uses your OpenRouter key if you have one. Otherwise the run stops, and the notice has a Manage keys button.

When a key is rejected, Endue checks it with the provider once more. If the rejection is confirmed, the key is marked Rejected on its card.

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

Per-agent keys are available for Anthropic and OpenAI. OpenRouter and xAI keys apply to the whole account.
A key that applies to an agent is used for every run of that agent, including conversations with Live visitors, channels, the API, and schedules. Runs always use the agent owner’s keys.
Autonomous scheduled runs do not use Anthropic or OpenAI keys. They run on your OpenRouter key or on endue credits, and they do not run on credits when a key for that model is set to Stop and let me know.
When an answer moves on to endue credits partway through, only the part after the switch draws on your allowance. If your allowance cannot cover it, the run stops with the usual allowance notice.
Provider rate limits are yours. A busy schedule can hit them.
Costs incurred under your own key are visible at the provider, not in Endue’s usage view.

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.