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Bring your own key

Bring your own key, or BYOK, lets a Qodex project use your OpenAI API key for LLM calls. This is useful when your team wants provider billing to go directly to your own account, wants separate usage visibility, or has internal controls around model spend.

What changes with BYOK

Without BYOKWith BYOK
Qodex uses the platform-funded key.Qodex uses your project key.
LLM usage counts against Qodex plan caps.OpenAI bills your account directly.
Provider key management stays inside Qodex.Your team owns key rotation and provider spend controls.
Qodex takes zero margin on BYOK usage.

1. Open integrations

In your Qodex project, go to Settings > Integrations and choose OpenAI API key from the LLM section.

2. Save your key

Paste an OpenAI API key that starts with sk-. Qodex validates the key before saving it. If OpenAI rejects the key, Qodex shows the upstream error so you can fix it before running tests. The saved key is encrypted at rest. The UI only shows the last four characters after save.

3. Run Qodex normally

After the key is saved, the next LLM call for that project uses your key. Open Settings > Usage to review usage behavior. BYOK traffic is billed through your provider account rather than the platform-funded key.

4. Rotate or remove the key

Use the same settings panel to replace or delete the key. Removing the key returns the project to the platform-funded key.

Limits

  • OpenAI BYOK is the live provider path today.
  • Anthropic and Google BYOK are planned.
  • Keys are project-scoped. Each project stores its own key.
  • Qodex validates the key at save time. If the provider later revokes it, the failure appears in run logs.
  • Qodex plan caps do not limit BYOK provider spend. Use your provider account controls for that.

Next steps

Usage and cost caps

Understand how BYOK affects project caps.

Self-hosted environment variables

Configure platform fallback keys when self-hosting.

How Qodex works

See where LLM calls fit into the agent loop.

Integrations

Return to all integrations.