Bring your own key (BYOK)

By default, model usage runs on Alfe’s pooled provider access and is billed from your credit pool. If you’d rather use your own account with a particular provider, you can bring your own key (BYOK) — supply that provider’s API key and Alfe will use it for requests to that provider.

When to use BYOK

BYOK is useful when you:

• Already have a provider account with negotiated rates, committed spend, or credits you want to use.
• Need requests to a provider to run under your own account for compliance, data-handling, or contractual reasons.
• Want to use a provider or model tier you manage directly.

If you don’t need any of that, you don’t have to do anything — pooled access works out of the box.

How it works

You add your provider key in the dashboard, under the AI models settings, as a per-provider key. Once a key is set for a provider:

• Requests to that provider use your key and run against your provider account.
• The key acts as an override for that provider only. Other providers keep using Alfe’s pooled access unless you add keys for them too.
• Because those requests go through your own account, that usage is billed by the provider directly to you — it does not draw from your Alfe credit pool.

You can add keys for as many providers as you like, and remove a key at any time to return that provider to pooled access.

Keeping keys safe

Provider keys you supply are stored encrypted. Treat them like any other secret: grant them the least access you need, and rotate them if you suspect exposure. If you remove a key, requests to that provider fall back to Alfe’s pooled access.

What’s next

• Choosing a default model — set which model an agent uses.
• How model usage is billed — how pooled model usage draws from your credit pool.