# bring your own key · InstaClaw docs

> if you already pay for a model provider, you can point your agent at your own key and pay us less for the machine and everything around it. your key stays on your agent's own computer, and the daily allowance stops applying because your key is paying for the conversation.

the all-inclusive plans bundle the model into the price. if you would rather pay your provider directly, you can bring your own key. you get the same agent, the same machine and the same everything else, at a lower monthly price, and the conversation is billed to you by your provider at their rates. this page is how it works and where the edges are.

## what does it cost?

the plan page has a switch between all-inclusive and bring your own key. with your own key the plans are $35.99, $49.99 and $119.99 a month for starter, pro and power. the difference is the model; the machine, the channels, the skills, the memory and the support are the same.

## what changes?

**the daily allowance stops applying.** on an all-inclusive plan your agent has a daily allowance in units. with your own key it does not; your key pays for what your agent uses, at your provider's prices, and it keeps working as long as your provider is happy. the plan page puts it as "unlimited usage with your own key", and that is what it means: no meter on our side, your bill on theirs.

**the tiers still differ.** starter, pro and power still buy different levels of support and, on pro and power, the more capable working patterns; they no longer differ on units, because there are no units.

## how do i connect it?

choose your plan with the switch set to bring your own key, pay, and the next screen asks for the key. an Anthropic key starts with `sk-ant-`. paste it, and your agent is configured to use it from then on.

## where does the key live?

on your agent's own computer, in its own configuration, and it is used from there. when you talk to your agent, the machine talks to your provider directly with your key; the conversation does not pass through our servers on the way. that is also why our usage dashboard shows nothing for an agent on your own key: there is nothing on our side to count.

## can i change the key later?

yes. settings has an API key section for bring-your-own-key plans; paste the new key and it replaces the old one. do this if you rotate keys at your provider or if you ever think a key has leaked.

## what does it not cover?

video. premium video generation runs on our side, not through your key, so it is metered separately on every plan, and the included monthly premium videos on the all-inclusive plans are not part of a bring-your-own-key plan. [videos](/docs/videos) has the numbers. everything else your agent does, it does with your key.

## what happens when your provider has a bad day?

on a bring-your-own plan your agent talks to your provider directly with your credential. that is the point of the plan, and it draws a hard line: those conversations never pass through us, so when your provider fails, we cannot see the failure as it happens and we cannot switch models for you. there is nothing of ours in the path to substitute. if your key runs out of credit, your token expires, or your provider has an outage, your agent goes quiet until you fix it on your side: top up, re-authenticate, or wait out the outage. on the all-inclusive plans the model calls run through us, which is why a swap to another funded model is possible there and structurally impossible here. we can tell you afterwards that turns started coming back empty, and that is the most we can honestly promise.

## what about a ChatGPT subscription?

the next screen after checkout also offers to connect a ChatGPT account, so that a subscription you already pay for can carry your agent's conversations instead of an API key. the option is on the page and a small number of agents run on it today. we are not yet calling it available here, because we have not yet proven a full conversation on it end to end the way we prove the key path, and this page does not describe things it has not proven. when that proof is on record, this section will say so and say what changes.

## what next

- [plans and billing](/docs/plans-and-billing): the all-inclusive prices and the daily allowance
- [privacy and your data](/docs/privacy-and-your-data): what stays on the machine, keys included
- [your agent's computer](/docs/your-agents-computer): the machine your key is stored on