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Claude BYOK Agent
Claude BYOK on a hosted AI coding agent — bring your own Anthropic (sk-ant-…) or OpenAI (sk-…) key, or sign in with Claude Pro / Max OAuth or ChatGPT Plus / Pro via Codex OAuth. AI charges go direct to the provider with zero VibeKit markup. Free tier is genuinely free, forever, with BYOK.
Two routes — pick what fits
- BYOK (free, no markup). Anthropic or OpenAI. Calls go direct to the provider plugin using your key or your subscription OAuth. We never touch the meter.
- Platform fallback (no key needed). Don't have an API key? Pick from four models routed via OpenRouter: Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, or the free tier. The free tier is always $0. The other three charge OpenRouter list price plus 20%, deducted from your prepaid credits.
Why BYOK matters
- Honest pricing. Token bills are between you and Anthropic / OpenAI. VibeKit can't pad the meter because the meter isn't ours.
- Use the subscription you already have. Claude Pro / Max OAuth and ChatGPT Plus via Codex OAuth both work — no second AI subscription.
- Provider rate limits, not VibeKit's. If your Anthropic account can do 100 RPM, that's what the agent gets. We don't impose a quota on top.
- Spend visibility. Track exactly what each task cost on your provider's dashboard. No one's reconciling a bundled invoice.
BYOK providers
Platform fallback — no key required
If you don't BYOK, the agent still works. We route through OpenRouter on the gateway-level key and you pick from four providers in Settings → AI Provider:
The pricing math
A typical agent task — "fix this 500" or "add a route" — costs $0.05–$0.30 in tokens at Sonnet pricing. Heavy refactors might hit $1–$3. With BYOK you pay that. Zero. Markup.
On the platform fallback you pay OpenRouter cost plus 20% (so the same task is $0.06–$0.36). The 20% covers gateway / proxy infrastructure. On the free tier the cost is $0 — Brian's gift to anyone who doesn't want to think about AI billing.
Compare to platforms that charge $20/mo "for AI" while routing your prompts to a $0.30 model — that's pure margin in their pocket. VibeKit doesn't do that on either path.
Setup
1. Profile → AI Provider → "Add key"
2. Paste sk-ant-... (Claude) or sk-... (OpenAI)
OR tap "Sign in with Claude" / "Sign in with ChatGPT"
3. Choose this key as your provider for an app
4. The agent's next request runs on your accountPer-app: different apps can use different keys. Useful if some clients require their own Anthropic account, or you're testing a model on one project. New to Claude API keys? See the sk-ant-api03 format breakdown for what each piece means and how to generate one.
Key security
Keys encrypted at rest (AES-GCM), decrypted in memory only when the request fires, never logged. Rotate from Settings any time. We use the minimum scope each provider supports. Tokens never appear in any chat transcript, log, or telemetry stream we keep.
BYOK + paid plans
If you want centralized billing — single VibeKit invoice for hosting + AI — we sell paid plans on top of a managed VibeKit credit balance. But it's a choice, not a requirement: BYOK is and will stay the free path. Full pricing breakdown →
FAQ
What does BYOK mean for an AI coding agent?
BYOK (bring-your-own-key) means you supply your own credentials for the underlying AI model — an Anthropic Claude key, an OpenAI key, or a Claude Pro / ChatGPT Plus subscription OAuth token — and the AI calls run on your account at the provider. The agent platform (VibeKit) doesn't sit in the middle and re-bill you with a markup. You see exactly what each task cost on your provider's dashboard.
Which AI providers does VibeKit support for BYOK?
Anthropic and OpenAI. For Anthropic that's an API key (sk-ant-…) or a Claude Pro / Max OAuth sign-in. For OpenAI that's an API key (sk-…) or Codex OAuth via your ChatGPT Plus / Pro subscription. Most users with a Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus subscription can authenticate via OAuth and pay nothing extra for AI — VibeKit becomes a free shell on top of the subscription you already have.
What if I don't have a Claude or OpenAI key?
VibeKit's platform fallback covers you. We route through OpenRouter on a gateway-level key and let you pick from four options: Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, or the free tier. The free tier runs on OpenRouter's free pool — $0 cost, $0 markup — so the platform is genuinely free even without a key. The other three charge OpenRouter list price plus a flat 20% platform markup, deducted from prepaid credits.
Does BYOK mean VibeKit itself is free?
Yes — VibeKit's free tier is genuinely free with BYOK. Hosting, the iOS app, the agent runtime, GitHub integration, custom domains — none of that is paywalled when you bring your own key. We make money on paid plans for users who want centralized billing or the all-included plan, not by clipping pennies off your AI usage.
Are my AI keys safe with VibeKit?
Keys are encrypted at rest with AES-GCM, only decrypted in memory at request time, and never logged. They're scoped per-app — a key you paste for one app isn't shared with another. You can rotate or revoke at any time from Settings, and the next request switches over. Server-side, the only thing that ever sees the plaintext key is the proxy that forwards the model request.
Can I use a Claude Pro or ChatGPT Plus subscription instead of an API key?
Yes. Claude Pro / Max users can authenticate via OAuth and use their subscription's allowance directly through VibeKit — same as Claude Code does. ChatGPT Plus / Pro users can do the same via Codex OAuth. No API key needed; no per-token billing on top of what you're already paying. The agent runs against your subscription quota.