Use your own model key for the AI assistant

Members can now run the AI assistant beside each paper on their own API key instead of the AI allowance included with membership. If you already pay for a model provider, or want a model the allowance doesn't cover, add your key on the account page under AI model.

• Five providers. Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Amazon Bedrock and OpenCode Go. Pick a provider and one of the models we offer for it, then paste your key. OpenRouter users can connect their OpenRouter account instead of pasting a key. OpenCode Go support is best effort, because it is designed for coding agents.
• Checked before it's saved. A key is only saved once the provider accepts it. After that we only ever show its last four characters.
• Your own limit. Choose a monthly limit in US dollars, and the assistant stops using your key once its estimated spend over the last 30 days reaches it. The estimate comes from list prices, so your provider's own spending limit is the real cap. A daily cap on the number of assistant turns also applies.
• Clear about what's in use. While your key is in use, the assistant's meter shows the provider and model and roughly how much of your limit you've used. If the provider rejects a request, for example because the key was revoked or is out of credit, the assistant tells you which provider refused it. It never falls back to our key.
• Easy to remove. Remove the key on the account page to delete it and go back to the membership allowance.

With your own key, the paper text, the passages you highlight, your messages and what the assistant looks up are sent to the provider you chose, under your own agreement with them. Your name and email are not sent. The key is stored encrypted, and only the assistant service can decrypt it, while it answers you. The Privacy Policy has the details.