Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)
Pro and Scale teams can connect their own LLM API keys to Ensoul Studio. Use your own rate limits, avoid token overage charges, and maintain full control over your API spend.
Who can use BYOK?
Prerequisites
- An active Ensoul Studio account on the Pro or Scale plan
- An Anthropic API key (more providers coming soon)
- Team owner or admin role
Setup
Connecting your API key takes less than a minute.
Validation
How It Works
Your API key is handled with the same security standards as all credentials in Ensoul.
| Encrypted at rest | Your key is encrypted using AES-256-GCM before storage |
| Decrypted on demand | Only decrypted when making API calls to the provider, never cached in plaintext |
| Masked in the UI | Only the last 4 characters of your key are visible in the settings panel |
| Audit logged | All BYOK operations (add, remove, toggle) are recorded in your team's audit trail |
Supported Providers
BYOK currently supports the following providers:
| Provider | Models | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | Claude (all available models) | Available |
| OpenAI | GPT-4o, GPT-4 | Coming soon |
| Gemini | Coming soon |
Disabling BYOK
To stop using your own key, toggle "Use Your Own API Key" off in Settings. Ensoul will immediately fall back to platform-managed keys with standard overage pricing for your plan.
Your saved key is retained so you can re-enable BYOK at any time without re-entering it. To remove your key entirely, click "Remove Key" after toggling off.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if my key is invalid?
Ensoul validates your key before saving. If the key is invalid, expired, or lacks the necessary permissions, the save will fail with a descriptive error and no key will be stored.
Can I switch providers?
Yes. Remove the current key, then add a new one with a different provider. Only one BYOK key can be active per team at a time.
Who can manage BYOK keys?
Only team owners and admins can add, remove, or toggle BYOK keys. Other team members will use whatever key configuration the admin has set.
What models does BYOK support?
BYOK supports the same models your API key has access to. If your Anthropic key can access Claude Sonnet and Haiku, those models will be available in Ensoul Studio.
Does BYOK affect rate limits?
When using BYOK, API rate limits are determined by your provider account, not your Ensoul plan. Your Ensoul plan's request-per-minute limits still apply to the Ensoul API itself.
Will I still be billed by Ensoul?
You'll still pay your Ensoul plan subscription fee, but you won't incur token overage charges from Ensoul since inference calls are billed directly by your API provider.