Bring your own LLM (BYOK)

By default, SEO Dash on the hosted SaaS uses a managed AI provider (Anthropic) for the agent, with the cost metered against your tier's monthly run cap. Plug in your own Anthropic or OpenAI key and runs against that key are unmetered: you pay your provider directly, and the tier cap stops applying.

This is also the default mode for self-hosted (OSS) installs. There's no managed provider, so you must configure your own key.

When to bring your own key

• You're on Starter and the 15 managed runs aren't enough
• You want to use a specific model (e.g. Claude Sonnet 4.6 for harder reasoning, or a cheaper model for routine summaries)
• You already have negotiated rates with Anthropic / OpenAI
• You want a longer context window than the platform default
• You self-host and need to plug something in to make the agent work at all

Anthropic

1. Sign in to console.anthropic.com.
2. Settings → API Keys → Create Key. Copy the value (starts with sk-ant-).
3. In SEO Dash: Settings → AI / LLM.
4. Set Provider to *Anthropic*.
5. Paste the key into Anthropic API Key and pick a model:claude-haiku-4-5 for cost, claude-sonnet-4-6 for harder reasoning, or claude-opus-4-7 for the heaviest analysis.
6. Save.

OpenAI

1. Sign in to platform.openai.com.
2. API keys → Create new secret key. Copy the value (starts with sk-).
3. In SEO Dash: Settings → AI / LLM.
4. Set Provider to *OpenAI*.
5. Paste the key into OpenAI API Key and pick a model:gpt-4o-mini for cost, gpt-4o or gpt-4.1 for quality.
6. Save.

Verifying

After saving, the provider banner on /agent shows your provider + model. Send a test message; you should see a response within a few seconds. If you get a 401 / 429 error, double-check the key in your provider's dashboard.

Costs (rough order of magnitude)

A single agent run does ~5-15 LLM calls (planning, tool calls, synthesis). Token usage typically lands at:

For a heavy user (5 runs/day, 30 days), that's $0.15 to $8/mo depending on the model.

Falling back

If you delete the key from Settings → AI / LLM, the SaaS variant falls back to the managed provider (subject to your tier cap). Self-hosted installs have no fallback. The agent stops working until you plug a key in.

Privacy

Your prompts and your site's data flow directly to your chosen provider. Anthropic or OpenAI's data-handling terms apply. SEO Dash logs only prompt + completion length and the model used, never the content of your messages. See Privacy for the full policy.