Bring Your Own Keys

A pricing model where you provide your own API keys for third-party services (like OpenAI or Deepgram) and pay those providers directly, instead of paying a markup through the platform.

Technical definition

In a BYOK architecture, the platform never proxies or resells API access. Your API keys are stored encrypted and used server-side to make calls to your chosen LLM or speech provider. Usage and billing happen directly between you and the provider, giving you full cost visibility and control.

How Verabase uses BYOK

Verabase is built on a BYOK model from the ground up. You enter your OpenAI (or compatible) API key and your Deepgram key in Settings → API Keys. Verabase uses these keys directly — it never charges per resolution, per conversation, or per API call. You pay OpenAI and Deepgram at their published rates with no middleman markup.

Why it matters for support teams

Most AI support platforms charge per AI resolution ($0.50–$2.00 each), which creates unpredictable costs as your usage grows. With BYOK, your AI costs are transparent and typically 40–60% lower. You also retain full control over which models you use and can switch providers without changing platforms.

Related terms

See also

How Verabase Handles Self-Healing Knowledge

The standard industry approach relies on support agents manually flagging stale content and technical writers updating documentation weeks later. Verabase completely upends this model through an autonomous AI platform that identifies knowledge gaps the moment an AI agent encounters a question it cannot answer.

Rather than requiring manual intervention, our visual RAG engine drafts a proposed fix. It analyzes the context of the user's question, reviews your existing knowledge base for conflicts, and creates a clear, structured article or snippet. All you need to do is click 'Approve'. This ensures your AI agents continually get smarter over time without adding to your support team's workload.

Security First Architecture

Many legacy platforms bolt AI onto their existing infrastructure, creating potential data leaks between tenants or exposing sensitive internal documents to end-users. Verabase is built from the ground up with a Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) architecture, enterprise-grade access controls, and strict semantic boundaries. This means your private engineering documents never accidentally leak into customer-facing agent responses.