Your API key. Your cost. Zero markup.
Connect your own OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini API key. AutoPublish uses it for every article generation — you pay the AI provider directly at cost. We charge zero markup. ~$0.09/article with GPT-5.4.
No credit card · 3 free credits included · BYOK available on all paid plans
Why competitors charge 10–22× more per article
Other AI writers buy API credits wholesale and mark them up. With BYOK, you skip the middleman.
- Zero markup
- You pick the model
- Full pipeline included
- 8+ CMS platforms
- 10–22× markup on API cost
- Fixed model selection
- Limited platform support
- No BYOK option
- Days to weeks per article
- No SEO scoring
- No auto-publishing
- No scale
BYOK Cost Calculator
See how much you save by bringing your own API key
API cost based on GPT-5.4 pricing for a ~3,000-word article (approx. 4,500 input + 4,000 output tokens). Competitor price is a conservative $2.00/article mid-range estimate. Freelance rate based on $0.05–0.08/word average for a 3,000-word article.
Supported AI providers
Connect any of these — switch at any time from Settings
Default and recommended provider
- GPT-5.4 (writer)
- GPT-5.4-mini (planner/editor)
- GPT Image 1.5 (featured images)
Great for nuanced long-form content
- Claude 4.6 (writer)
- Claude 4.5 (planner/editor)
Strong factual accuracy and research depth
- Gemini 1.5 Pro (writer)
- Gemini 1.5 Flash (planner)
How BYOK works
Paste your API key in Settings
Go to Dashboard → Settings → AI Provider. Paste your OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini API key. Keys are encrypted server-side with Fernet (AES-128-CBC + HMAC-SHA256) before storage, using the same encryption pipeline as our destination credentials.
AutoPublish uses your key for generation
Every article AutoPublish generates uses your key to call the AI API. You're billed by OpenAI/Anthropic directly — not by us.
Content publishes to your CMS as normal
BYOK doesn't change anything about the publishing pipeline. Research, writing, images, SEO scoring, internal linking, and CMS publishing all still run automatically.
Your key is protected at every step
- Keys are encrypted server-side with Fernet (AES-128-CBC + HMAC-SHA256) before they ever touch the database
- Encryption uses the same pipeline that protects destination credentials — we do not store plaintext
- We never log AI prompts, responses, or your key value
- Keys are decrypted only in memory at generation time, never returned to the browser
- You can rotate or remove your key at any time from Settings
Questions about our security model? Read our full security page →
Frequently asked questions
What if I don't have an API key?
No problem — AutoPublish works without BYOK. All plans include credits that use our managed API access at a fixed per-article cost. BYOK is optional for users who want the lowest possible per-article cost.
Does BYOK affect article quality?
No. Quality depends on the model you select, not on who holds the key. With BYOK you get identical output to our managed access — same model, same pipeline, same SEO scoring.
Which plan is BYOK available on?
BYOK is available on all paid plans (Starter and above). You can add your key from Settings at any time. Credits and BYOK can be used together on the same account.
How much does it actually cost per article?
With GPT-5.4 at current OpenAI pricing, a 3,000-word article costs approximately $0.09 in API tokens. This includes planning, research context, writing, and editing passes. At scale (500 articles/month), that's ~$45 in API costs — vs $999+ on competitor AI writer plans.
Can I use a different model than the default?
Yes. You can select the writer model and image model independently from Settings. Choose between GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4-mini, Claude 4.6, Gemini 1.5 Pro, and others depending on your quality/cost tradeoff.
Start publishing for ~$0.09/article
Sign up free, connect your API key in Settings, and queue your first article.
Connect Your API Key FreeNo credit card · BYOK available on all paid plans