How do I use my own AI, so I get the best models?
The whole thing, in one breath
You get a private key from an AI company, paste it into Settings once, and choose which model writes your prose. From then on your best drafts run on models like Claude Opus or GPT, and you pay the AI company directly, usually cents per scene.
Like you're five
It is like bringing your own beans to a cafe that has a fancy espresso machine. The machine is free to use. The beans are what actually make the coffee, and better beans make better coffee. Your key is your bag of beans. You bring it, the studio brews with it, and the small bean bill goes to the bean shop, not to us.
Do this, step by step
Grab a key from an AI provider
Make an account with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or OpenRouter, add a little credit, and copy the key they hand you. It is a long private password. This is the only step that happens outside AIStoryHub, and it takes about five minutes. In no hurry? The built-in free model works with no key at all.
Open Settings and find AI Keys
In your settings there is a page called AI Keys. You will see a row for each provider: Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Google Gemini. A small note reminds you that your keys are encrypted and that any usage is billed straight through your own provider account, never marked up by us.
aistoryhub.co/settingsOne row per provider. Your keys are encrypted and never logged. Paste your key and save
Click Update on the provider you have a key for, paste it in, and save. That is the whole connection. You can add keys for several providers and switch between them whenever you like, mixing the free model for quick feedback with your own key for the prose that matters.
Choose which model writes your prose
Lower on the same page is Model Preferences. Here you pick which model runs each job, for example a fast, cheap model for the Ash chat and a top-tier one for your actual prose. Set it once and forget it. Only the providers you have added show up here.
aistoryhub.co/settingsAssign the sharp model to your prose, a cheaper one to the chat.
So what, for your writing?
This is what keeps AIStoryHub free forever without cutting corners. There is no subscription and no locked tier. You own the account, you bring the fuel, and you pay real cost, which is almost always less than the monthly plan you were dreading. A whole busy writing day rarely tops a dollar or two.
Want the numbers first? See exactly what a session costs on the pricing page.
See the pricingWords that showed up
- API key
- A private password from an AI company that lets AIStoryHub use their models on your account.
- Provider
- The company that makes the model: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or OpenRouter.
- Model Preferences
- The setting where you choose which model does each job, from chat to prose.