BYOK: Why We Let You Bring Your Own AI Keys
Most AI-powered tools follow the same model: you pay a subscription, they provide AI features, and somewhere behind the scenes your data passes through their infrastructure on its way to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google. You don't choose the model. You don't control the prompts. You don't know what happens to your data in transit.
Korvo does it differently. We don't provide AI models - you bring your own API keys and connect directly to the providers you trust. Here's why we think this is the right architecture, and what it means for your privacy and workflow.
What BYOK means in practice
BYOK - Bring Your Own Key - means you supply your API credentials for the AI providers you want to use. In Korvo, this works as follows:
You add your API key in settings.
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini - add one or several. Keys are stored locally on your device, encrypted at rest.
Korvo calls the provider directly.
When you use AI features - Plan Mode, chat, document analysis - Korvo sends the request straight from your machine to the provider's API. No middleman.
We never see your prompts or responses.
Because the connection is direct, your queries, context, and outputs never touch Korvo servers. We literally cannot access them.
You choose the model per task.
Use GPT-4o for fast analysis, Claude for nuanced reasoning, Gemini for long-context synthesis. Switch models mid-project based on what the task requires.
Why not just bundle AI access?
Bundling AI access would be simpler for us. We'd buy API capacity wholesale, mark it up, and bake it into the subscription. Most SaaS tools do this because it's more profitable and easier to manage. But it creates three problems we don't want to pass on to you:
1. Privacy erosion
If we proxy your AI requests, we become a data processor. Every prompt, every document excerpt, every strategic question passes through our infrastructure. We'd need to store logs, manage compliance, handle breach notifications. And you'd need to trust that we handle it all correctly. With BYOK, this entire category of risk disappears. We can't leak what we never had.
2. Model lock-in
The AI landscape changes every few months. The best model today isn't the best model tomorrow. If we bundle a specific provider, you're stuck with our choices and our upgrade timeline. With BYOK, you switch the moment something better launches. New model from Anthropic? Add the key, start using it. No waiting for us to “integrate” it.
3. Artificial usage limits
Bundled AI tools impose token limits, message caps, or throttling to protect their margins. With BYOK, you pay your provider directly at their published rates. No markup, no artificial scarcity, no “upgrade to Pro for more AI messages” friction. Use as much as you need.
How keys are stored
Security of your API keys is critical. Here's how Korvo handles them:
- Keys are stored in the local encrypted keychain on your device (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, or Linux secret service).
- Keys are never transmitted to Korvo servers - not during setup, not during use, not ever.
- Keys are never written to log files, crash reports, or analytics events.
- You can revoke and rotate keys at any time from your provider's dashboard. Korvo picks up the new key immediately.
Supported providers
Korvo currently supports:
OpenAI
GPT-4o, GPT-4 Turbo, o1, o3-mini
Anthropic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus, Claude 3 Haiku
Gemini 2.0 Pro, Gemini 2.0 Flash
More providers - including local models via Ollama - are on our roadmap. Because the architecture is BYOK from day one, adding new providers is straightforward.
“Isn't this more expensive?”
It depends on your usage. For most knowledge workers, the answer is no - it's actually cheaper.
ChatGPT Plus costs $20/month ($240/year) for capped usage. A typical Korvo user running serious analysis might spend $5–15/month on direct API calls - with no caps, better models, and complete privacy. Add Korvo's $149/year early access price, and you're still paying less than a ChatGPT Plus subscription while getting a full structured workspace.
More importantly, you're paying for exactly what you use. No subsidising other users. No paying for features you don't need. And no pricing surprises when the vendor decides to raise rates.
The principle behind BYOK
BYOK isn't just a feature. It's a design principle: your tools should work for you, not extract from you.
You choose your models. You control your costs. You own your data pipeline end-to-end. Korvo is the workspace layer - structured reasoning, project context, decision trails - and the AI layer is yours to control.
Try Korvo with your own API keys
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