Bring Your Own API Key

Derp supports Bring Your Own API Key (BYOK) for users who want to connect Derp's agents to their own Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google API accounts.

This lets you use your own API keys for model access, giving you control over model selection, billing, and data routing. See Model Choice for a list of supported models. For xAI's Grok models, you connect a SuperGrok subscription instead of adding an API key.

BYOK provides greater flexibility in model access and ensures Derp never consumes your AI credits for requests routed through your own keys.

For xAI's Grok models, you can also connect your SuperGrok subscription instead of entering an API key. In the Derp app, go to Settings > AI and choose to connect your SuperGrok subscription — Derp opens your browser to complete the connection.

Note

BYOK is available on Free and all eligible paid plans for individual users and organizations with 10 or fewer employees, subject to Derp's Terms of Service. Larger organizations need a Business or Enterprise plan. See Derp pricing for current availability.

How BYOK differs from custom inference endpoints and BYOLLM

Derp offers several ways to bring your own AI infrastructure. Use this table to pick the right one, and follow the links for full details.

Name	Meaning	Plans
Bring Your Own API Key (BYOK)	Use your own API key for OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google models. Keys are stored locally on your device.	Free and all eligible paid plans
Custom inference endpoint	Connect Derp to an OpenAI-compatible endpoint such as OpenRouter, LiteLLM, z.ai, or an internal gateway.	Free and all eligible paid plans
Bring Your Own LLM (BYOLLM)	Enterprise-managed inference through your cloud provider (AWS Bedrock today; Azure Foundry and Google Vertex coming soon), with Derp handling routing, orchestration, governance, and observability.	Enterprise only
SuperGrok subscription	Connect your SuperGrok subscription to use Grok models through your xAI account. Tokens are stored locally on your device.	Free and all eligible paid plans

See Derp pricing for current plan availability.

Platform credits apply to every cloud agent run on any plan, and to local agent runs on Business and Enterprise when using BYOK, a custom inference endpoint, or BYOLLM. See platform credits for the full breakdown.

Note

Can I sign in with a ChatGPT or Claude subscription? No. A ChatGPT (OpenAI) or Claude (Anthropic) consumer subscription can't be connected to Derp the way a SuperGrok subscription can. OpenAI and Anthropic don't currently allow their subscription plans to be used in third-party clients like Derp. To use your own OpenAI or Anthropic account, add an API key with BYOK and pay your provider directly. A subscription and API access are billed separately by the provider.

How BYOK works

When you add your own model API keys in Derp, those keys are stored only on your device (in your OS keychain or equivalent secure storage), never on Derp's servers. They're used to make requests to your chosen model provider.

When you send a prompt using a model with the key icon:

1. Your local Derp client pulls your API key from your device's secure storage and sends it up to Derp's backend along with your prompt.
2. Derp's agent harness, which runs on Derp's backend, assembles the full request (system instructions, conversation context, tools) and uses your key in-flight to call your chosen model provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google).
3. The provider's response streams back through Derp's backend to your client.

Your API key passes through Derp's servers each time you send a request, but Derp never stores it there — it's used only in-flight to call the provider, then discarded.

Note

Why does the request route through Derp's backend? Derp's agent harness runs server-side — the same runtime that powers Agent Mode with Derp-billed models. BYOK swaps the credential used to call the provider; it does not change where the harness runs.

Caution

BYOK does not apply to Cloud Agents. Because your API keys are stored locally on your device, they are not available to cloud-hosted agent runs, which consume Derp credits. Enterprise teams that need their own keys to work with cloud agents can use team-managed API keys and endpoints, which Derp stores server-side.

When a model is selected using your own key:

• Derp does not consume any of your credits.
• Costs are billed directly through your model provider account.
• Derp does not retain or store your API key on any of its servers.

Enabling BYOK

To enable and configure your API keys:

1. Open Settings and search for API keys to jump to the BYOK configuration.
2. Add your API key(s) for Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google.
3. Once added, you'll see a key icon next to supported models in the model picker.

Note

The BYOK configuration widget doesn't currently live on a dedicated sidebar subpage; searching from the Settings window is the quickest way to reach it. We're tracking a follow-up to surface it under a persistent sidebar entry.

When you explicitly select a model with a key icon, Derp routes requests through your own API key instead of consuming Derp's credits.

BYOK usage and billing behavior

Auto Model

Derp's Auto models dynamically route requests across different models based on context and performance. Because this routing logic depends on Derp's infrastructure, Auto always consumes Derp's credits, even if you've configured your own API keys.

To use your own key, select a specific provider model (for example, Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Sonnet 4.6, GPT-5.5, or Gemini 3.1 Pro) directly from the model picker with a key icon.

Credit usage

When you select a model with the key icon in your model picker, Derp routes the request through your API key. In that case:

• Inference is billed directly through your provider account rather than drawing from your Derp AI credits.
• Agent Mode prioritizes BYOK over any available Derp credits.

Note

On Business and Enterprise plans, local agent runs that use BYOK still consume platform credits for Derp's platform infrastructure (run lifecycle, integrations, observability). See platform credits for what's covered.

Other AI features in Derp

Some AI-powered features are not affected by BYOK and are included as part of Derp’s paid plans.

Feature	Uses Derp's credits	Description
Active AI Recommendations	No	Always included with Build and higher plans.
Codebase Context	Yes	Uses Derp's AI infrastructure and consumes credits.
Cloud Agents	Yes	BYOK keys are stored locally and not available to cloud-hosted runs.

These features will continue to function normally regardless of whether you’ve configured BYOK.

Failover and fallback behavior

If Derp detects an issue with your API key, you’ll see a clear error message corresponding with the AI request.

If your key:

• Is invalid: Derp notifies you and halts the request.
• Hits usage or rate limits: Derp will not retry using credits.

You can update or replace your keys anytime by opening Settings and searching for API keys.

Failover and fallback:

By default, Derp does not fall back to your credits when a BYOK request fails.

You can choose to enable Derp credit fallback. When enabled, if an agent request fails with your BYOK model (for example, due to an API error or quota limit), Derp will automatically route the request to one of Derp’s provided models. Derp always prioritizes your API keys first and only uses Derp credits when necessary.

Zero Data Retention (ZDR) and BYOK

Derp is SOC 2 compliant and has Zero Data Retention (ZDR) policies with all of its contracted LLM providers. No customer AI data is retained, stored, or used for training by the model providers.

BYOK prompts and responses transit Derp's backend (see How BYOK works). Derp does not use this content for training; retention and analytics handling follow the same account-level privacy and telemetry settings that apply to Derp-billed traffic.

However, when you use your own API key:

• Data retention policies on the provider side depend on your provider’s account settings.
• Derp cannot enforce ZDR for requests sent through your API keys.
• If your Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google account does not have ZDR enabled, your requests may be retained by the provider according to their terms.

Derp itself never stores your LLM API keys.

BYOK on Business and Enterprise plans

The BYOK described on this page is configured at the user level on every plan, including Business and Enterprise. Each team member adds and manages their own API keys locally on their device, and those keys work only for interactive requests, not cloud agents.

Enterprise teams can also configure team-managed API keys centrally: an admin sets shared keys in the Admin Panel, and they work for both interactive requests and cloud agents. See Team-managed API keys and endpoints for details, or contact sales.

Related resources

• Custom inference endpoint — Route Derp through any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, such as OpenRouter, LiteLLM, z.ai, or an internal gateway.
• Bring Your Own LLM — Enterprise-managed inference through your cloud provider or approved infrastructure.
• SuperGrok subscription — Use Grok models through your xAI account instead of Derp credits.
• Model Choice — Full list of supported models and model_id values.
• Credits — How Derp credits work and when they're consumed.