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Bring Your Own Key

Helm’s BYOK model puts you in control of which AI models power your copilot — and what you pay for them.

You provide your own API key from a supported AI provider. Helm routes copilot requests through your key. You pay the provider directly at their published rates.

Supported providers:

  • OpenRouter (access to hundreds of models)
  • Anthropic (Claude)
  • OpenAI (GPT-4o, GPT-4, etc.)
  • Any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint

Helm does not mark up AI usage. Your API costs are between you and your provider. Helm handles the workflow, the context injection, the command execution — you control the intelligence layer.

Different models have different strengths. With BYOK, you pick the model that fits your needs:

  • Want the best reasoning? Use Claude Sonnet or GPT-4o.
  • Want lower cost for routine tasks? Use a smaller model via OpenRouter.
  • Have a compliance requirement for a specific provider? Use that provider directly.

The Free tier includes a budget AI model at no cost to you. No API key required. This gives you a working copilot experience to evaluate Helm before committing to a provider.

BYOK is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. The Free tier uses a Helm-provided budget model.