How to get your AI keys

What 'bring your own key' means

Your assistant is powered by an AI company like OpenAI, Google or Anthropic. To use them, you need an API key: a long secret password that links the work your assistant does to your account with that company.

Bring your own key, or BYOK, simply means you use your own key. You make a free account with the provider, create a key, and paste it into comxbot. From then on, the AI work your assistant does is billed to you by that provider, directly, at their normal prices.

If you'd rather not set up a provider account, comxbot can manage a key for you instead and you top it up with pre-paid credit. Either way, the steps below show you how the keys work.

Every reply is charged to your key (and why that's good)

Here's the important bit: every answer your assistant writes, and every answer it reads aloud if you turn on a voice, uses your key and is charged to your provider account at their price. A typical text answer costs a fraction of a penny.

comxbot never adds a mark-up on top of that, and there's no per-message or per-conversation fee. Your comxbot plan pays for the platform, and your AI usage is separate and at cost.

Why this is better for you: your costs stay low because you pay the provider's real price, not a marked-up one. You can see exactly what you're spending on the provider's own dashboard. You stay in control, you can set spending limits with the provider, and your costs scale with provider prices rather than someone else's margin. Many other tools bundle the AI in and add a margin, or charge around a dollar for every conversation, which gets expensive fast.

Which keys do you need?

For the assistant to answer at all, you need one chat key: OpenAI, Google or Anthropic. OpenAI or Google can also do the knowledge search behind the scenes. If you pick Anthropic (Claude) you'll also need an OpenAI or Google key for that search.

Voice keys are optional. Read-aloud already works for free using the voice built into the visitor's browser. You only need a voice key if you want a natural, studio-quality voice. ElevenLabs is the easiest to start with, and your OpenAI key can do voice too.

You can start with just one OpenAI key, which covers chat, knowledge search and voice, and add others later.

Get a OpenAI key

What it powers: Chat answers, knowledge search and (if you want it) read-aloud voice.

1. Go to platform.openai.com and sign in, or create a free account.

2. Open Billing in the left menu, add a card and add a little credit (say $5 to $10). You only ever pay for what you use.

3. Go to platform.openai.com/api-keys and click 'Create new secret key'. Give it a name like 'comxbot'.

4. Copy the key straight away, you only get to see it once.

5. Paste it into comxbot under Settings then AI provider keys.

The key starts with 'sk-'.

Good to know: The same OpenAI key also powers read-aloud voice, so one key can cover both.

Link: https://platform.openai.com/api-keys

Get a Google (Gemini) key

What it powers: Chat answers and knowledge search.

1. Go to aistudio.google.com and sign in with a Google account.

2. Click 'Get API key' in the left menu, then 'Create API key'.

3. Copy the key.

4. Paste it into comxbot under Settings then AI provider keys.

Good to know: Google has a free tier to start. For higher limits, link a billing account in Google Cloud.

Link: https://aistudio.google.com/app/apikey

Get a Anthropic (Claude) key

What it powers: Chat answers only (not knowledge search).

1. Go to console.anthropic.com and sign in, or create an account.

2. Open Billing and add some credit.

3. Go to API keys, click 'Create Key', name it and copy it.

4. Paste it into comxbot under Settings then AI provider keys.

The key starts with 'sk-ant-'.

Good to know: Claude does chat only, so you'll also need an OpenAI or Google key for the knowledge search.

Link: https://console.anthropic.com/settings/keys

Voice keys, for natural read-aloud

These are only needed if you want a studio-quality spoken voice instead of the free browser one. You add them under Settings then Voice provider keys.

Get a ElevenLabs key

What it powers: The most natural, studio-quality voices, great for many languages.

1. Go to elevenlabs.io and create an account.

2. Pick a plan. There's a free tier to try it, and paid plans for more speech and commercial use.

3. Click your profile, open 'API Keys', create a key and copy it.

4. Paste it into comxbot under Settings then Voice provider keys.

Link: https://elevenlabs.io/app/settings/api-keys

Get a OpenAI voice key

What it powers: Good, natural voices using the same key as your chat.

1. You can use the very same OpenAI key you use for chat, it covers text-to-speech too.

2. If you don't have one yet, follow the OpenAI steps above to make one.

3. Paste it into comxbot under Settings then Voice provider keys.

The key starts with 'sk-'.

Link: https://platform.openai.com/api-keys

Get a Microsoft Azure Speech key

What it powers: Enterprise-grade voices, handy if your organisation already uses Azure.

1. Sign in at portal.azure.com (you need a Microsoft Azure account).

2. Create a 'Speech service' resource and choose a region (for example uksouth).

3. Open the resource, go to 'Keys and Endpoint', and copy KEY 1 and the Region.

4. Paste the key and the region into comxbot under Settings then Voice provider keys.

Good to know: Azure is aimed at larger organisations. If you just want it working quickly, ElevenLabs or OpenAI are simpler.

Link: https://portal.azure.com

Get a Google Cloud Text-to-Speech key

What it powers: Wide language coverage from Google Cloud.

1. This uses Google Cloud, which is different from the Gemini AI Studio above.

2. At console.cloud.google.com, create a project and turn on billing.

3. Search for and enable the 'Cloud Text-to-Speech API'.

4. Go to 'APIs and Services' then 'Credentials', create an API key and copy it.

5. Paste it into comxbot under Settings then Voice provider keys.

Link: https://console.cloud.google.com

Get a PlayHT key

What it powers: Lots of expressive voices.

1. Go to play.ht and create an account.

2. Open the API access page in your account.

3. Copy both your API Key and your User ID, PlayHT needs both.

4. Paste them into comxbot under Settings then Voice provider keys.

Good to know: PlayHT is the one provider that needs a User ID as well as the key.

Link: https://play.ht/studio/api-access

Where to add your keys in comxbot

Chat keys: go to Settings then AI provider keys, choose the provider, paste the key and save. You can set one key for the whole workspace or a different key for a single assistant.

Voice keys: go to Settings then Voice provider keys, choose the provider and paste the key (Azure also needs a region, and PlayHT also needs a User ID). Then pick the voice on each assistant's settings page.

We encrypt every key before storing it and only ever show you the last few characters afterwards.

Keeping costs down, and the no-fuss option

Set a spending limit on your provider's dashboard so you're always in control. For voice, comxbot also has a daily limit that falls back to the free browser voice if it's reached.

If you'd rather not deal with provider accounts at all, ask about a comxbot-managed key. We provide the key, you pre-pay credit, and your usage draws down from the balance at cost, with optional automatic top-ups.