BYOAIK — Bring Your Own AI Key: a directory of AI tools that run on your own API key.

Jan

Open-source local-first desktop AI assistant that runs models offline or via your own cloud provider keys.

Website Source code

Category:

Desktop AI Assistants

Pricing:

Open Source

Open source:

Yes (Apache-2.0)

Self-hostable:

Yes

Local-first:

Yes

Platforms:

Desktop, CLI, Self-hosted, Docker

AI providers (bring your own key):

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter, Groq, Mistral, Hugging Face, Ollama, Custom / OpenAI-compatible

API key storage:

Stored locally on device

Key risk level:

LOW

Trust score:

92/100

Jan is an open-source (Apache 2.0) desktop AI assistant from Menlo Research positioned as a private, local-first alternative to ChatGPT. It bundles local inference (HuggingFace models like Llama, Gemma, Qwen, GPT-oss) and runs fully offline when desired, exposing a local OpenAI-compatible API server at localhost:1337. Crucially for a BYOK directory, its documented Settings -> Model Providers flow lets a user paste their own API key for cloud providers and pick a model from that provider. Official docs (jan.ai/docs/desktop/remote-models/*) walk through the identical "create & copy an API key -> Settings -> Model Providers -> insert your API Key" flow for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Groq, Mistral, Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter, and Hugging Face, plus Custom Endpoints for any OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible base URL. It also supports MCP for agentic features and ships a CLI. Available for Windows 10+, macOS 13.6+, and Linux (deb/AppImage/Arm64), with Microsoft Store and Flathub distribution. ~43k GitHub stars and active (latest release v0.8.2, 100+ releases). Note: the candidate's claimed MIT license is incorrect; the actual license is Apache 2.0.

How your API key is handled

Your API key is stored locally on your device. Requests are sent directly to the AI provider. Because it can be self-hosted, your key never has to touch a third-party backend.

Setup

Open settings, paste your provider API key, choose a model, and start — the key stays on your device.