BYOAIK (Bring Your Own AI Key) is a directory of AI tools that run on your own API key.
LlamaIndex
Leading open-source data and agent framework for building research agents; you supply every provider's API key.
- Category:
- Agent Frameworks
- Maintenance:
- Actively developed (last commit today)
- Pricing:
- Open Source
- Open source:
- Yes (MIT)
- Self-hostable:
- No
- Local-first:
- No
- Platforms:
- Library/SDK, Self-hosted
- AI providers (bring your own key):
- OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Ollama, Custom / OpenAI-compatible, AWS Bedrock, Mistral, Cohere, Hugging Face
- API key storage:
- Configured by environment variable
- Key risk level:
- LOW
- Trust score:
- 83/100
LlamaIndex is a framework for connecting LLMs to your own data and building retrieval-augmented agents, including coding-assistant and research use cases. Each LLM integration is configured by the user either via an environment variable such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or by passing api_key directly to the client constructor, so LlamaIndex never brokers or pools a key on the user's behalf. Works with standard provider APIs plus Bedrock and Vertex AI deployments. MIT licensed with 50,000+ stars.
How this tool was scored
Key handling 77/100 (where your key rests and who sees it, comparable across any licence) and verifiability 90/100 (how much of that BYOAIK could confirm, lower for closed source). Neither contains a popularity signal.
- Key Safety 22/25: The key is supplied by an environment variable or local config file you control.
- Request Routing 17/20: Requests go straight from you to the AI provider.
- Transparency 20/20: Source is public under MIT, so anyone can check how the key is handled. Key handling was located in the published source.
- Privacy 7/15: Nothing specific is known about its data handling beyond the key itself.
- Maintenance 10/10: Actively developed, with commits within the last three months.
- Verification Confidence 7/10: Key handling was found in the published source by BYOAIK's scanner.
What was checked
Verification tier SOURCE_VERIFIED, derived from the evidence below and not set by hand.
- [REPORTED · RESEARCH] This listing was compiled by an AI-assisted research pass over the tool's public website, README and documentation. No person independently confirmed it.
- [STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own OpenAI key: the project references its API key variable. source
- [STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] Supports a local model backend, so it can run with no cloud provider key at all. source
- [CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-09-29, about 0 month(s) ago. source
How your API key is handled
Your API key is supplied via an environment variable or local config file. Requests are sent directly to the AI provider.
Setup
Install the tool, set your provider API key as an environment variable (or in its config file), and pick a model.