BYOAIK (Bring Your Own AI Key) is a directory of AI tools that run on your own API key.

MarkItDown

Microsoft's file-to-markdown converter, with image description and OCR on a client you provide.

Website Source code

Category:
Document Analysis
Maintenance:
Actively developed (last commit yesterday)
Pricing:
Open Source
Open source:
Yes (MIT)
Self-hostable:
No
Local-first:
No
Platforms:
CLI, Local-only
AI providers (bring your own key):
OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Custom / OpenAI-compatible
API key storage:
Configured by environment variable
Key risk level:
LOW
Trust score:
77/100

MarkItDown converts Office documents, PDFs, images, audio and more into markdown for LLM pipelines, preserving headings, lists, tables and links. Conversion itself needs no model. Where AI does come in, for image descriptions and the OCR plugin, the README's pattern is that you pass your own llm_client and llm_model, so the credential and the choice of provider stay with you rather than being baked in. MIT, and by a distance the most-starred project in this directory.

Why this trust score (77/100)

Trust measures how the tool treats your API key and how much of that has been verified. It contains no 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.
  • 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 1/10: Compiled from public documentation by an AI-assisted pass, not independently confirmed.

What was checked

Verification tier RESEARCH_ASSISTED, 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.
  • [CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Ships a container definition, so it can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure. source
  • [CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-09-14, 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.