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

NextChat

Light and fast, self-hostable AI chat UI where you bring your own provider keys.

Category:: AI Chat Interfaces
Maintenance:: Maintained (last commit about 1 month ago)
Pricing:: Open Source
Open source:: Yes (MIT)
Self-hostable:: Yes
Local-first:: Yes
Platforms:: Web, Desktop, Mobile, Self-hosted, Docker
AI providers (bring your own key):: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure OpenAI, Groq, DeepSeek, Ollama, Custom / OpenAI-compatible
API key storage:: Stored locally on device
Key risk level:: LOW
Trust score:: 91/100

NextChat (formerly ChatGPT-Next-Web) is an open-source, cross-platform AI assistant you deploy yourself and point at your own API keys. It runs as a web app, a Tauri desktop app (Windows/macOS/Linux), and mobile builds (iOS/Android), with all chat data stored locally. Users supply their own keys for OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Azure OpenAI, Groq, Ollama/LocalAI and others, either via in-app settings or environment variables. A BASE_URL env var lets you point it at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and one-click Vercel/Docker deploys are supported. Admins can optionally hide the user-key field (HIDE_USER_API_KEY=1) for shared deployments, but the default flow is fully BYOK. The project is enormously popular (88k+ stars) and actively maintained, with commits as recent as May 2026.

Why this trust score (91/100)

Trust measures how the tool treats your API key and how much of that has been verified. It contains no popularity signal.

Key Safety 23/25: The key is held on your own device.
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 14/15: Local-first: it works without sending your data anywhere. Can be self-hosted, so the data path stays inside infrastructure you control.
Maintenance 10/10: Actively developed: 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] The user supplies their own Anthropic key: the project references its API key variable. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own DeepSeek key: the project references its API key variable. source
[STRONG · SOURCE_SCAN] The user supplies their own xAI Grok key: the project references its API key variable. source
[CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Ships a container definition, so it can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure. source
[CONFIRMED · SOURCE_SCAN] Most recent commit 2026-08-11, about 0 month(s) ago. source

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.