BYOAIK — Bring Your Own AI Key: a directory of AI tools that run on your own API key.
Pal Chat
Free iOS chat client where you paste your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq or OpenRouter key and pay per token.
- Category:
- AI Chat Interfaces
- Pricing:
- Free
- Open source:
- No
- Self-hostable:
- No
- Local-first:
- No
- Platforms:
- Mobile
- AI providers (bring your own key):
- OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek
- API key storage:
- Stored locally on device
- Key risk level:
- LOW
- Trust score:
- 59/100
Pal Chat is a free-to-download, closed-source native app for iOS, iPadOS and Apple Silicon Macs for chatting with models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, OpenRouter, DeepSeek and Mistral, plus image generation and local models. The App Store listing instructs users to obtain their own API key and enter it in the app; no Pal-hosted proxy or account is required for core chat, and usage is billed by the provider. An optional Pro purchase unlocks extra features but not the bring-your-own-key capability itself. No public repository exists, so key handling cannot be inspected.
Why this trust score (59/100)
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 3/20 — Closed source with no public repository — the key handling cannot be independently inspected.
- Privacy 7/15 — Nothing specific is known about its data handling beyond the key itself.
- Maintenance 4/10 — Maintenance activity has not been established for this listing.
- Verification Confidence 5/10 — Key handling is quoted verbatim from official documentation.
How your API key is handled
Your API key is stored locally on your device. Requests are sent directly to the AI provider.
Setup
Open settings, paste your provider API key, choose a model, and start — the key stays on your device.