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

SillyTavern

Open-source self-hosted LLM frontend for power users and roleplay, BYOK to many backends.

Website Source code

Category:
AI Chat Interfaces
Maintenance:
Maintained (last commit about 2 months ago)
Pricing:
Open Source
Open source:
Yes (AGPL-3.0)
Self-hostable:
Yes
Local-first:
Yes
Platforms:
Self-hosted, Web, Docker
AI providers (bring your own key):
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Mistral, DeepSeek, Cohere, Perplexity, xAI Grok, Groq, Fireworks, Ollama, Custom / OpenAI-compatible
API key storage:
User controls deployment
Key risk level:
LOW
Trust score:
83/100

SillyTavern is a free, open-source (AGPL-3.0), locally-installed/self-hosted web frontend for interacting with large language models, originally forked from TavernAI in 2023 and now a large community project. It provides a single unified interface for both cloud and local LLM backends and is heavily used for character-based chat and roleplay, with advanced features like character cards, world info/lorebooks, group chats, prompt/preset management, extensions, and optional image generation and TTS. It hosts no AI service itself and tracks no user data, so users bring their own API keys (or run fully local models). Under Chat Completion mode users pick a source (OpenAI, Claude/Anthropic, Google AI Studio/Vertex, OpenRouter, Mistral, DeepSeek, Cohere, Perplexity, xAI Grok, Groq, Fireworks, AI21, etc.) and paste their own key, or choose "Custom (OpenAI-compatible)" to set an arbitrary base URL plus key for services like LM Studio, LiteLLM, LocalAI, and Ollama. Actively maintained with frequent releases (v1.18.0 in May 2026).

Why this trust score (83/100)

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

  • Key Safety 21/25: The key lives in a deployment you run yourself.
  • Request Routing 17/20: Requests go straight from you to the AI provider.
  • Transparency 20/20: Source is public under AGPL-3.0, so anyone can check how the key is handled.
  • 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 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 2026-07-07, about 1 month(s) ago. source

How your API key is handled

You self-host the app, so your API key lives in your own deployment. 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

Deploy it (Docker/compose), add your provider API key in the admin or environment config, then select models.