Choose a saved or a session key

Keep a key encrypted on the server or in this tab only, and see which key answers.

In short

A key can be saved, encrypted on the server, or kept for this session only, in the browser tab's memory. A saved key also writes report summaries and fills in profiles; a session key serves the assistant alone. Settings › AI always says which key answers where you are.

Before you start

• Who: anyone signed in, for their own keys.
• Plan: free on every plan. A saved key also writes report summaries and fills in profiles; a session key serves the assistant alone.
• First: an API key (see /help/ai/providers-and-credentials).

Steps

1. In Settings › AI, press "Use your own key instead" ("Add AI key" when nothing answers yet) and fill in the provider and the key.
2. Under "Where should this key live?", choose "Just this session".
3. Press "Test key", then "Use for this session".
4. To drop it early, press "Forget it now".

1. On the key's card, open its "Actions for" menu and choose "Edit" to rename it or change its model or endpoint. Leave the key box blank to keep the current key.
2. Press "Test" on the card to make one small call with the saved key.
3. In the same menu choose "Remove" and confirm with "Remove key". A removed key cannot be read again.

Result: the page shows "Using a key for this session only" while a session key is in play, and answers carry a session key tag.

Which key answers

1. A key for this session only, for the assistant only.
2. Your saved key marked Active. Only one is active at a time; saving a new one with "Use this one for the assistant" ticked turns the previous one off.
3. Your organization's own key, where the organization you work in has one (Business and Enterprise).
4. The platform key, where the deployment has one. On the Free plan it answers questions about how {{brand}} works.

Example: your team runs on a saved OpenAI key and you want to compare Claude for an afternoon. Add Anthropic with "Just this session" and press "Use for this session". Answers now come from Claude; the OpenAI key stays active underneath and answers again after a refresh.

Good to know

• Choose "Just this session" to try a provider, on a shared machine, or when your company keeps keys out of databases. It survives moving between screens in the same tab.
• The platform key needs a confirmed email address. A key of your own works without one. Settings › Profile can send the confirmation link again.
• If a removed key was active, questions fall back to the platform key, or to no provider where there is none.
• An organization admin can choose that only the organization's key, or only the platform's AI, answers there. You are told once, and your own key is not used in that organization.
• Two things never use your key: Jobs' candidate features, which always use the platform's AI, and an organization that keeps AI in the European Union.

If something goes wrong

• "Your organization's AI settings do not let this key answer here.": the organization chose whose key answers. Your key still works in your Personal Workspace.
• "Enter the key again to change its provider or its address": a saved key is never sent anywhere new without it. Paste the key again with the change.
• "A new credential needs an API key.": paste the key before you save.
• A session key stopped answering: the tab was refreshed or closed. Add it again.

Related

• /help/ai/providers-and-credentials
• /help/ai/what-the-assistant-reads#organization-settings
• /help/ai/answers-left