What does bring-your-own-key actually mean?

You create an API key with an AI provider — OpenAI, Anthropic or ElevenLabs — and connect it to CourseConverter. AI features then run against your account, and the provider bills you directly at their standard rates.

Why not just include AI credits in the subscription?

Because credit-based pricing means either paying for capacity you don't use, or hitting a limit mid-project. It also forces us to price in a margin on tokens and to guess at average usage. Connecting your own key removes the guesswork on both sides.

How much does the AI usage actually cost?

It depends entirely on the provider's rates and how much you generate. Text generation is typically very cheap per course; image generation and voice narration cost more. You see the real usage on your provider dashboard, not an abstraction of it.

Is my API key secure?

It's stored encrypted, used only for your own workspace's requests, and isn't displayed again after you save it. You can remove or replace it at any time from your settings.

Does my course content get used to train AI models?

That's determined by your agreement with your AI provider, not by us — which is precisely the point. Requests run on your account under your terms, so the answer is one you control and can show to a security reviewer.

Which providers are supported?

OpenAI and Anthropic for text and image generation, and ElevenLabs for voice narration. Support for additional providers, including Azure OpenAI for enterprise deployments, is on the roadmap.

Do I need a key to use CourseConverter?

No. Everything except the AI features works without one — importing documents, building courses, branding, and exporting to SCORM, HTML and Word. The key is only needed for AI generation on Pro.

CourseConverter

Bring your own AI key

Your AI. Your costs. Your content.

No marked-up credits, no monthly token allowance, no wondering what a 'generation' costs. Connect your own provider key and pay the provider directly at cost.

Pay OpenAI, Anthropic or ElevenLabs directly
No generation limits or credit balance
Content stays on your provider account

Start free See pricing

Free tier, no card required.

AI credits are a pricing model, not a feature.

Most AI tools bundle credits into the subscription. It sounds simpler, and for light use it often is. But the credits are bought wholesale and resold at a margin, the exchange rate between 'a credit' and 'what actually happened' is deliberately unclear, and the allowance is set to a number that suits the vendor's averages rather than your project.

The practical result is familiar: you ration regenerations because each one costs something you can't quantify, or you hit the ceiling in the middle of building a course and pay for a top-up you didn't plan for.

There's also a question that gets louder the larger the client: where did our content go, under whose terms, and can you show us?

Two ways to pay for AI

Neither is dishonest. One is considerably more transparent.

Bundled credits

A monthly allowance set by the vendor
Credits priced above provider cost
Unclear what one generation consumes
Run out mid-project, buy a top-up
Unused allowance expires
Content processed under the vendor's terms

Your own key

No allowance — generate what you need
Provider's published rates, no margin
Real usage visible on your provider dashboard
Nothing to run out of
Pay only for what you actually use
Content processed under your own agreement

The honest trade-off: you have to create a provider account and paste in a key. That’s a few minutes of setup, once. If you’d rather not, every non-AI feature works without it.

Everything AI does, on your key

Generate a full course from a document

Build a course from web page URLs

Draft blocks from a plain-English description

Write knowledge-check questions from a module

Rewrite, shorten, simplify or formalise text

Generate illustrations, photos and diagrams

Narrate text blocks with OpenAI or ElevenLabs voices

Audit a course for instructional-design problems

Write the FAQ, resources pack and facilitator guide

Produce the training strategy for client sign-off

All included with Pro. The subscription pays for the product; the provider bills you for the tokens.

What connecting your own key gives you

Provider prices, not ours

You pay OpenAI, Anthropic or ElevenLabs directly at their published rates. We don't buy credits wholesale and resell them to you at a margin, because we never touch them.

No generation limits

Regenerate a knowledge check twenty times if the twentieth is the good one. There's no per-month credit balance to ration, because there's no credit balance.

Keys encrypted, never shared

Your key is stored encrypted and used only for your workspace's requests. It isn't visible in the interface after you save it and it isn't shared with anyone.

Your content, your account

Requests go to your provider account under your terms — which matters when the content is a client's confidential material and someone in procurement asks where it went.

Switch providers when you like

Use Anthropic for text and OpenAI for images, or change your mind next month. You're not locked into whichever model we happened to sign a contract with.

Every AI feature, one key

Course generation, block drafting, knowledge checks, rewriting, images, narration, the FAQ, the resources pack and the training strategy all run on the key you connect.

Common questions

What does bring-your-own-key actually mean?: You create an API key with an AI provider — OpenAI, Anthropic or ElevenLabs — and connect it to CourseConverter. AI features then run against your account, and the provider bills you directly at their standard rates.
Why not just include AI credits in the subscription?: Because credit-based pricing means either paying for capacity you don't use, or hitting a limit mid-project. It also forces us to price in a margin on tokens and to guess at average usage. Connecting your own key removes the guesswork on both sides.
How much does the AI usage actually cost?: It depends entirely on the provider's rates and how much you generate. Text generation is typically very cheap per course; image generation and voice narration cost more. You see the real usage on your provider dashboard, not an abstraction of it.
Is my API key secure?: It's stored encrypted, used only for your own workspace's requests, and isn't displayed again after you save it. You can remove or replace it at any time from your settings.
Does my course content get used to train AI models?: That's determined by your agreement with your AI provider, not by us — which is precisely the point. Requests run on your account under your terms, so the answer is one you control and can show to a security reviewer.
Which providers are supported?: OpenAI and Anthropic for text and image generation, and ElevenLabs for voice narration. Support for additional providers, including Azure OpenAI for enterprise deployments, is on the roadmap.
Do I need a key to use CourseConverter?: No. Everything except the AI features works without one — importing documents, building courses, branding, and exporting to SCORM, HTML and Word. The key is only needed for AI generation on Pro.