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description: "Configure Jotaid's bring-your-own-key AI end to end — choose a provider, add your API key, and keep every request going straight from your Mac to that provider."
---
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# AI Setup

Jotaid's AI features run on **your own API key** (BYOK — Bring Your Own Key). Nothing is routed through Jotaid's servers; your notes go directly to the provider you choose. This section walks you through configuration end to end.

> **Pro required**
>
> AI features are part of **Jotaid Pro**. Unlock Pro with either a yearly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase — both unlock the same features — then use your own API key to run them. See [Free vs Pro](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/pricing).

## Why Bring Your Own Key

Jotaid **does not embed an AI service**. It does not call a Jotaid-hosted model on your behalf; you supply your own key and requests go straight from your device to the provider you chose.

Three concrete consequences:

| | Bringing your own key means |
|---|---------------------------|
| **Data path** | Your notes travel between two parties: your device → your provider. There is **no Jotaid server** in between, and therefore no "we promise not to look" for you to take on trust |
| **Cost** | You pay your provider for your own usage, metered by them. Jotaid takes no margin and imposes no quota |
| **Choice** | Switch models, switch providers, or run Ollama locally — none of it waits on a Jotaid update |

The cost is real too: you have to go and obtain a key, which is genuinely more work than flipping a switch.

> **An embedded option is deferred, not declined**
>
> For Jotaid to host the inference, we would take on **responsibility for processing your note content** and **a compliance review of an AI runtime** — neither of which is a matter of adding a backend. Until those conditions are met, we would rather you could use this today and **know exactly where your data goes** than be handed a vague hosted arrangement. An embedded option will come when the timing is right, and bring-your-own-key will remain alongside it.

## Supported Providers

Jotaid works with four providers natively, plus any OpenAI-compatible service.

### Native providers

| Provider | Default model |
|----------|--------------|
| **OpenAI** | `gpt-4o-mini` |
| **Anthropic Claude** | `claude-3-5-sonnet` |
| **Google Gemini** | `gemini-2.5-flash` |
| **DeepSeek** | `deepseek-v4-flash` |

### OpenAI-compatible services

Any provider that speaks the OpenAI API format works too. Jotaid includes presets for **Groq, OpenRouter, Together AI, Mistral, xAI (Grok), Moonshot (Kimi), Zhipu (GLM), Qwen, SiliconFlow, Fireworks, Perplexity**, and **Ollama** (local). You can also add a **Custom** endpoint by pasting any base URL.

> **No key yet?**
>
> Where to obtain one from each provider, what keys look like and how to cap costs: [Getting an API Key](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/api-keys).

## Configure in Four Steps

1. Open **Settings → AI**
2. **Choose a provider** from the list
3. **Paste your API key** into the key field
4. **Pick a model** — for most providers a curated list is offered; Gemini fetches its model list live

That's it. Once a valid key is saved, every AI feature becomes available.

## Feature Toggles

After setup, control which AI helpers are active in **Settings → AI**:

- **Auto Title & Tags** — automatically name new notes and suggest tags (on by default)
- **Theme Summaries** — synthesize all notes in a theme into key insights
- **Node Enrichment** — expand a concept node with AI-generated content
- **Smart Format** — clean up Markdown formatting in the current note (⇧⌘F)
- **Semantic Suggestions** — surface links between notes you might have missed

See [AI Features](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/ai-features) for where each one is triggered and what it does.

## Privacy

- Your API key is stored **locally in the system Keychain** — never synced, never sent to Jotaid
- Note content is sent **only** to the provider you configured, and only when you trigger a feature
- No data is collected or used for training

## Troubleshooting

- **"Invalid API key"** — double-check you copied the full key with no trailing spaces, and that the key has credit/quota on the provider side.
- **Empty or cut-off results** — try a larger model, or a provider with a higher output limit. Very small models can truncate structured output.
- **Model not listed** — pick **Custom** or an OpenAI-compatible preset and enter the model name manually.

## Next Steps

- [AI Features](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/ai-features) — Where each feature lives and what it returns
- [Semantic Relations](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/semantic-relations) — Where semantic suggestions appear