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Use a key you already have

Open Settings › Brains, press Add a brain and choose Use a key you already have. Pick the service under Service, paste your key under Key, and press Connect. No key yet? The page shows where to make one.

Show me in JeanOpens Jean at the right place and points at each button. It changes nothing by itself.

What you need

  • An account with the service the key is from. Most ask for a payment method before a key works.
  • A key: a long line of letters and figures, which the service shows once, when you make it.

The services

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Vertex AI, Mistral AI, Meta, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway, Hugging Face, Groq, Cerebras, Together AI, Fireworks AI and xAI: those that take requests straight from a web page, under their own terms. A key from OpenRouter or Vercel AI Gateway reaches many other companies’ brains as well.

Steps

  1. Open Settings, from the menu with your name (or “You”), at the foot of the task list, then Brains. Press Add a brain, and choose Use a key you already have.
  2. Under Service, choose the company the key is from.
  3. No key yet? Follow the steps under it: open the service’s site, sign in, make a new key there, and copy it.
  4. Paste the key under Key, and press Connect.
  5. Jean asks the service whether the key works. Once it does, the brain is in Your brains, and answers your next request.

Good to know

  • A key isn’t a plan. A ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro or Gemini subscription comes with no key, and a key is billed apart, for what you use. To answer with a ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot plan, choose it under Something you pay for instead.
  • A key stays on this device, encrypted, and goes only to its own service. It is never in a backup, a sync or a share.
  • Vertex AI’s key is a file: make a service account in Google Cloud, add a key to it in JSON, and choose that file. It works until you delete the key.
  • Each brain’s page in Brains gives the price of each of its versions, and Change key puts in a new key.
  • With more than one brain, Auto picks one for each request.

If it doesn’t work

Jean says the key was refused

The service said no to it: a letter missing, a key deleted, or an account with nothing to spend. See A brain refused the key.

Jean couldn’t reach the service

This device may be offline, or something on the network stops the request. See Jean couldn’t reach a brain.

Your service isn’t in the list

It doesn’t take requests from a web page, so Jean can’t reach it from your browser. A key from OpenRouter reaches most companies’ brains instead.

Still stuck?

Ask Jean in your own words, for instance: Which brains do I have, and what does each one cost?

If that doesn’t help, write to arnaud@jean.is.

See also