AI, OpenRouter and Pricing
OpenRouter and BYOK
pinakea uses a “Bring Your Own Key” (BYOK) model for cloud AI features. This means you create your own account with an AI provider and use your own API key — pinakea doesn’t bundle AI services into its price or act as a middleman.
This document explains how it works and why we chose this approach.
What is OpenRouter?
OpenRouter is a unified API service that provides access to AI models from multiple providers — Google (Gemini), Alibaba (Qwen), xAI (Grok), and many others — through a single account and API key.
Instead of creating separate accounts with Google, Alibaba, and xAI, you create one OpenRouter account and access all their models through one interface with one balance.
Why pinakea Uses OpenRouter
Access to multiple providers. pinakea uses different models for different tasks: Qwen for embeddings, Gemini for pipeline processing, and your choice of Gemini or Grok for chat. OpenRouter lets you access all of these with a single API key.
Transparent pricing. OpenRouter publishes model pricing, and pinakea shows recent usage in the app so you can compare actual spend against your OpenRouter dashboard.
No vendor lock-in. If a better model becomes available from a new provider, OpenRouter typically adds support quickly. pinakea can offer new models without requiring you to create new accounts.
Proven reliability. OpenRouter handles millions of API requests and provides consistent uptime. It’s a mature service used by many applications.
What is BYOK?
BYOK stands for “Bring Your Own Key.” It sounds technical, but the concept is simple: instead of pinakea charging you for AI usage, you create your own account with an AI service and pay them directly.
Think of it like this: pinakea is the kitchen, but you bring your own ingredients. The AI provider (accessed through OpenRouter) supplies the ingredients — pinakea just does the cooking.
How It Works in Practice
- You create a free account at OpenRouter
- You add credit to your OpenRouter balance
- You copy your API key into pinakea’s settings
- Done. pinakea can now use cloud AI features.
That’s the entire setup. No subscription forms, no recurring billing to manage, no cancellation hassles.
What You’re Actually Paying For
When pinakea processes your content with cloud AI, it sends requests to AI providers like Google (Gemini) or Alibaba (Qwen). These providers charge usage-based amounts according to their published model pricing.
With BYOK, you pay:
- The actual AI cost — what Google, Alibaba, or xAI charges for processing
- A small routing fee — OpenRouter adds a minimal surcharge for providing unified access
That’s it. No markup from pinakea, no “AI credits” with inflated pricing, no mystery fees.
Complete Cost Visibility
You always know exactly what you’re spending:
In pinakea: The status bar shows your current monthly spending and the cost of your last request — updated in real time. No surprises at the end of the month.
In OpenRouter: Your dashboard shows precise, up-to-the-second spending for each API key. You can see exactly which requests cost what.
No Risk of Overspending
Worried about runaway costs? You’re fully protected:
- Set a spending limit on your API key. Once reached, the key stops working — period. You decide the maximum, and it’s a hard cap.
- Credits don’t auto-renew by default. When your balance runs out, requests simply fail. You add more credits when you’re ready.
- No surprise charges. Unless you explicitly enable auto-recharge (which is off by default), nothing happens automatically.
You’re always in control.
Is This Complicated?
No. Creating an OpenRouter account is a short setup step. The API key is just a string of characters you copy once and paste into pinakea’s settings.
BYOK might sound unfamiliar, but it keeps AI costs visible and under your control. You pay only for what you use, with complete visibility into spending. No subscriptions, no commitments.
Why BYOK?
Given that BYOK requires a small setup step, why did we choose this approach?
Transparency
You can inspect AI processing costs directly. There’s no markup hidden in pinakea’s price, no “AI credits” with unclear value. OpenRouter publishes model pricing, and pinakea shows recent usage in the app.
No Recurring Fees
Many apps charge monthly subscriptions that assume heavy AI usage. If you use the app lightly one month, you still pay the full subscription. With BYOK, you pay only for what you use. Take a month off? Pay nothing.
Your Relationship, Your Data
Your API requests go directly from your Mac to OpenRouter to the AI provider. pinakea doesn’t proxy your requests through our servers. We don’t see your content, your usage patterns, or your costs. Your relationship is directly with OpenRouter and the AI providers.
Flexibility
You can use the same OpenRouter account with other applications. Your credits aren’t locked to pinakea — they work anywhere OpenRouter is supported.
Getting Started with OpenRouter
1. Create an Account
Visit openrouter.ai and create an account. You can sign up with email or use Google/GitHub authentication.
2. Add Credits
Navigate to your account settings and add credits. OpenRouter shows the current minimum balance and payment options in its own checkout flow.
OpenRouter shows the currently available payment methods and payment processor details during checkout.
3. Generate an API Key
In your OpenRouter dashboard, go to Keys and create a new API key. Give it a descriptive name like “pinakea” so you can identify it later.
Important: You can set a spending limit when creating the key. This is a hard cap — once reached, the key stops working until you raise the limit. This prevents any possibility of runaway costs.
4. Add the Key to pinakea
In pinakea, go to Settings → AI → Global and paste your API key. pinakea will validate it and show your current balance.
That’s it. pinakea can now use cloud AI features.
Cost Structure
Pay-As-You-Go
OpenRouter is pay-as-you-go. Add credits when you need them, use them over time, and check OpenRouter’s own account page for current terms.
Credit Terms
OpenRouter publishes current credit and billing terms in its dashboard. Check those terms before adding credit.
Per-Token Pricing
AI costs are measured in tokens (roughly 4 characters or 0.75 words). Each model has published input and output token prices. Embeddings are charged per token processed. Chat responses are charged for both the context (input) and the response (output).
You don’t need to understand token math to use pinakea. Longer content generally requires more processing, and OpenRouter publishes the model prices it applies.
Cost Expectations
Final measured pinakea cost guidance is still being prepared. Until then, use OpenRouter’s published model pricing and your in-app spend indicators as the source of truth.
Initial Library Processing
When you first add sources to pinakea in Online Mode, every item needs embeddings for search plus summaries, titles, and tags. This is usually the largest one-time OpenRouter usage event for a Set. The actual cost depends on content length, selected models, provider pricing, and how much work is regenerated.
Ongoing Daily Use
After initial processing, costs come from:
- New items: embeddings, summaries, titles, and tags in Online Mode
- Chat conversations: context input plus response output
- Full summaries: source context plus generated summary output
- Mode switches: regeneration work when changing a populated Set between Online and Mixed
Inactive Periods
If you don’t use pinakea’s cloud features, you pay nothing. Your credits sit in your account until you need them.
For detailed cost breakdowns, see LLM Cost (OpenRouter).
Spending Limits
OpenRouter provides robust cost control through API key limits.
Setting a Limit
When you create an API key (or edit an existing one), you can set a credit limit. This is the maximum amount that key can spend — ever, across all time.
For example, set a limit that matches your comfort level. Once total spending reaches that limit, the key stops working. You’ll need to either add more credits and raise the limit, or create a new key.
Why This Matters
Spending limits give you complete control:
- No surprise bills. If you set a hard limit, the key cannot spend beyond it.
- Budget enforcement. Set a limit that matches your comfort level.
- Peace of mind. Even if something goes wrong (a bug, unexpected usage), spending stops at your limit.
Recommended Approach
Start with a conservative limit while you learn your usage patterns. Adjust it after you have observed actual pinakea usage in OpenRouter and in the app.
Model Selection in pinakea
pinakea uses specific models for different tasks:
Pipeline Processing (Automatic)
| Task | Model | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Embeddings | Qwen3 Embedding 8B | Creates semantic vectors for search |
| Summaries | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | Generates bullet-point summaries |
| Titles | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | Creates descriptive titles |
| Tags | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | Suggests relevant tags |
These models are selected for their balance of quality, speed, and cost. You don’t choose them — pinakea uses them automatically.
Chat and Full Summaries (Your Choice)
For interactive features, you choose between model families:
Google Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Excellent reasoning and fast responses
- Large context window
- Available in Balanced (faster) and High (deeper reasoning) variants
Grok 4.1 Fast
- Massive context capacity (up to 2 million tokens)
- Good for conversations spanning many documents
- Available in Balanced and High variants
Switch between models anytime in the chat interface. Different models suit different tasks — experiment to find what works for your questions.
For a deeper dive into how pinakea’s AI pipeline works — including why specific models were chosen and how they work together — see Leveraging AI.
Mixed Mode and API Keys
If you use Mixed mode, the pipeline stages (embeddings, summaries, titles, tags) run locally on your Mac — no API key needed for those operations.
However, chat and full summaries require an API key even in Mixed mode. These features use cloud models because local models can’t deliver acceptable quality for interactive conversations and comprehensive summaries.
Also, AI → Consolidate AI Tags… requires an OpenRouter API key in both Mixed and Online modes, because clustering uses a remote model.
You can use Mixed mode without an API key to explore pinakea’s timeline and search. But to unlock chat and summaries, you’ll need an OpenRouter account.
Troubleshooting
When something goes wrong, pinakea shows an error with an HTTP status code from OpenRouter. Here’s what the common codes mean:
Status 401 — Authentication Failed
Your API key isn’t working.
- Check that you copied the entire key (they’re long strings)
- Ensure there are no extra spaces before or after the key
- Verify the key is active in your OpenRouter dashboard
Status 402 — Payment Required
Your OpenRouter balance is empty or your key has hit its spending limit.
- Add more credits at openrouter.ai
- Or raise the spending limit on your API key
Status 429 — Rate Limited
OpenRouter or the underlying provider is temporarily limiting requests. This usually resolves within minutes. If it persists, check OpenRouter’s status page.
Status 500/502/503 — Server Error
OpenRouter or the AI provider is having issues. Wait a few minutes and try again. Check OpenRouter’s status page for outage information.
”OpenRouter API key missing”
pinakea’s status bar shows this when no API key is configured. Go to Settings → AI → Global and add your key.
One Feature Works But Another Doesn’t
Different features use different models. If chat works but pipeline processing doesn’t (or vice versa):
- A specific model may be temporarily unavailable — check OpenRouter’s status page
- Try switching chat models to see if the issue is model-specific
Privacy Considerations
When you use cloud AI features:
- Your content travels from your Mac → OpenRouter → AI Provider (Google, Alibaba, or xAI)
- OpenRouter routes the request but doesn’t store your content beyond processing
- The AI provider processes your content according to their privacy policy
- pinakea never sees your content — the connection is direct from your Mac
For detailed information about data handling, see Privacy.
Summary
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| What is BYOK | You create your own OpenRouter account and API key |
| Why BYOK | Transparency, no subscriptions, direct relationship with provider |
| Minimum to start | OpenRouter shows current credit minimums and billing terms in its dashboard |
| Typical costs | Use OpenRouter’s dashboard and pinakea’s in-app spend indicators; final measured guidance is pending |
| Cost control | Set hard spending limits on API keys |
| Required for | Online Mode (full pipeline), Mixed Mode (chat, full summaries, and AI tag consolidation) |
Questions not covered here? Check the other FAQ topics or contact us.