Your Own AI API Key
Add your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini or OpenRouter API key, and the app in your hand talks to the AI directly. Chat about a post, research it, run AI comments, ask about a selected passage, or mention an AI in a note. Your key stays on the device, and each request goes from that device straight to the provider.
Available in the mobile app (2.6.0 or later), the desktop app (0.9.0 or later) and the Obsidian plugin (4.11.0 or later). Mentioning an AI in a note and Continue chat on saved chats need mobile 2.6.1, desktop 0.9.1 or plugin 4.11.1.
Why use your own key?
- No computer at home in the middle. Without a key, the AI work Cloud AI can't do runs on a Desktop executor. Your request waits until the Obsidian plugin, the desktop app or the CLI on a computer at home picks it up, so that computer has to be on, awake and signed in to an AI CLI. With your key, the phone or computer you're using sends the request itself. The answer streams back in seconds wherever you are, even with every other computer switched off.
- No Cloud credits. The provider bills your own account, usually a fraction of a cent to a few cents per request. Social Archiver Cloud credits are not used.
- Current models and more actions. Chat and research run on the provider's current models, and you can let a single question search the web, with sources.
- Your key never reaches us. It is kept in the device's secure storage: the Keychain on iPhone and Mac, the Android Keystore, or Obsidian's secret storage. Requests do not pass through Social Archiver servers.
A key is optional
Cloud AI still covers summaries, glossaries, translations and chat (0.5 credit per answer), and a Desktop executor runs everything on your AI CLI subscriptions. See AI Comments.
Supported providers
| Provider | Get a key | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | platform.openai.com/api-keys | Shown as OpenAI API on saved comments. |
| Anthropic (Claude) | console.anthropic.com/settings/keys | Shown as Anthropic API. |
| Google Gemini | aistudio.google.com/app/apikey | On the free tier, Google may use what you send to improve its products, and people may review it. The EEA, the UK and Switzerland need a paid tier. |
| OpenRouter | openrouter.ai/keys | One key for models from many providers. |
Add your key
| App | Where |
|---|---|
| Mobile (iOS, Android) | Settings → AI API keys |
| Desktop app | Settings → AI API keys |
| Obsidian plugin | Settings → Social Archiver → AI API keys (needs Obsidian 1.11.4 or later for secure secret storage) |
Paste the key and the app checks it with the provider. Keep the recommended model or pick another one for each provider.
The first time a key runs, the app shows what will be sent to that provider and asks for your go-ahead. Keys belong to the device: add them on each phone or computer you want to use, because they are never synced.
What you can do with it
Chat about a post
| App | How to open it |
|---|---|
| Mobile | ⋯ → Chat about this post on a timeline card or in the reader |
| Desktop app | The chat button on a card, or the button at the top right of the reader. The chat docks beside the article. |
| Obsidian plugin | The card's menu → Chat about this post. In reader mode the chat docks beside the article. |
On tablets and foldables, the mobile app also opens the chat beside the article.
- A chat stays with its post while the app is open. Close it, keep reading, and reopen it to pick up where you left off.
- Save to note keeps the conversation on the post.
- Continue a saved chat later: opening the chat on that post picks up its newest saved chat. To continue an older one, long-press it on mobile and choose Continue chat; on desktop and in the plugin, use the Continue chat button under it (mobile 2.6.1, desktop 0.9.1, plugin 4.11.1 or later). Saving again replaces the saved copy.
- New chat starts over. It asks first only when the current chat has something unsaved.
Research a post
Research this post writes a report (background, claim checks and sources) and saves it to your note. Research always searches the web. On mobile you can also choose Ask my desktop to hand it to a desktop executor instead.
AI comments
Pick your key as the target in the AI comment sheet (My API key on mobile). Fact checks always search the web; a Custom prompt can search when you turn web search on for it.
Ask about a selection
In the reader of the mobile or desktop app, select a passage and choose Ask AI, then pick your key.
Mention an AI in a note
Mobile 2.6.1, desktop app 0.9.1 and Obsidian plugin 4.11.1 or later.
Type @ in a note to see the AIs you can mention: @Claude, @GPT, @Gemini and @OpenRouter with your keys, and @CloudAI when you're signed in. The mention shows in the accent color. Save the note, and each AI you mentioned reads the post and replies under the note. While it works, the note says it is replying.
- A reply is a saved chat whose first question is your note, so you can continue it like any chat (long-press on mobile, Continue chat on desktop and in the plugin).
- One save asks at most three AIs. Editing a note asks only the AIs you added, and a note that is only a mention asks nobody.
- Mentions work in your own notes, not in collection notes. In the Obsidian plugin, mention an AI in My Note.
- Text read from an image (OCR notes) never triggers a mention.
Web search, only when you ask
Chat and AI comments never search the web unless you turn it on, for one request at a time:
- Mobile: the Search the web toggle by the question box.
- Desktop app: the Search the web chip inside the question box.
- Obsidian plugin: Search the web for the next question.
It starts off and turns itself off again after you send. The answer lists the sources it used. Web searches may cost extra on your provider account, and some models can't search; the toggle says so. Cloud AI never searches the web.
What the AI reads
The AI reads the post as text: title, author, body, a video's transcript, a digest of the archived comments, and any text read from its images (OCR notes saved with Include photo text). It does not see the images themselves.
Costs
Your provider bills each request to your account. A chat answer or a mention reply is one request; research takes more, because it searches the web and writes a longer report. Social Archiver does not charge for requests on your own key.
When a model is retired
Providers retire models often. When the model you chose is gone, the app switches to the provider's recommended replacement and tells you, for example "gpt-5-mini was retired by OpenAI; now using …". You can pick another model in AI API keys at any time.
Limits
- The CLI holds no keys. Jobs on your own key run in the desktop app, the Obsidian plugin or the mobile app.
- Jobs handed to a desktop (Ask my desktop) run on that computer's AI CLI and never search the web.
- A chat question can be up to 2,000 characters; a longer note is shortened before it is sent as a mention.
Troubleshooting
"… refused the API key"
The provider rejected the key. Check or replace it in AI API keys, and make sure billing is set up on the provider's side.
"No … model fits this task"
Choose a model for that provider in AI API keys.
Rate limits or quota errors
These come from the provider. Wait a moment, or raise the limit in the provider's console.