What is BYOK AI chat?
BYOK (bring-your-own-key) is a model where the platform handles character cards, chat UI, memory, and prompts — but you supply the underlying LLM via your own OpenAI / Anthropic / OpenRouter API key. The cost of inference goes through you, which gives full content control (you choose the model and provider) and decouples the platform from moderation responsibility. Janitor AI is the largest BYOK platform (149M visits/mo). The tradeoff is technical setup: you need to register for an API key and load credits. Reverie is the opposite model — no key required, but you don't pick the underlying LLM.
How Reverie fits in
Reverie is a Telegram-native AI character chat platform — same category as the platform described above, but with a curated cast (8+ characters), persistent memory across days and weeks, and zero signup friction. Read the full Reverie overview →.