Set Up Your API Keys

Writingmate supports two different API-key patterns, and they solve different problems.

1. Your own provider key

If you add your own OpenRouter API key, Writingmate will route supported model calls through your provider account.

That means:

• you manage provider billing yourself
• Writingmate’s plan-based usage limits are relaxed for those requests
• the key is used inside the Writingmate app

2. Writingmate Developer Key

If you want to call Writingmate itself from external tools, use a Writingmate Developer Key.

That means:

• external SDKs and CLI tools send requests to https://writingmate.ai/api/openai/v1
• usage is counted against your current Writingmate workspace
• the same message counting logic and workspace limits as Writingmate chat are applied

How to set up your keys

1. Launch Writingmate.
2. Open Profile Settings in the bottom-left menu.
3. Open API Keys.
4. Add your OpenRouter API key if you want BYOK access inside the app.
5. Create a Writingmate Developer Key if you want to use the OpenAI-compatible API from external tools.

Which one should you use?

Use OpenRouter BYOK if:

• you want provider-billed access inside Writingmate
• you already manage your own provider usage

Use a Writingmate Developer Key if:

• you want OpenAI-compatible access from external tools
• you want those requests billed against your Writingmate workspace
• you want to use Writingmate model slugs from OpenCode, Aider, SDKs, or other automation

Counting and limits

Developer-key requests are counted exactly like Writingmate chat:

• 1 message = 16,000 tokens
• every request costs at least 1 message
• cached prompt tokens are discounted by 50%

For the full formula and worked examples, see OpenAI-Compatible API and Message Limits.