Bring Your Own API Key: How BYOK Works in Poko Motion

Poko Motion defaults to running its coding agents through Poko's own credit system: you spend a dollar-denominated wallet, Poko handles the model billing behind the scenes. Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) is the alternative - a billing-mode toggle in settings that lets you paste in your own Anthropic or OpenAI API key so agent usage bills directly to your provider account instead.

It's a genuinely different billing path, not just a cosmetic setting, and it behaves differently depending on which agent engine you're running. Here's what actually happens when you turn it on.

What BYOK Actually Means in Poko Motion

In Poko Motion's settings, there's a billing-mode toggle between "Poko credits" and "Bring your own key." Switch it on and a banner spells out the deal plainly: your key, your bill, no Poko credits used - agent and model usage from that point on is billed directly by your provider, and Poko credits aren't touched for it.

How the API Key Field Works

One field, tied to your agent engine

The key field isn't a single universal box. It switches based on which agent engine you're running: if you're on Claude Code, you get an "Anthropic API key" field; if you're on Codex, you get an "OpenAI API key" field. You don't paste both at once - the field follows whichever engine is currently active.

Optional keys: Gemini and xAI/Grok

Alongside the primary Anthropic or OpenAI field, Poko also exposes optional key fields for Gemini (on the Claude Code side) and xAI/Grok (on the Codex side), for teams that want those models available too.

The AI gateway is a separate feature

It's worth separating BYOK from Poko's "AI gateway" setting, which is a different, separately gated feature for routing through OpenRouter, OpenCode, Ollama, or local models. BYOK is specifically about paying your own Anthropic or OpenAI bill directly; the gateway is about which models and routing infrastructure you use at all. They're adjacent settings, not the same toggle.

What Changes at Runtime When You Add a Key

This isn't just a UI label - the key actually changes where requests go.

Claude Code goes straight to Anthropic

With a BYOK Anthropic key set, Claude Code sends requests straight to Anthropic using your key, rather than routing through Poko's own proxy the way it does by default. Without a key set, requests go through Poko's proxy using Poko's own auth token, which is where credit deduction happens.

Codex goes straight to OpenAI

The same pattern applies on the Codex side: if you've set your own OpenAI API key, Codex connects directly to OpenAI with no Poko proxy in the path. Without a key, Codex falls back to a connected ChatGPT subscription, then the agent gateway, and finally Poko's own proxy, in that order.

The one exception: audio still uses Poko credits

BYOK covers agent and model usage, but not everything in a project. Sound effects and background music generation still draw from Poko credits regardless of whether BYOK is active, since BYOK isn't wired up for audio generation yet.

Which Plans Can Use BYOK

BYOK is gated to Pro and Agency tiers and their lifetime-deal equivalents - Motion Starter and the trial plan don't get access to it. It sits alongside two other separately gated features that are easy to confuse with it: connecting a ChatGPT Plus or Claude subscription (which uses OAuth-based sign-in rather than a pasted key, covered in our guide to connecting ChatGPT Plus), and the agent gateway for third-party model routing. A pasted API key takes priority over a connected subscription if you have both set.

What to Know Before You Add Your Own Key

A couple of practical details worth knowing going in. First, Poko doesn't currently test-call your key before saving it - there's no validation ping, so a typo or an expired key won't surface until an agent run actually fails. Second, your keys are kept strictly separated by provider: an Anthropic key is never sent to an OpenAI endpoint, or the reverse, by design.

The Takeaway

BYOK in Poko Motion is a real routing change, not just a settings label: turning it on sends your agent traffic straight to Anthropic or OpenAI using your own key, skips Poko's credit deduction for that usage, and leaves only audio generation still running on Poko credits. It's available on Pro and Agency plans, and it's worth knowing how it differs from a connected subscription or the agent gateway before you decide which billing path fits your usage.

Related reading: How to Connect Your ChatGPT Plus Subscription to Poko Motion and Repo, PDF, Deck, or Recording: Which Source Should You Give Poko Motion?