Cloud vs bring-your-own-key on your lifetime deal
Cloud vs bring-your-own-key on your lifetime deal
Your AppSumo lifetime deal gives you two separate ways to generate articles, each with its own monthly allowance. Understanding the split is the difference between feeling capped and publishing freely.
Cloud articles: no key, lean monthly caps
Cloud articles run on managed AI. You do not need any API key and there is nothing to set up. The trade-off is that your cloud allowance is deliberately lean and resets each month:
| Tier | Cloud articles/mo |
|---|---|
| LTD1 | 2 |
| LTD2 | 3 |
| LTD3 | 5 |
| LTD4 | 8 |
| LTD5 | 12 |
Cloud is best treated as a convenient extra for quick generations without touching keys, not as your main source of volume.
BYOK: your own key, the high-volume path
BYOK means bring your own key. You connect an API key from an AI provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter, Gemini, Groq, or Ollama), and articles generate through your own account. You pay your provider directly, usually about $0.01 to $0.08 per article. Your BYOK allowance is a separate, larger monthly number:
| Tier | BYOK articles/mo |
|---|---|
| LTD1 | 12 |
| LTD2 | 25 |
| LTD3 | 45 |
| LTD4 | 60 |
| LTD5 | 90 |
Which should I use?
Use BYOK for volume. It is the larger allowance on every tier, and the per-article cost through your own provider is only a few cents. If you plan to publish regularly, connect an AI key and make BYOK your main path, then use your cloud articles as a small no-setup bonus on top.
The recommended provider is OpenRouter (one key for every major model, roughly $0.02 per article on Claude Haiku). To connect a key, see connect your AI provider and the AI Provider settings.
The same features either way
Both cloud and BYOK produce the same articles with the same features. Cloud vs BYOK only changes where the AI runs and which allowance the article counts against. For the full tier picture, see what your AppSumo lifetime deal includes.