Bring your own API key, step by step
Five steps: pick a provider, create an API key, paste it into SideBoo and run Test service. Plus what leaves your browser, and what it costs.
6 min read · Last updated 2026-08-27
Why SideBoo needs your own provider
Two SideBoo features call a large language model. Ask AI, in the command palette, can group your open tabs by topic, work out what you are in the middle of, or tell you which tabs are safe to close. Summarize this page reads the article in front of you and hands back the gist.
SideBoo runs no inference service of its own and resells no credit. Whichever provider you connect, the request goes from your browser to that provider directly — it never passes through a SideBoo server. That is also why the AI features are fully available on the free plan: the compute bill is yours.
Before you begin
You will need:
- An account with a supported provider, topped up or with billing enabled.
- An API key that has access to chat completions.
- SideBoo 0.0.3 or later — check the version on chrome://extensions. The AI features shipped in 0.0.3, the first public release, so any install from the Chrome Web Store already has them.
Supported providers
Eight providers ship as presets: OpenAI, Claude, DeepSeek, Moonshot Kimi, 智谱 GLM, 通义千问, OpenRouter and Google Gemini. Picking one fills in its endpoint and its Get a key link, so the only thing you paste is the key. Two of the eight — Claude and OpenAI — are already sitting in the list the first time you open the AI settings; the other six you add yourself.
Anything else that implements /v1/chat/completions goes in as a Custom OpenAI-compatible service, the dashed card at the bottom of the same dialog. Local models, company gateways and aggregators all arrive that way — see "Custom endpoints and troubleshooting".
For each preset's endpoint, its key console and the model names it offers, see "Use your own Claude, OpenAI or DeepSeek API key".
Step 1 — Create an API key
Every provider issues keys from its own developer console, and almost none of them will show you a key twice. So this step is really two habits: make a key that belongs to SideBoo alone, and copy it before the dialog closes.
- Open the provider console OpenAI at platform.openai.com/api-keys, Claude at platform.claude.com/settings/keys, DeepSeek at platform.deepseek.com/api_keys. Inside SideBoo, the preset's "Get a key" button opens the right one for you.
- Create a dedicated key Name it "SideBoo". A separate key means you can revoke it later without breaking anything else you have running.
- Copy it right away Most providers show the full key exactly once. Close the dialog and it is gone for good.
Step 2 — Connect it in SideBoo
- Open settings Press ⌘K (Ctrl+Shift+K on Windows and Linux; configurable in Chrome extension shortcuts), type "settings" and hit enter. Right-clicking the SideBoo toolbar icon and choosing Options works too.
- Add the provider Choose "AI assistant" in the settings sidebar, click "Add provider", pick the provider's card in the dialog and hit Continue. There is no master AI on/off switch: nothing calls a model until a provider is configured.
- Paste the key Paste it into the "API Key" field. "API endpoint" is already filled in for presets — if you ever change it, "Restore default" above the field puts it back.
- Click "Test service" SideBoo asks you to confirm the data transfer the first time, then calls the endpoint. Success reads "Connected · N models found · xx ms", and the provider's model list comes back with it.
- Tick the models, then set a default Ticked models appear in the "Default model" dropdown at the top of the page and in the model switcher inside Ask AI. Two or three is usually plenty.
Each provider in the list carries a status badge, so the list itself tells you what is missing: Needs setup (no key yet), Pick models (key in place, nothing ticked), No endpoint set, or Ready.
What SideBoo sends to the model
Only what the action needs, and only when you trigger it. SideBoo spells this out in a confirmation dialog before the first request to any new service, and that dialog is the complete list:
| Action | What is sent |
|---|---|
| Ask AI | Your question, plus the titles and URLs of your open tabs. |
| Summarize this page | The readable content of the page you are on. |
| Any request | Your API key, used only to authenticate with that service. |
Nothing outside that list leaves the browser: no form input, no cookies, no login credentials.
Your API key is written to chrome.storage.local and nowhere else. It belongs to this browser profile on this machine and is excluded from Chrome account sync.
What it costs
A question in Ask AI sends your prompt plus roughly one line per open tab, so even a badly overgrown window is on the order of a couple of thousand input tokens. A page summary is the expensive one: it sends the whole article. At mid-2026 pricing for the small models the presets offer, both land at a fraction of a cent per call.
To spend less, point "Default model" at your provider's lightweight option — gpt-4o-mini, glm-4-flash and qwen-turbo are all good enough for summarising and cost a fraction of the flagship models.
What next
If you are not on one of the eight presets but on a local model, an internal gateway or an aggregator, read "Custom endpoints and troubleshooting" next — it covers endpoint URLs, the Ollama 403 that catches everyone, and every other error you are likely to hit.