Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) Is Now Live in JetBrains IDEs

Ekaterina Zharova

Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) is now available in the AI chat inside JetBrains IDEs as well as for AI agents, including JetBrains’ Junie and Claude Agent. Whether you’re looking to use cutting-edge frontier models, cost-efficient small models, locally hosted private models, or experimental research previews, BYOK makes it easy to bring them all directly into your JetBrains IDE – with no JetBrains AI subscription required.

Freedom to choose your provider and models

The feature is now officially live, allowing you to connect your own API keys from Anthropic, OpenAI, and other OpenAI API-compatible providers. You will also be able to use both Junie and Claude Agent, as long as your chosen provider offers the models the agents require. 

No vendor lock-in means you’re now free to choose your preferred AI provider or model. You get full transparency over costs on your selected platform – with no hidden quotas or unexpected interruptions – and enhanced privacy and security. Your API keys are stored and managed locally on your machine and never shared with JetBrains.

Getting started with BYOK

Getting started is simple: Install the JetBrains AI Assistant plugin in your IDE and select Bring Your Own API Key on the AI chat start screen. Choose a provider, enter your API key, and the available models will automatically appear in your model picker, ready to use in the chat.

If you’re already using AI Assistant and have it installed, whether on a paid plan or the free tier, you can configure BYOK at any time via Settings | Tools | AI Assistant | Models.

Get the best experience by pairing BYOK with JetBrains AI

Please note that not all AI features are guaranteed to work with third-party provider models. For cloud code completion and other editor-integrated AI features, we recommend activating JetBrains AI (no paid subscription required). To enable your JetBrains AI subscription, go to Settings | Tools | AI Assistant | Models and click Activate JetBrains AI in the JetBrains AI section.

This setup enables your own key and JetBrains AI to work together, giving you full feature coverage and the best possible experience. Your key will be prioritized wherever possible, and the built-in model picker allows you to select your desired provider right from the AI chat.

What’s next for BYOK

This is just the beginning! We’re continuing to add more providers, including Google Gemini, Azure, and Amazon Bedrock, while also refining BYOK to make it more convenient and user-friendly.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and any feature requests you’d like us to prioritize!

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