Connect Your Own AI Key
Gavana makes images without any key of yours. If you’d rather pay a provider directly, save your own API key in AI connections, and Gavana uses it for that provider’s models.
Before you start
- Have an API key from the provider’s own website. Gavana accepts keys for OpenAI, Google Gemini (for Nano Banana), BytePlus ModelArk (for SeedDream) and OpenRouter (for video).
- Work paid with your key is billed to you by the provider. Test connection checks the key with the provider.
The whole flow
Watch it once from Settings to a saved key, or click a step under the replay to jump to it.
5 stepsFrom Settings to a saved, tested key
Open AI connections
Click Settings (the gear at the bottom of the sidebar), then AI connections in the list on the left, under You. The page says Only you under its title: keys belong to your account, not to a workspace.
At the top is Your computers, for Canvas chat. Below it, Gavana image generation describes the image models Gavana provides, which need no key.
Add a provider
Click Other API connections to open it, then click Add provider. If you have no keys yet, Browse providers opens the same form.
Choose the provider and paste your key
Open Provider and choose where your key comes from. The card under it says what the key pays for.
| Provider | Key | Pays for |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | OpenAI API key | GPT Image 2 / 2.5 |
| Nano Banana | Google Gemini API key | Nano Banana models |
| SeedDream | BytePlus ModelArk API key | SeedDream |
| OpenRouter | OpenRouter API key | Video models |
Give the key a Connection name if you like (it’s optional), then paste it into API key. Gavana stores the key encrypted and afterwards only shows a masked version, such as ••••7Q2x.
If a model sent you here to add its key, the form may also say “Canvas image generation uses Gavana’s models and does not use this key.” Disregard that line: an OpenAI, Gemini or BytePlus key does pay for that provider’s images, as this page describes.
Test the connection
Click Test connection. Gavana asks the provider whether the key works and shows Connection successful, or the reason it failed.
Save the connection
Click Save connection. The key appears under Other API connections with its status, the provider, the masked key and when it was last used.
From now on, new images from that provider’s models are paid with your key.
More you can do
Replace or remove a key
Click Manage beside a key to open its details.
- Replace key takes a new key for the same connection. Gavana tests the new key first, and if it fails, the current key stays in place. Click Save new key; Gavana says Key replaced.
- Remove connection asks Remove this connection? Confirm with Remove, and Gavana stops using the key.
- Test connection checks the saved key again, for example after you top up your provider account.
Manage a keyReplace it, or remove it
Share a key with your workspaces
If you own a workspace, you can let its members generate with your key. Open the key’s details with Manage and click Share with workspaces. Tick the workspaces whose members may use it, or All workspaces I own, and click Apply.
Share a keyLet your workspaces’ members generate with it
The first time you share a key, the workspace you’re in is ticked for you. Workspaces you create later don’t share the key automatically.
Members of the workspaces you tick generate with your key, and the provider bills you for that work.
Who pays for a generation
For each image, Gavana looks for a payer in this order:
- Your own key for that model’s provider.
- The workspace owner’s key, if they shared it with the workspace the canvas belongs to.
- Gavana credit, only when nobody has a key for that provider.
If your key is saved but the provider rejects it, Gavana may use the workspace owner’s shared key instead, but never Gavana credit. With no other working key, generation stops with a message naming your key until you fix or replace it.
What a key’s status means
| Status | What to do |
|---|---|
| OK | Nothing. The key works |
| Rejected by provider | Check the key in your provider account, then replace it |
| No credit or quota — top up and re-test the key | Add credit with the provider, then click Test connection |
| Temporarily rate limited — wait or retry with a shared key | Wait a little. The status clears by itself |
See what happened to your keys
Open Other API connections and then Key activity for a history of your keys: when each was added, replaced, deleted or rejected, and when sharing was turned on or off.
Keys from earlier providers
Keys you saved earlier for Black Forest Labs, Recraft, Ideogram or Qwen Image are still listed, marked Not used by any Gavana model. You can remove them with Manage, but you can’t add new ones.
Related articles
- Connect a computer, for Canvas chat
- Generate an image from a prompt
- Roles and permissions