# Your own keys or credits?

> With your own keys (BYOK), requests run on your provider accounts and the provider bills you; with credits, you prepay the gateway and it pays the providers. BYOK suits teams with provider contracts or cloud credits; credits suit teams that want one bill and every provider without separate accounts.

Source: https://digitspace.ai/learn/byok-vs-credits · Last checked: 2026-10-30

## Side by side on DigitSpace

|  | Your own keys | Credits |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who bills you for tokens | Each provider | DigitSpace, at provider prices |
| DigitSpace's charge | Nothing | 5% on top-ups |
| Accounts you need | One per provider | None |
| Rate limits | Your accounts' limits, plus DigitSpace's request rate | DigitSpace's, which rise with account age and spend |
| Contract discounts and cloud credits | Apply | Don't apply |

## Mixing both

A hybrid project uses your key where you have one and credits for everything else, so you keep your contract for your main provider and still reach every other model without new accounts.

## Questions

### Is BYOK really free?

On DigitSpace, yes: routing, failover, budgets and logs on your own keys cost nothing; you pay the provider directly.

### Are my keys safe?

They're encrypted with AES-256-GCM and only decrypted in the gateway to make a call.

## Related

- [Bring your own keys](https://digitspace.ai/features/bring-your-own-keys)
- [Pricing](https://digitspace.ai/pricing)
- [Security](https://digitspace.ai/security)
- [How to cut LLM API costs](https://digitspace.ai/learn/reduce-llm-costs)

Start free: https://digitspace.ai/signup · Docs: https://digitspace.ai/docs · Pricing: https://digitspace.ai/pricing