By default Cubby runs on our hosted model — nothing to set up. From Pro upward you can connect your own AI provider key instead.
Why use your own key
- Your company has an approved AI provider.
- You need more AI answers than your plan includes.
- You want AI usage billed to your own provider account.
What changes
| Hosted (default) | Your own key | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | None | Enter the key in AI settings |
| Counts toward plan AI answers | Yes | No |
| Billing for AI usage | Included in your plan | Your provider bills you |
| Knowledge base, sources, hand-off | Same | Same |
The key is stored on our servers and never sent to visitors’ browsers.
What is sent to the provider
Only what’s needed for one answer: the visitor’s current question and the knowledge base passages that matched it — or, for translation, the text to translate. Full conversation history, visitor context and analytics data are not sent. See the AI policy.
Switching back
Remove the key to return to the hosted model. Your knowledge base and settings stay as they are.