BYOK vs Cloud — which to pick

Structura supports two ways of paying for the AI that generates your posts: BYOK (you bring your own provider keys) and Cloud (we handle the provider on your behalf). This page explains the difference and helps you pick.

Short answer

• If you already have an OpenAI / Gemini / Anthropic account and don’t mind managing a key, BYOK is almost always cheaper.
• If you don’t want to think about AI providers at all, Cloud or Cloud Pro is the one-bill option — you pay a flat (or graduated, on Agency) monthly fee and we handle the generation.

Concretely:

• Free → BYOK only.
• BYOK (Individual or Agency) → BYOK only — that’s the whole point of the tier.
• Cloud (Individual or Agency) → Cloud generation is the default. You can still add BYOK as a fallback if you want.
• Cloud Pro (Individual or Agency) → same as Cloud, but with top-tier AI models by default and a higher token quota.

What BYOK is

BYOK — Bring Your Own Key — means you sign up with an AI provider directly, paste their API key into Structura → Settings → AI Engine, and the provider bills you for every generation. Structura only charges you the plan fee.

You get:

• Direct control over which model is used.
• Direct visibility into spend on the provider’s dashboard.
• The provider’s cheapest rate (no markup).
• Whatever free credits the provider gives new accounts.

You handle:

• Creating the provider account.
• Adding a payment method to the provider.
• Watching your usage (provider dashboard, not Structura).
• Re-upping or rotating keys if one gets invalidated.

See AI settings for which providers are supported and how to enter a key.

What Cloud is

Cloud generation — available on the Cloud and Cloud Pro plans — means Structura provisions the AI capacity for you. No provider account, no API key, no per-generation charges on your credit card from OpenAI. You pay the Cloud (or Cloud Pro) plan’s fee and that’s it.

You get:

• One bill, from Structura, predictable each month.
• Our managed choice of model for each task (we pick a cost/quality balance — Cloud uses Gemini Flash by default; Cloud Pro uses GPT-5.2 + DALL·E 3 HD by default).
• Failover if one provider has an outage — cloud routes around it transparently.
• No DevOps-style AI-provider management.

Constraints:

• Generation volume is governed by the plan’s monthly token quota. Past quota, you can either upgrade or add BYOK as a fallback.
• You don’t get to pick individual models on Cloud. Cloud Pro unlocks a per-post model picker — that’s one of the headline reasons to step up to Cloud Pro.

Cloud vs Cloud Pro — when to step up

Cloud Pro is for operators who want best-in-class AI by default.

If your content is high-stakes (paid traffic, lead-gen, conversion copy) or you publish frequently enough to chew through 2M tokens, Cloud Pro pays back the price step. Otherwise Cloud’s mid-tier defaults are more than enough.

Pricing, concretely

BYOK:

• Structura plan: flat monthly/annual fee (per site).
• AI costs: whatever the provider charges, billed directly to you. For a site publishing ~10 posts / month with a reasonable provider, this is typically a few dollars per month — often less than Cloud.

Cloud / Cloud Pro:

• Flat monthly fee on Individual; graduated per-site fee on Agency. See the pricing page  for current numbers and the volume brackets.
• No separate AI provider bill.

The crossover point depends on volume and model choice. Most single-site, moderate-cadence users are cheaper on BYOK. High-volume sites or users who want zero provider management favor Cloud / Cloud Pro.

You can mix

On a Cloud or Cloud Pro plan you can still add a BYOK key. When both are set, Structura uses BYOK first and falls back to Cloud if BYOK fails (provider outage, key revoked). This is the safest configuration if uptime matters.

How to switch

Switch BYOK → Cloud (or Cloud Pro)

1. Upgrade to a managed-AI plan (see Upgrading, downgrading, cancelling).
2. On Structura → Settings → AI Engine, change the active provider to Cloud.
3. Click Save Changes. Future generations are handled by Cloud.
4. Your BYOK key stays stored (safe, encrypted) unless you clear it.

Switch Cloud → BYOK

1. Sign up with an AI provider directly (OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic). Add a payment method on the provider side.
2. Generate an API key in the provider’s dashboard.
3. On Structura → Settings → AI Engine, switch the active provider to the one you signed up with and paste the key.
4. Click Save Changes.
5. Consider downgrading to BYOK if you no longer want the managed-AI plan.

Data & privacy

Both modes send the same information to an AI provider to generate each post: the campaign’s strategy, the current topic, and any persona guidance. Neither mode sends your WordPress admin credentials or other site secrets.

In Cloud / Cloud Pro mode, Structura is the intermediary — the provider sees requests from our infrastructure, not from your site. In BYOK, requests go directly from our cloud to the provider using your key.

When to stay on BYOK vs move to Cloud

Stay on BYOK if:

• You publish modestly and your provider bill is low.
• You specifically want model control without paying the Cloud Pro premium.
• You already have AI provider credits to burn.

Move to Cloud (or Cloud Pro) if:

• You don’t want to manage another SaaS account.
• You want predictable monthly cost.
• You value provider-failover for reliability.
• (Cloud Pro) you want top-tier models and per-post model selection.

Related pages

• AI settings
• Managing your subscription
• Upgrading, downgrading, cancelling