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 is the one-bill option — you pay a flat monthly fee and we handle the generation.

Concretely:

Free → BYOK only.
Pro → BYOK only.
Cloud → Cloud generation is the default, but you can still use BYOK if you want more control.
Agency → either.

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 Agency 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 plan’s flat 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).
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 quota. Past quota, you can either upgrade or add BYOK as a fallback.
You don’t get to pick individual models. If a specific model is important to you (e.g., “always use GPT-4”), BYOK is better.

Pricing, concretely

BYOK at Pro:

Structura plan: flat monthly/annual fee.
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:

One flat monthly fee. See the pricing page for the current number.
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.

You can mix

On a Cloud 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

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

Switch Cloud → BYOK

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

Stay on Pro + BYOK if:

You publish modestly and your provider bill is low.
You specifically want model control.
You already have AI provider credits to burn.

Move to Cloud if:

You don’t want to manage another SaaS account.
You want predictable monthly cost.
You value provider-failover for reliability.