⚠️ LEGACY PLAN NOTICE: This article applies only to legacy SEOPilot accounts on a Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) plan. If you are on a current Passenger, Co-Pilot, or Captain subscription, you do not need to set up any API keys — SEOPilot handles AI access for you. See our article: Getting Started with the AI Writer.
Overview #
Legacy BYOK plan holders are required to supply their own API keys from supported AI providers in order to use the SEOPilot AI Writers. SEOPilot uses a “Bring Your Own Key” philosophy for these plans, which means you pay SEOPilot to use the software and you pay the AI provider directly for any usage.
SEOPilot currently supports two AI providers for BYOK plans: OpenAI and Anthropic (Claude). You can configure one or both. Your API keys are stored in your Account Settings under the API Key section, which contains a separate tab for each provider.
In order to use any of our AI Writer features inside of the SaaS Application or the Chrome Extension, you must be subscribed to a paid plan that supports the AI Writer feature you’d like to use. Please ensure your SEOPilot account is subscribed to a supported plan.
SEO Pilot has two AI Writers:
- The Chrome Extension AI Writer – This AI Writer is built into the Chrome extension and provides users with a quick way create more basic blog content using an existing page as an outline.
- Advanced SaaS Application Writer – The AI Writer in the SaaS application is a more fully featured writer that can create an article to your exact specifications, whether you want to start from scratch with just an article idea or have an existing article.
Setting Up OpenAI (ChatGPT) #
ChatGPT Pre-requisites #
Before configuring SEOPilot to write with OpenAI, you will need the following:
- Have an OpenAI Platform account – this is a separate service from ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus and is billed using a credit-based system. You cannot use a regular ChatGPT or ChatGPT Plus account. Register at: https://platform.openai.com/
- Billing enabled on your OpenAI Platform account with a credit balance sufficient for creating articles with SEOPilot.
- An OpenAI API Key generated from your platform account.
Below, we’ll provide instructions on how to accomplish each of these.
Video Walkthrough #
You can follow along with this video for a complete walkthrough of the OpenAI setup process:
OpenAI Setup Instructions #
Step 01: Register for (and verify) an OpenAI Platform account #
If you don’t already have a platform account, register at https://platform.openai.com/. You will need to verify your email address and a phone number in a supported country. During registration, you will also be prompted to create an Organization, which is required before you can generate API keys.
Step 02: Generate an OpenAI API Key #
When the key has been generated, click the Copy button immediately. Important: your API key is only displayed once. OpenAI cannot retrieve or display it again after you close this dialog, so copy it and store it securely before proceeding.
- Go to your OpenAI Platform account’s API keys page by going to this URL: platform.openai.com/api-keys
- Select “Create new secret key” and give your key a name you will remember. You can optionally set permissions and associate the key with a specific project if you are managing multiple applications.
- When the key has been generated, click the Copy button immediately. Important: your API key is only displayed once. OpenAI or SEOPilot cannot retrieve or display it again after you close this dialog, so copy it and store it securely before proceeding.
Step 03: Add Your API key to SEOPilot #
Navigate to the API Key settings inside of SEOPilot here: https://app.seopilot.io/add-apikey/ and Click on the OpenAI tab, then click the Edit button and paste your API key into the field. Hit the Submit button to save.
Step 04: Add Billing & Payment Method and Add Credit to your Account #
After saving your API key in SEOPilot, you need to ensure you have a payment method and a credit balance on your OpenAI Platform account before you can generate articles.
- Go to your Billing Overview in your OpenAI Platform account at https://platform.openai.com/settings/organization/billing/overview and select “Add Payment Details.”
- Follow the prompts to provide whether you are an individual or business, then add your credit card details.
- After adding your payment details, purchase an initial credit balance. The minimum purchase is $5. We recommend also enabling auto-recharge so that your balance is automatically topped up when it runs low. If your credit balance reaches zero while an article is generating, the article may not complete. For more information on OpenAI’s prepaid billing system, see: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8264644-how-can-i-set-up-prepaid-billing
That’s it! Now that you’ve set up your OpenAI API Key with SEOPilot and added a payment method and have a credit balance, you can start generating articles! For assistance with that process, you can reference our guide on Creating an Article
Maintaining Positive Balance in ChatGPT and Auto-Recharge #
When you first create your account and add a billing profile, you will need to add credit to your account balance to use the OpenAI API. Once you’ve used up your credit balance, you will need to refill your balance before you are able to continue using the SEOPilot app. If you run out of your credit balance in the middle of creating an article in SEOPilot, your article may not complete. By default, your account does not automatically refill your balance. To ensure you have a seamless experience with the SEOPiplot writer, we recommend enabling auto-recharge in your OpenAI account. You can follow the instructions by OpenAI to achieve this: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8264644-what-is-prepaid-billing
Setting Up Anthropic (Claude) #
Anthropic Prerequisites #
To use Claude models with SEOPilot, you will need:
- an Anthropic Console account with billing enabled
- an Anthropic API key generated.
You can register for an Anthropic Console account at https://console.anthropic.com/.
Note: The Anthropic Console is a separate service from Claude.ai. You cannot use a Claude.ai account or subscription for API access.
For complete step-by-step instructions on creating an Anthropic Console account, generating an API key, and setting up billing, please refer to Anthropic’s official documentation: https://docs.anthropic.com/
Add Your Anthropic API Key to SEOPilot #
Once you have an Anthropic API key, navigate to the API Key settings inside of SEOPilot and select the API Key section. Click on the Claude tab, then click the Edit button and paste your API key into the field. Hit the Submit button to save.
Troubleshooting #
If you encounter an error while attempting to generate an article, it typically indicates an issue with your API key or account setup with the relevant provider.
Common causes of invalid keys:
- Typos: Make sure you haven’t mistyped or incorrectly copied your key. Copy the key again, ensuring accuracy. If you can no longer access the key details, you can always create a new key.
- Throttling: If you experience intermittent errors with your API account, wait a few minutes and attempt the configuration again.
- Revoked key: If you’re using an old key that has been revoked, generate a new key in your provider’s account and try the setup once more.
- Account Type that does not allow API usage:
- Free or Unverified account: (OpenAI): Free OpenAI accounts or accounts without billing enabled are not supported. Ensure you have added a payment method and have a non-zero credit balance.
- No Free Tier (Claude/Anthropic): Unlike OpenAI which has a limited free tier, the Anthropic API has no free option at all. You must have a paid Console account with credits loaded before any API calls will succeed. A Claude.ai subscription (Free, Pro, or Max) is completely separate from the API and cannot be used with SEOPilot.
- Usage Tier is sufficient for the volume of Requests: Both OpenAI and Anthropic use a tiered system where new accounts start with lower rate limits that limit the number of requests within a certain time period. Accounts automatically advance as they accumulate spend. Initial limits for a new account may not be sufficient to generate articles with SEOPilot.
- Insufficient Rate Limit (OpenAI): Ensure your OpenAI account has an adequate rate limit. You may need to be on at least a Tier 2 Usage Tier inside your OpenAI Platform account in order to successfully generate some longer articles. You can check your usage tier at https://platform.openai.com/account/limits. If needed, contact OpenAI to request a rate limit increase.
- Insufficient Rate Limit (Anthropic): Similar to OpenAI, Anthropic uses a tiered system (Build Tier 1 through 4) where new accounts start with lower rate limits. New accounts at Tier 1 have fairly conservative limits, which could cause issues when generating longer articles. You can check your tier and limits in the Claude Console at
console.anthropic.com
- Service Disruptions – if you experience intermittent errors from the AI provider that aren’t related to their key or billing, these may be platform-side incidents. Check the following links for each service:
- Open AI Service Status: status.openai.com
- Anthropic Service Status: status.anthropic.com