Choose your AI: providers, keys and your own computer

Tether Studio doesn't sell AI. It uses AI you already have, in two ways:

• An AI provider with your own key. Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (ChatGPT models), Google Gemini, xAI Grok, OpenRouter, 9router, or any service that speaks the OpenAI format (Groq, Together, a self-hosted Ollama…). A key is a password the service gives you so it can bill your account.
• The AI on your own computer. Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, opencode, or a command you set up, running with your own login, through tether-agent.

You pay the AI service directly. Tether Studio doesn't add a charge.

Add a provider

1. Open Settings → AI and choose Add a provider.
2. Pick the service, then paste the key from that service's website (Get a key opens the right page).
3. Keep the suggested model, or type another one. After saving, Load list shows every model your key can use.
4. Press Test. Tether Studio sends a tiny request (a few dozen tokens) and tells you whether the model can use tools, which Ask AI steps need.

Your key is stored encrypted in Tether Studio. It is never shown again (only its last four characters), never sent to your browser, and never sent to your computer. Only owners and admins can add or change providers.

The order is your backup plan

Providers are tried from top to bottom. If one is busy, down, out of credit or too slow, the next one answers, and your run keeps going. A request the service refuses as wrong (for example a model name that doesn't exist) is not retried elsewhere. Drag providers, or use the arrows, to change the order. Switch one Off to skip it without deleting it.

Which AI does what

Under Which AI does what, pick the first choice for each job:

• Ask AI steps on phones: taps through apps for you.
• Ask Tether: the flow assistant on the canvas.
• Insights: reads the tone of comments in Analytics.
• Ask AI nodes and scripts: answers a question about each item.
• Writing content: captions, hashtags and image prompts.

A flow can pick its own AI in the flow's settings, and a single Ask AI step or Ask AI node can too. The rest of your list still backs it up.

Costs

Each provider shows an estimated price per million tokens, used for the cost shown in Ask Tether and in the audit log. Prices change: type your own in the provider's Price fields if they differ. Each Ask AI step also has a token budget and a maximum number of actions, so a confused model stops instead of spending.

Use the AI on your own computer

If your studio has one member, an Ask AI step can run on the AI tools on the computer the phone is plugged into. Settings → AI → AI on your computers lists what each computer has: installed or not, signed in or not (a best guess), and how it drives the phone.

• Claude Code works out of the box.
• Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, opencode and your own commands are experimental. Allow them on that computer by starting tether-agent with TETHER_CLI_AGENTS=1.
• These tools only get the phone tools (look at the screen, tap, type, swipe, press a key, finish). They get no shell, files or web through Tether, and the same safety rules apply: apps the step may use, words it may never tap, and the action limit.

Scheduled runs and teams always use the providers above. Anthropic, OpenAI and Google don't allow a personal subscription to be shared through another product, so use your own login only for yourself, on your own computer.

9router and other local AI routers

9router runs on your computer by default (http://localhost:20128/v1). Tether Studio's servers can't reach your computer's localhost. To use 9router as a provider, run it on a server with a public https address and add it with that address. If you host Tether Studio yourself, your operator can allow a local address.

When something goes wrong

• Failed after Test: open Edit, check the key and the model name, and test again.
• No key: the provider needs a key before it can be used.
• An Ask AI step says no AI provider is set up: add one in Settings → AI, or pick another in the step.

Still stuck? Choose Contact support in the studio's ? menu, or email [email protected].