BYOK AI: GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek in One Key

One Base URL, Five AI Providers

If you're reading this, you've probably juggled at least two of these vendors. Maybe more.

Claude is great at code. GPT is great at general reasoning. Gemini is great at long context. Grok is great at the firehose-of-X questions. DeepSeek is great at... being basically free.

The problem isn't the models. The problem is the billing fragmentation. Five accounts, five credit cards, five dashboards, five rate limits to track.

This is the BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) overview. With one sk-aic-* key from aiapi.cheap, you reach all five providers via the same base URL. Pick the right tool for the job by changing one string in your request — the model name.

No new accounts. No new keys. No new dashboards.

Let's break down each vendor: when to pick it, what model to use, where the sweet spot is.

Claude (Anthropic)

When to pick: Code generation, agentic workflows, long-form writing where you want voice and nuance. Strong at refusal handling and following multi-step instructions without going off the rails.

Top model: claude-sonnet-4-6 for daily work. claude-opus-4-7 when you need deep reasoning on architecture or complex refactors. claude-haiku-4-5 for cheap, fast autocomplete.

Sweet spot: Multi-file code refactors, agentic CLI workflows (Claude Code is built around this), thoughtful writing tasks. Anthropic's track record on tool-use reliability is genuinely strong.

Watch out for: Claude can be slower than GPT for simple completions. Pricing is mid-tier — that's why aiapi.cheap users save the most here.

For reference, see the Anthropic API docs.

GPT (OpenAI)

When to pick: Function calling that needs to be airtight. Structured JSON output. Image generation (when you also want to call OpenAI's image endpoints). Speed-sensitive completions where you'd rather get a short answer fast.

Top model: gpt-4o for current top-tier. gpt-4o-mini for budget-conscious work. The OpenAI ecosystem is the most mature for SDK support — every framework speaks it natively.

Sweet spot: Production agents that need rock-solid function calling, anything where you've already wired up the OpenAI SDK and don't want to refactor. Also: when Claude is hallucinating about a specific framework version, GPT often gets it right.

Watch out for: GPT can be over-confident on niche framework questions (especially anything that changed in the last 6 months). Always verify code on the newest libraries.

See the OpenAI platform docs for endpoint details.

Gemini (Google)

When to pick: Massive context windows. If you need to feed an entire 500-page PDF or a full codebase into one prompt, Gemini's 1M+ token context is currently unmatched at consumer-API scale.

Top model: gemini-3-pro-preview for serious work.

Sweet spot: Document analysis, codebase Q&A across an entire repo, video understanding (Gemini handles video natively). Also genuinely competitive on coding now — worth a look.

Watch out for: Gemini's tone in writing tasks can feel a bit corporate. Function calling is mature but slightly different shape from OpenAI's — usually fine via the OpenAI-compatible endpoint, but watch tool-result formatting.

Reference: Google AI for Developers.

Grok (xAI)

When to pick: Real-time information from X. Less filtered/cautious responses for creative or analysis work. Useful for current-events questions where you don't want stale training data.

Top model: grok-4.2 for general tasks across reasoning and coding.

Sweet spot: Anything where freshness matters — news analysis, social trend extraction, current-state questions. Also useful as a "second opinion" voice when Claude and GPT both refuse or hedge.

Watch out for: Personality is more opinionated than other models. Tool-use ecosystem is younger than OpenAI/Anthropic — basic function calling works, complex agentic loops can be flakier.

Docs: docs.x.ai.

DeepSeek

When to pick: Cost. DeepSeek is dramatically cheaper than the other 4, and on coding/math tasks it punches well above its price tier.

Top model: deepseek-v3.2 for general work, including chain-of-thought-style reasoning.

Sweet spot: High-volume scripted tasks where you'd otherwise burn money on Sonnet. Bulk processing. Boilerplate generation. Math-heavy work. If you're running a daily cron that processes 1000 items, DeepSeek can cut your bill 10x.

Watch out for: Quality on creative writing and nuanced English is a step below Claude/GPT. For production user-facing copy, test before deploying. Rate limits can be tighter on the upstream side.

Reference: api.deepseek.com.

How One Key Reaches All Five

Here's the magic move. With aiapi.cheap, you set the OpenAI SDK base URL once, and then you pick a vendor by changing the model string. Same SDK, same key, same code shape.

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["AIAPI_KEY"],          # your sk-aic-* key
    base_url="https://aiapi.cheap/api/proxy"  # one URL for all 5 vendors
)

# Talk to Claude
claude_response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Refactor this Python function..."}]
)

# Switch to GPT — same client, same key
gpt_response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-4o",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Same question, second opinion?"}]
)

# Try Gemini for the long-context task
gemini_response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gemini-3-pro-preview",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Analyze this 200KB log dump..."}]
)

# Run a bulk script with DeepSeek for cost
for item in big_list:
    client.chat.completions.create(
        model="deepseek-v3.2",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": f"Categorize: {item}"}]
    )

# Grab fresh signal from Grok
grok_response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="grok-4.2",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What's trending in AI infra this week?"}]
)

No new SDK. No new account. The proxy detects which vendor the model belongs to and routes accordingly.

If your code uses the Anthropic SDK directly (because you started with Claude), the /v1/messages endpoint works natively for Claude models — see the multi-AI overview post for that pattern.

A Realistic Multi-Vendor Workflow

Here's how I actually use it on a typical solo-founder day:

Five vendors in one day. One key. One bill at the end of the month.

Picking by Task, Not by Loyalty

The old way: pick a vendor, marry them, build your whole stack around their SDK.

The BYOK way: pick the *task* first, then route to whichever vendor is best for it. Code = Claude. Long context = Gemini. Bulk = DeepSeek. Fresh = Grok. JSON = GPT.

This only works if switching is friction-free. With one key + one base URL, switching is literally one string.

What's Compatible

Anything that speaks the OpenAI Chat Completions format works:

Claude-specific tools (Claude Code, anything using the Anthropic SDK) work via the /v1/messages endpoint with the same key.

Pricing Reminder

No subscription. No commitment. The discount applies to whichever vendor you pick — DeepSeek discounted is essentially free, Claude Opus discounted is genuinely affordable.

Get Started

1. Sign up. Free, no credit card.

2. Top up $5 in crypto.

3. Generate your sk-aic-* key.

4. Drop it into the OpenAI SDK with our base URL.

5. Start switching models by name.

Full setup in the docs.

The future of AI tooling isn't about picking a winner among Claude/GPT/Gemini/Grok/DeepSeek. It's about reaching all of them through the same surface and routing by task.

One key. Five vendors. Pick the right tool for the job.