Short answer: AEO Copilot now has a second way to run: Bring your own key (BYOK). You connect your own OpenRouter or Querying.ai account, you pay it directly for the AI answers, and AEO Copilot does the rest. Plans start at $49 a year.
What you get with BYOK:
- You choose where your data comes from. Official model APIs, or the answers people see in the apps.
- You see and control every dollar. Your provider bills you directly, with no markup from me.
- It's still the cheapest way to track AI search. About $24 a month for 150 prompts on 4 engines, run weekly, everything included.
- You keep the whole platform. Same reports, same Actions, same site audit. From the answer to the fix.
!AEO Copilot Settings, LLM settings tab: the Data source section offers 2 providers, Live app answers via Querying.ai and Model API via OpenRouter, with a field to paste the provider's API key.
> Data is one of the main reasons to choose a tool, and most tools don't tell you where theirs comes from. With BYOK, you decide.
> Sofian Bettayeb, AEO Copilot Founder
3 ways AEO Copilot gets your AI answers
The difference is who holds the account, and how your prompt reaches the AI.
- Managed: official APIs, on my keys. AEO Copilot calls each AI company's own API directly: OpenAI for ChatGPT, Anthropic for Claude, Perplexity, and Google for Gemini. I hold the keys and pay the bills.
- BYOK with OpenRouter: official APIs, on your key. AEO Copilot sends one call to OpenRouter with your key. OpenRouter forwards it to each model's official API, with web search on.
- BYOK with Querying.ai: the real apps, on your key. AEO Copilot sends one call to Querying.ai with your key. Querying.ai opens chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, Gemini and Google Search, types your prompt like a person would, and copies what shows on screen. That's scraping.
!How each data source reaches the AI engines. Managed: AEO Copilot makes 4 separate calls, one per AI company (OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, Google), on my keys. BYOK with OpenRouter: one call to OpenRouter, which reaches the ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini APIs. BYOK with Querying.ai: one call to Querying.ai, which reaches chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, the Gemini app and the Google AI Overview.
On Managed, I run 4 connections, one per AI company. On BYOK, AEO Copilot makes one call to your provider, and your provider reaches the engines.
The costs per prompt come from my own test on 2026-10-28: Notion's 12 tracked prompts, 48 answers through each provider. The method is in BYOK AI search tracking: API or live scraping?. Why scraping is a gray area, with each AI company's terms, is in LLM scraping vs official API.
Which one should you use?
Start from the question you want answered.
> Start on Managed. Move to Querying.ai when you start outreach and need the pages people really see. Choose OpenRouter when you want Claude on your own key. Whatever you pick, stay with it: a new data source starts a new trend line.
> Sofian Bettayeb, AEO Copilot Founder
See every cost, and set your own budget
With most tools, you pay a plan price and never learn what one answer costs. I think that's backwards. People should control exactly how much their tracking costs, instead of paying for a big tool's acquisition costs.
!The AEO Copilot pricing page on the Bring your own key tab: a slider set to 750 prompts recommends the Pro plan. Solo is $49 a year for 150 tracked prompts, Pro $129 for 750, Team $249 for 2,000.
On BYOK, you pay 2 bills, and both are visible:
- AEO Copilot, for the analysis: $49, $129 or $249 a year.
- Your provider, for the answers: billed by OpenRouter or Querying.ai, straight to you. I never touch that bill and I add nothing on top.
The 2 last columns are the full monthly cost when you use the plan to its limit, on 4 engines, run weekly: the BYOK plan spread over 12 months, plus the provider bill. Querying.ai jumps from its $20 plan to its $200 plan above about 410 prompts a week (Querying.ai pricing).
Your provider bill comes down to 3 numbers: prompts × engines × runs per month. You set all 3. Drop an engine your buyers don't use and the bill goes down. Run monthly instead of weekly and you make about 4 times fewer runs: at 750 prompts on Querying.ai, that's $31 a month instead of $211 (the full math).
What this means for you
- You know the exact cost of every answer. OpenRouter shows the price of each one.
- You decide the trade-off between depth and budget, prompt by prompt and engine by engine.
- Credits are yours to manage. When they run out, runs pause until you top up. AEO Copilot emails you when that happens.
Still the cheapest way to track AI search
I compared each tool's entry plan, from its own pricing page, on 2026-10-30:
Sources: Otterly, Peec, Semrush, Ahrefs Brand Radar.
Compared with AEO Copilot BYOK + Querying.ai, for each tracked prompt per month:
- Peec is 12 times more expensive: $1.90 against $0.16.
- Otterly is 12 times more expensive: $1.93.
- Ahrefs is 15 times more expensive: $2.40.
- Semrush is 25 times more expensive: $3.98.
The other tools run daily and AEO Copilot runs weekly, so I also compare the price of each AI answer. AEO Copilot is still the cheapest: Otterly and Peec cost about 2 times more, Semrush 4 times and Ahrefs 9 times. Method and sources are in the cheapest AI search tracking tools, compared. For features beyond price, see the best AEO tools, compared.
The same platform, from answer to action
BYOK changes where the answers come from. It doesn't change what AEO Copilot does with them.
Tracking alone doesn't move your visibility. So every BYOK plan includes the full platform:
- Actions. Each run turns answers into work: a page that's cited but doesn't name you, a content gap, a site to pitch, a technical fix. Accept one, ship it, and AEO Copilot measures the before and after on your next runs.
- Site audit. A technical scan for AI readiness, plus a content check on the pages your prompts point to, with the score tracked over time. See how to run a technical audit.
- Your answers and cited pages, with the search queries each engine ran, per prompt and per engine.
- The API and the MCP server, so you can bring your data into Claude or your own agent. See how to connect AEO Copilot with Claude.
- White-label reports on Pro and Team, for agencies.
- A personal onboarding call with me, the founder.
One thing stays on Managed for now: accuracy grading, which checks whether AI answers about your brand are factually right. It runs on my key, and at BYOK volumes it would cost more than the plan.
What this means for you
- You keep every feature when you move to BYOK: Actions, the site audit and your reports.
- Agencies can track more brands for less, and still hand clients a clear list of what to fix.
Your key stays yours
- AEO Copilot checks your key with your provider before saving it.
- It's encrypted at rest (AES-256), only used to run your prompts, and only its last 4 characters are ever shown.
- I don't store your provider's raw answers, only the answer text, cited pages and search queries.
!AEO Copilot LLM settings with OpenRouter connected: the key ending 67ed, Check key and Disconnect buttons, options to replace the key or switch to Managed, and ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini selected as active engines.
How to start
- Pick Solo, Pro or Team on the BYOK plans.
- Create an API key on OpenRouter or Querying.ai. It takes about 2 minutes.
- In Settings, under LLM settings, select your provider, paste the key and click Connect.
- Choose the engines your brands run on.
!The 3 setup steps in AEO Copilot LLM settings: 1, select Live app answers via Querying.ai or Model API via OpenRouter; 2, paste the API key and click Connect; 3, tick the engines your brands run on.
Already on Managed? You can switch in Settings on the same subscription. The price difference is prorated, and your new data source starts a new trend line.
I built BYOK because where your data comes from should be your call, not mine. If you try it, reply to my emails and tell me what the real apps showed you that the API didn't.
Frequently asked questions
What is BYOK in AEO Copilot?
BYOK means bring your own key. You connect your own OpenRouter or Querying.ai account, pay it directly for the AI answers, and AEO Copilot runs your prompts through it and analyzes the answers. Plans cost $49, $129 or $249 a year.
How much does AEO Copilot BYOK cost in total?
For 150 prompts on 4 engines, run weekly, about $24 a month with Querying.ai and $100 a month with OpenRouter, plan included. At 750 prompts, about $211 and $491. Running monthly instead of weekly cuts the provider bill by about 4.
Should I connect OpenRouter or Querying.ai?
Querying.ai if you want the pages the real apps cite, the real Google AI Overview, or the lowest cost per prompt. OpenRouter if you want Claude, official API access, or a key you already pay for.
Is the ChatGPT API the same as the ChatGPT app?
For mentions, close. For cited pages, no: in my test, the ChatGPT API and the ChatGPT app shared 3% of the websites they cited on the same 12 prompts. That's why Querying.ai is the better choice for outreach.
Can I connect OpenRouter and Querying.ai at the same time?
No. An account connects one provider, so your results never mix 2 data sources in one chart.
Can I switch between Managed and BYOK later?
Yes. In Settings, under LLM settings, you can move between the 2 on the same subscription. The price difference is prorated, and the new data source starts a new trend line.
What happens when my provider credits run out?
Runs pause until you top up, and AEO Copilot emails you. Your data and settings stay as they are.
Is my API key safe?
AEO Copilot checks the key with your provider before saving it, stores it encrypted at rest with AES-256, shows only its last 4 characters, and only uses it to run your prompts.
Where to go next
I make AEO Copilot and sell the BYOK plans. Weigh my view accordingly.
See the BYOK plans, or start free on Managed with ChatGPT and Claude.