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OPEN SOURCE · SELF-HOSTABLE · NO SUBSCRIPTION

Besidka: BYOK AI chat. Pay only for the AI you use

Use GPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek and more in one chat with your own API keys. No subscription, no markup, and you see the price of every message.

Start free with a Gemini key Self-host on GitHub (opens in new tab)
MIT licensed 28(opens in new tab)

Show me what it looks like.

Here is a quick look at what Besidka can do.

Desktop and mobile, installable PWA, push notifications

Light or dark theme, desktop and phone

Your own keys for seven providers

Optional gateways: OpenRouter, Vercel, Cloudflare

Model, tokens and cost on every answer

Web search providers and their prices

Projects with shared instructions and memory

Highlighted code and rendered diagrams

Reasoning steps and effort

Image generation in the chat

Deep research with the full trace

File manager

Share a chat, no account needed to read it

How many people are using this?

We are an early, growing community. Here is where things stand today.

170

People using Besidka

1.6K

Conversations started

9K

Messages exchanged

374

Files uploaded

5

Images generated

24

Conversations shared

1

Research reports generated

I pay for ChatGPT Plus and rarely use it. Is there an alternative without a subscription?

Yes, if you are fine creating an API key.

A flat fee costs the same whether you send ten messages or ten thousand. That is a fair deal if you use the app heavily and a poor one if you do not.

With your own API key you pay the provider for each message instead, at its published rates, and Besidka shows the price of every one. There is no subscription and no Besidka markup.

Free tiers are fine for plain text chat. They limit other things: ChatGPT Free allows 3 file uploads a day and limited image generation, and the free Gemini app gives access to fewer and smaller models than the paid plans (Gemini models by plan). Whether paying per use is cheaper for you depends on how much you use AI, so check the comparison below.

Your keys, your costs, your data.

Connect your own key from any of seven AI providers, or route through your own AI gateway, and pay only for what you use. There is no monthly fee, no per-seat charge and no Besidka markup. Switch between the latest Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, Kimi and Qwen models in one place. Add or remove keys any time from your profile. Because Besidka is open-source and self-hostable, you are never locked in.

New to BYOK? The BYOK guide walks through getting a key, adding it, how cost works and where keys are stored.

Start free with a Gemini key How it works

Why should I pick this over a regular subscription?

Stop paying for days you don't chat

No flat monthly fee means a quiet week costs you nothing. You pay the AI provider only for the messages you send, at its published rates.

Your history is not tied to a plan

Your chats are stored in Besidka's database, scoped to your account, and do not depend on a subscription. Self-host to keep them in your own Cloudflare account.

Pick the best model for each job

Claude Opus for hard reasoning, GPT-5.6 for creative work, Gemini Flash for quick drafts, DeepSeek or Qwen for high-volume tasks. Switch between providers in the same interface.

How do I get started?

1. Sign up

Create a free account with email and password, or sign in with Google or GitHub. No credit card required.

2. Add your API key

Paste an API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google AI Studio, xAI, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI or Qwen into your profile, or connect your own AI gateway instead. The easiest start is a free Gemini key from Google AI Studio, which needs no card. Keys are encrypted at rest and never shared.

3. Start chatting

Open a new chat, pick your model, and go. You pay your provider or gateway directly. Besidka adds nothing on top.

Can I see it in action?

Here is a short walkthrough of the key features.

A 54-second tour of Besidka

What can I actually do with it?

Multiple AI models

Switch between the latest models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Qwen in one place, on your own keys or through your own AI gateway.

Web search

Ground AI answers with real-time web context and inline sources. Pick your search provider: the model's built-in search, or your own Brave or Exa key.

Reasoning mode

Enable step-by-step thinking for complex questions. The model works through its reasoning before giving a final answer.

AI image generation

Generate one image at a time with supported OpenAI, Google and xAI models. Besidka saves each result privately in your file library so you can preview and download it.

File attachments

Send images and PDFs. Files are stored in your own R2 bucket and can be reused across different chats.

Chat branching

Fork any conversation mid-thread to explore a different direction without losing the original.

Shareable chats

Share a chat with a public, unguessable link. Anyone can view it without an account and branch it into their own chats. You control expiry, indexing, and what's visible.

Projects

Group related chats under a project with shared instructions and memory so every conversation has context.

Deep research

Kick off an autonomous agent that browses the web, cross-checks sources, and writes a cited report while you do something else. Runs on your own key for roughly $1 to $10 per task, with a push notification when it's done.

Who is it for?

A good fit if you:

  • use AI every day for search, translation, PDFs, images or code
  • do not want another subscription
  • are fine creating an API key in a provider's developer console
  • want several models in one place and want to see what each message costs

Probably not for you if you:

  • already pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, Claude Pro or Google AI Pro and rarely hit their limits. Those apps do more than a chat window, such as voice, agents and desktop apps
  • do not want to deal with API keys, or with adding a card or prepaying credit at a provider

For scale: the maintainer's own non-work use costs between $1 and $5 a month. That is one person's usage, not a promise, and your bill depends on the models and how much you chat.

What does it cost compared to ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude subscriptions?

How Besidka compares to popular AI chat subscriptions
BesidkaChatGPT GoChatGPT PlusGoogle AI PlusGoogle AI ProClaude Pro
Monthly feeFree$8/mo$20/mo$4.99/mo$19.99/mo$17–20/mo
Pay only for what you useYesNoNoNoNoNo
Open sourceYesNoNoNoNoNo
Self-hostableYesNoNoNoNoNo
Multi-provider modelsYesNoNoNoNoNo
Image generationYesYesYesYesYesNo
Shareable chat linksYesLink + branch, no access controlsLink + branch, no access controlsLink + branch, no access controlsLink + branch, no access controlsLink or email invite, view-only
Bring your own keysRequiredNoNoNoNoNo
Bring your own search key (Brave / Exa)YesNoNoNoNoNo
Route through your own AI gateway (BYOK)YesNoNoNoNoNo
Deep researchYesNot listed by OpenAIYesYesYesYes
Per-message cost breakdownYesNoNoNoNoNo

Besidka is free; you pay the AI provider for what you use. A casual user sending around 100 messages a month uses roughly 50 k input and 50 k output tokens. At Claude Sonnet 5.5's API rates ($2 input / $10 output per million tokens) that is about $0.60; on Claude Opus 5.5 ($4 / $20) about $1.20. Sending 1,000 messages a month lands near $6 on Sonnet 5.5 or $12 on Opus 5.5. Long chats resend earlier messages as input, so real input counts run higher, and prompt caching bills those repeated tokens at a discount. Web search, image generation and deep research are billed separately at the provider's published rates. There is no Besidka markup. Subscription prices are US list prices. The subscription apps bundle features and limits Besidka does not copy, and the free tiers of ChatGPT and Gemini cover plain text chat at no cost.

Checked 20 October 2026.

Sources: ChatGPT Go (opens in new tab), ChatGPT Plus (opens in new tab), ChatGPT Free (opens in new tab), ChatGPT uploads (opens in new tab), ChatGPT sharing (opens in new tab), Google AI plans (opens in new tab), Gemini models by plan (opens in new tab), Gemini shared links (opens in new tab), Claude pricing (opens in new tab), Claude images (opens in new tab), Claude public links (opens in new tab), Claude private sharing (opens in new tab), Claude Research (opens in new tab).

Can I self-host Besidka?

Besidka is built on Cloudflare Workers and ships with everything you need to run your own instance. Configure your Cloudflare account per the README, then deploy with pnpm run deploy. The license is MIT: use it, fork it, contribute back.

28stars on GitHub(opens in new tab)

What does “Besidka” mean?

Besidka, Ukrainian “бесідка”, is an open-source AI chat application. The name is the Ukrainian word for a garden gazebo, a place to sit, talk, and think. Similar words exist across other Slavic languages, such as “besídka” in Czech and “besiedka” in Slovak, and all of them derive from the Proto-Slavic root besěda (meaning “speech,” “conversation,” or “council”).

I have more questions.

What does BYOK mean?
BYOK stands for "Bring Your Own Key." Instead of paying Besidka a monthly subscription, you connect your own API key from an AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google AI Studio, xAI, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI or Qwen) or from an AI gateway such as Vercel AI Gateway, Cloudflare AI Gateway or OpenRouter. You pay the provider or gateway at its published rates. Besidka adds no markup.
Can I use ChatGPT with my own API key?
The ChatGPT app itself does not accept an API key, and a ChatGPT subscription and OpenAI API billing are separate products. With an OpenAI API key you can use the same GPT models in a BYOK app such as Besidka and pay OpenAI per use. OpenAI sells API credit in advance, with a minimum purchase of $5 as of 20 October 2026. The ChatGPT app has features that an API key does not give you, such as its own apps and voice mode. The BYOK guide has the steps.
Can I start for free?
Yes, with a Gemini API key from Google AI Studio. Creating one needs a Google account but no card or billing account, and Besidka itself is free. The free tier has rate limits, and Google may use your prompts and responses on the free tier to improve its products, so do not send anything sensitive. Moving to the paid tier (a billing account; new accounts start on prepaid credit) stops Google using your prompts to improve its products. Other providers need prepaid credit or a card before their API accepts requests.
Which AI providers are supported?
Besidka connects directly to seven AI providers: Anthropic (Claude Opus 5, Claude Sonnet 5 and Claude Haiku 4.5), OpenAI (GPT-5.6, GPT-5.5 and the wider GPT family), Google AI Studio (Gemini 3.8 Flash, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and other Gemini models), xAI (Grok 4.6 and other Grok models), DeepSeek (DeepSeek V4 Pro and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash), Moonshot AI (Kimi K3 and Kimi K2.6) and Qwen (Qwen3.8 Max, Qwen3.8 Flash and other Qwen models). Instead of per-provider keys, you can also route chats through your own AI gateway account (Vercel AI Gateway, Cloudflare AI Gateway or OpenRouter), using the models that gateway makes available to your account. For web search, you can add your own Brave Search or Exa key and use it with any model that supports tool calling, whichever provider or gateway runs it. Check the GitHub repository for the full, current model list.
Can Besidka generate images and documents?
Yes for images. Select Create image with a supported OpenAI, Google or xAI chat model, and Besidka generates one image per request. The image is stored privately in your file library, counts toward your storage quota, and remains available to download. Besidka does not generate PDF, PPTX, or XLSX files yet.
Do you store my API keys?
Your keys are stored encrypted in Cloudflare D1, isolated per account behind Better Auth session guards. They are never logged or transmitted to third parties. You can delete them from your profile at any time.
Can I self-host this?
Yes. Besidka is MIT-licensed and designed to run on Cloudflare Workers. Clone the repository, configure your Cloudflare account per the README, and deploy with pnpm run deploy. You bring the Cloudflare account.
Is my chat history private?
On the hosted version at besidka.com, your chats are stored in Besidka's database and scoped to your account, so only you can read them through the app. If you self-host, they are stored in your own Cloudflare account and no third party has access. Messages are sent to the AI provider whose key you use, and that provider's own data terms apply to them.
Can I share a chat?
Yes. Any chat can be shared via a public, unguessable link. Recipients view a read-only copy without needing an account, and can branch it into their own chats. You control per-share options like link expiry, search-engine indexing, and whether images, file names, message details, or your avatar are visible, and you can revoke a share at any time. Shared files are served through short-lived, revocable tokens rather than a public bucket.
Does Besidka support deep research like ChatGPT?
Yes. Besidka supports deep research the same way ChatGPT and Gemini do, running on Google's dedicated Gemini Deep Research agent models. Instead of a single quick reply, the agent autonomously browses the web, cross-checks multiple sources, and writes a fully cited report on the topic you give it. It runs on your own Google API key, so a typical report costs roughly $1 to $7 depending on the model and depth you pick, with no Besidka markup. Anthropic does not currently offer a dedicated deep-research agent model and OpenAI has retired its own, so this is not available on a Claude or OpenAI key. You get a push notification the moment the report is ready, so you do not need to keep the tab open while it works.
How is pricing calculated?
Besidka itself is free to use and open-source. You pay your AI provider (such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI or Qwen) directly at its published API rates, including token usage and any image-generation charges. If you route chats through an AI gateway, you pay that gateway at its own rates instead. If you add a Brave Search or Exa key for web search, that search provider bills you separately at its own rates. There is no monthly fee, no seat charge, and no Besidka markup on any of these. You pay only when you use a provider-backed feature.
How to pronounce Besidka?
Besidka is pronounced “beh-SEED-kah”.
  • “Be-” (Rhymes with “beh” as in “meh”). A short, soft sound. Do not pronounce it like the English word “be” (bee). It should be a short 'e' sound.
  • “-SID-” (Rhymes with “deed”). This is the stressed syllable. You should say this part a little louder and longer than the others.
  • “-ka” (Rhymes with “ah”). A crisp 'k' followed by a short 'a' (like the 'a' in “father”).

Add your own API key, see what each message costs, and stop paying for months you did not use. Besidka is open source, MIT licensed and self-hostable.

Start free with a Gemini key Self-host on GitHub (opens in new tab)