# Sign in with SayGM: Let Users Bring Their Own AI Balance Sign in with SayGM is live. Apps can now let users connect their SayGM account in a few clicks and run on their own AI balance, with per-app permissions, monthly budgets and no API keys to paste. _Source: https://saygm.com/blog/sign-in-with-saygm-let-users-bring-their-own-ai-balance_ Sign in with SayGM is live. Any app can now add a Sign in with SayGM button, and its users connect their [SayGM](https://saygm.com/) account in a few clicks. From then on, the app runs on the user's existing SayGM balance, with no API keys to copy and paste. It arrives as more AI apps ask users to bring your own key, so the person using the app pays for the model calls instead of the company that built it. That model works, but it usually means pasting a raw API key into someone else's software. Sign in with SayGM keeps the "user pays" part and replaces the pasting with a connection you can scope, cap and switch off. This post covers what Sign in with SayGM is, how connecting an app works, how per-app budgets keep spend in check, and what it offers developers, including a way to earn from the users their app brings to SayGM. ## Table of Contents - [What Is Sign in with SayGM?](#what-is-sign-in-with-saygm) - [The Problem With Asking Users to Paste API Keys](#the-problem-with-asking-users-to-paste-api-keys) - [How Sign in with SayGM Works for Users](#how-sign-in-with-saygm-works-for-users) - [For Developers: Users Bring Their Own Balance](#for-developers-users-bring-their-own-balance) - [Earn From the Users Your App Brings](#earn-from-the-users-your-app-brings) - [Common Questions About BYOK AI Apps](#common-questions-about-byok-ai-apps) - [Final Thoughts](#final-thoughts) ## What Is Sign in with SayGM? Sign in with SayGM is a login button for AI apps, in the same spirit as signing in with Google or GitHub. The difference is what the app gets once you approve it. Instead of only your name and email, it can get access to AI models, paid for from the SayGM balance you already have. That balance covers Claude, GPT, Gemini and a curated set of open-weight models on one account. So a connected app can call the models SayGM offers without you opening a new account, adding a card somewhere else or creating a key by hand. ## The Problem With Asking Users to Paste API Keys Plenty of AI tools now let users supply their own model access. Coding assistants, writing tools and agent frameworks often have a settings field labelled "API key" where you paste a key from a model provider. The app sends your requests with it, and the bill lands on your account. For the app's builder, that removes the biggest risk of offering AI to strangers: paying for their usage. For the user, the paste-a-key approach has rough edges: - It's slow. Users have to leave the app, find a provider's dashboard, create a key, copy it and paste it back in, and every extra step is a chance for someone to give up before they've tried the app. - A raw API key usually works for anything on your account, not just the one app you gave it to. - Most keys have no spending limit tied to a specific app, so a bug or a runaway agent can spend freely. - Once a key is pasted into several tools, it's hard to tell which one is spending what, and rotating it breaks all of them at once. Sign in with SayGM is built to fix all four. Connecting takes a few clicks instead of a trip to another dashboard, and the rest is covered by per-app permissions, budgets and revocation. ## How Sign in with SayGM Works for Users This is the part your users see. For anyone with a SayGM account, connecting an app takes a few clicks, and they stay in control of it from start to finish: - **They choose what each app can do:** users pick which permissions to allow (use models, read usage and read profile). The app gets a dedicated key that's only for that app, never the user's main one. - **They set the budget:** if they allow model access, they set a monthly spending limit for that app or choose unlimited. Each app has its own limit, only the user can change it, and limits reset at the start of each month (UTC). - **They can see and revoke every app in one place:** users can go to Account → Connected apps on SayGM to see each connected app with its permissions and spend for the month. From there, they can revoke an app, which turns off its access and key straight away. ## For Developers: Users Bring Their Own Balance If you're building an AI app, Sign in with SayGM lets your users bring their own balance, so you never front their inference costs. You don't need to price in a margin for heavy users, run a credit system or chase unpaid usage. Each person pays SayGM for what they use, at SayGM's published rates. Under the hood it's standard OAuth 2.0 with PKCE (the [Proof Key for Code Exchange extension](https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7636)) designed for apps that can't safely hold a client secret, such as single-page and mobile apps. If you've added a "Sign in with Google" or GitHub button before, the flow will feel familiar: your app sends the user to SayGM, they approve, and your app exchanges the returned code for its dedicated key. ![Familiar OAuth sign-in buttons for Google and GitHub, the same OAuth PKCE pattern Sign in with SayGM uses.](https://assets.saygm.com/blog/2026/10/0e226b93-32fa-4a4a-97c9-81c2a3b9dffa-screenshot-2026-10-20-at-11-40-34-am-862x324.png) Your app also inherits what SayGM already offers on every request: one key for Claude, GPT, Gemini and open-weight models through their native APIs, and private routing through SayGM's hardware-sealed gateway. To register your app, [contact the SayGM team](https://saygm.com/contact) and choose Partnerships as the topic. ## Earn From the Users Your App Brings Every app that adds a Sign in with SayGM button is also a way for new people to find SayGM. The affiliate program lets you get paid for that. Add your affiliate referral code to your Sign in with SayGM link, and every new SayGM account created through your button counts as your referral. You then earn alpha from the affiliate pool on what those users spend. Affiliates earn from a shared pool - up to 100% of what the customer spends in their first 30 days, paid in SN28 alpha. If one customer spends $1,000 on inference in a month, you could get $1,000. The pool and rate change each round. You can [get your referral link](https://saygm.com/affiliates) from the affiliates page, and [how rewards work](https://saygm.com/affiliates/how-it-works) covers rounds, holds and payouts in detail. For the background on why the program is built as a competition rather than a commission, read [the affiliate program launch post](https://saygm.com/blog/get-paid-to-refer-developers-to-saygm-ai-gateway). ## Common Questions About BYOK AI Apps ### What does BYOK mean in AI apps? BYOK stands for "bring your own key." In BYOK AI apps, the user supplies their own model access, usually an API key from a provider or gateway, so model usage is billed to the user rather than the app's developer. Sign in with SayGM is a way to do this through a login button instead of a pasted key. ### Is it safe to paste an API key into an app? It depends on the app, but a pasted key is usually as powerful as your whole account and has no limit tied to that one app. Connecting through OAuth is generally safer: the app gets its own key, you choose its permissions, and you can revoke it without affecting anything else. With Sign in with SayGM you can also cap each app's monthly spend. ### How does OAuth PKCE work? OAuth PKCE adds a one-time secret to the standard OAuth login flow. The app creates a random value, sends a hashed version when the user starts signing in, and proves it holds the original when it exchanges the returned code. That stops an intercepted code from being used by anyone else, which is why PKCE suits apps that can't keep a client secret. ### Does OpenRouter have OAuth? Yes. [OpenRouter's OAuth PKCE flow](https://openrouter.ai/docs/use-cases/oauth-pkce) lets users connect their OpenRouter account to an app so they pay for their own usage. Sign in with SayGM does the same for SayGM accounts, with per-app permissions, a monthly budget you set for each app, and a Connected apps page where you can revoke access at any time. ## Final Thoughts Sign in with SayGM gives AI apps a simpler way to let users bring their own key. Instead of asking people to paste a raw API key into a settings field, an app adds one button, and users connect their SayGM account in a few clicks. Each app gets its own key with only the permissions the user allowed, runs within a monthly budget the user sets, and can be revoked at any time from Account → Connected apps. For developers, that means offering AI without fronting anyone's inference costs, and earning from the affiliate pool on every new user the button brings to SayGM. If you're building an AI app and want users to bring their own balance, [register your app with SayGM](https://saygm.com/contact) and add your [referral link](https://saygm.com/affiliates) to the button. If you already use SayGM, look out for the Sign in with SayGM button in the apps you use. ## About SayGM SayGM is a drop-in inference gateway for teams who don't want to just take a company's word that their prompts are private. Every request is routed through a hardware-verified confidential environment - not even SayGM can see what's inside it. That's not a policy, it's provable. Swap in your existing OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini code and you're covered in minutes, at transparent, published rates with no hidden markup. Say gm to AI at [saygm.com](https://saygm.com/). 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