# Key storage

> Where your key is stored, what someone could do with it, and the rotate-and-revoke steps to run the moment you think it leaked.

- Canonical: https://big-agi.com/docs/key-storage
- Minimum tier: open  [Open ⊂ Free ⊂ Pro - a tier only ever ADDS to the Open baseline]
- Kind: how-to · Last content update generation: 2026-07-27 · Review by: 2027-01-23
- Answers: Is it safe to paste my key into a browser app? · What could someone actually do with my key if they got it? · I think my key leaked - what do I do right now? · Is a shared or work computer safe for this?

Your key sits in this browser's local storage, in plain text, under the name `app-models` - ten seconds in the browser's developer tools shows it. Everything below follows from that fact.

## Where your API keys are stored

Read it yourself in Chrome or Edge: `F12` on Windows, `Cmd + Opt + I` on macOS. Then **Application** > **Local Storage**, pick the site, and open `app-models`.

Application > Local Storage, app-models selected, key value redacted.'
>
  Open the browser developer tools, Application tab, Local Storage: `app-models` holds the key, readable.

![Browser developer tools showing the app-models key in local storage, with the stored API key value redacted](/docs/legacy/data_ownership_local_storage.png)

Signing in moves nothing: credentials stay on the device, and a Big-AGI account holds none. Which route a service uses decides whether the Big-AGI server handles one: with Direct Connection on the browser calls the AI service itself, otherwise the server does ([Direct Connection](/docs/feature-direct-connection)).

> **Direct Connection works only with your API key stored in the browser**, and with an AI service that permits direct browser calls (CORS). Where it cannot be used, requests route through the Big-AGI fast edge servers instead - everything still works, within the standard upload size and time limits.

> **Pro:** Chats, personas and rambles stay on this device and browser only, unless you subscribe to Pro: cloud backup and multi-device sync (1 GB). On Open there is no sync. Disabling sync never deletes local data.

Local storage is scoped to a browser profile and a site, not to a person: anyone using that profile, and any extension with access to the site, reads what is in it. On a shared or work machine, in order of effort:

1. Use a separate browser profile that only you unlock.
2. For a one-off session, a private window - it keeps nothing after you close it, chats included.
3. Give that machine its own key, scoped to its own project with a low cap.
4. On managed machines, run an instance where the operator supplies keys and users never handle one ([keys and access control](/docs/self-host-configuration#keys-and-access-control)).

## What a stolen key can do

Spend your money at that AI service, up to whatever cap exists there, and nothing else: the key grants no access to your chats, files or Big-AGI account. The service-side cap therefore matters more than any local precaution.

## Rotating and revoking

**I think my key leaked** - three moves, hurried:

1. **Revoke it in the service's console.** Only the AI service can invalidate a key, and it is the one action that stops the spending.
2. **Create a replacement and type it over the field**, or clear the field and remove the service.
3. **Read the service's usage or activity page** for the period the old key was out.

The same three moves, unhurried, are ordinary rotation: create the new key, paste it over the old value, then delete the old key at the service. A key stays valid until the service revokes it, so the last move is the one that counts.

To take a key off a device entirely: clear the field or remove the service; clear the browser's site data, which takes your chats with it; or run the app's own data wipe, which removes `app-models` first among the stores it clears.

## Related

- [Add and manage your keys](/docs/connect-models)
- [Direct Connection](/docs/feature-direct-connection)
- [Back up your work, and restore it](/docs/account-backup)
- [Keys and access control](/docs/self-host-configuration)