Use your own transcription key

A Space can use its own OpenAI, Groq or Deepgram key for transcripts. Plus and Plus 10 allow up to 20 hours a month through it; Crew and Business have no hour limit.

By default KeyUp makes transcripts itself, using your plan’s hours. A Space owner or admin can choose Your own key instead. Then transcripts go to your provider, and your provider bills you. This starts at Plus, which allows up to 20 hours of audio a month through your own key. When the 20 hours are used, transcripts through your key pause until next month, and talking keeps working. Crew and Business have no hour limit. Free doesn’t include it. Each person still decides for their own voice.

Set it up (owners and admins)

Phone

Open Space settings › Advanced › Transcription provider.
Pick KeyUp (included in your plan) or Your own key.
For your own key, pick the Provider: OpenAI or compatible (OpenAI, Groq, or a Whisper you run yourself at its own address), or Deepgram.
OpenAI or compatible: the Address (base URL) starts as OpenAI’s. Change it for Groq or your own Whisper.
Paste your API key. The eye on the field says Show key or Hide key. Leave Model empty for the default: whisper-1 for OpenAI, Nova 3 for Deepgram.
Tap Save, then Test. It says The provider answered. You’re all set. or what went wrong.
To forget the key, tap Remove key and confirm. The Space goes back to KeyUp’s own transcripts.

Space settings for Riverside Crew: Name and Description, then the Plan card: Crew 15, Renews on Nov 25, 2026, Bought on the web, Transcripts, Replay and Assistant Included, people, guests, regular guest, rooms, Spaces, transcript hours, room history and See plans. — Space settings.

Web app and iPhone

Room settings (the three dots on the room card) › Space settings › Transcription.
The same choices: KeyUp (included in your plan) or Your own key, then Provider, Address (base URL), API key, Model, Save, Test and Remove key.

Watch

Owners and admins: swipe up, tap Settings › You › Privacy › Own transcription key. The choices are Use KeyUp’s and Use my own key.
For your own key, pick the provider and type the key with the watch keyboard. Then tap Test. Remove key forgets it and the Space goes back to KeyUp’s own transcripts.
The watch never shows the saved key back, only its last four characters.
Members see a short note that the key is set by an owner or admin, with where to do it: the phone or the web app.

What everyone else sees

Members see This Space uses Deepgram for transcripts. (or the provider your Space picked) while your key is in use.
Each person is asked, and the question names the provider: This Space uses Deepgram to turn speech into text, so what you say is sent to Deepgram.
The account switch Save and transcribe my voice agrees to KeyUp’s own transcripts only. It never agrees to a Space’s own provider for anyone. That is always this question, per provider.
Until someone says yes to this provider, only their voice isn’t transcribed. They still talk and hear as usual, and everyone else’s lines keep coming.
Change to a different provider and everyone is asked again. A new key or a new model for the same provider doesn’t ask again.

Good to know

Your key is stored encrypted and is never shown again. KeyUp shows only its last 4 characters, like Saved key ending in 1234.
Test sends one second of a quiet tone, never anyone’s voice.
Only adults can set up a key. A Space with anyone under 18 can’t use its own key: it stays on KeyUp’s own transcripts, and a teen’s voice is never sent to a provider. Accounts whose age is not confirmed are not transcribed by a Space’s own key, until they confirm their birth year.
Only the Space owner can enter an address that isn’t a well-known provider. It must start with https and be reachable from the internet.
Switching back to KeyUp (included in your plan) keeps your saved key, so you can switch back later without typing it again. Remove key forgets it.
The room’s Transcripts switch still decides which rooms are transcribed. See Transcripts.
Your voice goes to no outside company, with one exception that is the Space owner’s choice: this provider, named in the room, for the people who agreed to it. Your provider’s own terms and privacy policy apply to the audio it gets. See the Privacy Policy.

Still stuck? Email [email protected]. Tell us your phone and watch model and what you tried.