- You pay the provider directly at their pay-as-you-go rates. One generated text set is a few thousand tokens; clip analysis sends a handful of key frames (and a short audio snippet on Gemini). Typical usage is cents.
- What leaves your machine: the briefing, brand identity text, caption lines for translation, hook/endcard texts for speech, key frames for analysis — only to the provider you chose, only when you use the feature.
- Keys are stored encrypted on your machine (Windows DPAPI) and never shown again in full; assistants over MCP only ever see whether a key is set.
NOTE
An assistant can neither switch the AI provider nor write a key. Its connection test runs against the keys already stored here, so the choice of provider — and the spending that follows from it — stays with you.