Skilly OpenAI API Key Setup (No Credits)

Quick answer: create a secret key at platform.openai.com/api-keys, buy prepaid API credits (a ChatGPT subscription does not pay this bill), then in Skilly open the menu bar panel, press the gear button named Settings, stay on Account, paste the key under API Key, and press Verify & save. A saved key is the bring-your-own-key option: $5/month plus your own OpenAI usage. It is not free. The 15-minute trial is the only no-card start, and it does not reset.

If Skilly has stopped answering, read the words on screen before you buy anything. Trial ended is the trial. Limit reached or Out of time is the hosted monthly cap. A verified key that still fails is usually an OpenAI account with no prepaid credits.

Checked November 3, 2026 against OpenAI’s API key help, prepaid API billing, and ChatGPT vs API billing. Skilly’s menus and messages below match the Mac app and this site’s pricing.

Create the OpenAI key

1. Sign in on the API platform. Go to platform.openai.com and use the OpenAI account that should pay for usage. This is not the same place as a chat inside ChatGPT.
2. Open the API keys page at platform.openai.com/api-keys. Create a secret key there. OpenAI shows the full secret only at that moment. Copy it into a password manager, then close the dialog. Lost it? Create another key. Delete a key you do not want with the trash icon on that same page. Do not send the secret in chat, email, or a screenshot.
3. Turn on API billing. ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, and Pro are a separate bill. None of them fund API calls. Open the API organization’s billing overview, choose Add payment details, and buy prepaid credits. OpenAI’s minimum purchase is $5, and the amount it offers first is $10. Use auto-reload is on during that setup. Turn it off if you do not want OpenAI to buy more credits on its own. New API accounts use this prepaid balance. Purchased credits expire after one year.

Give a fresh purchase a few minutes. The balance does not always update the instant the payment succeeds.

Paste it into Skilly

Skilly runs from the Mac menu bar and needs macOS 14.2 or later. Download Skilly for Mac if it is not installed yet. The download page is also where the 15-minute trial starts. No card on that trial.

1. Open the menu bar panel.
2. Press the gear button. Its name is Settings.
3. Stay on the Account tab. The other tabs are Voice and General. You want Account.
4. Find the API Key section. The field placeholder reads sk-proj-.... Paste the full secret. The eye icon shows or hides it.
5. Press Verify & save. Skilly checks the key with OpenAI before it keeps it. While that runs, the button reads Verifying….

When the check passes you get two confirmations:

• Key verified — Skilly will use it for all Realtime sessions.
• A row that reads Using your own OpenAI key, with most of the secret masked.

Remove deletes the saved key and sends you back to the empty field.

Skilly stores the key in the app’s settings on this Mac. With a key saved, voice sessions start directly at OpenAI, instead of Skilly’s servers minting them for you. Skilly still records usage totals for account support and abuse monitoring.

If OpenAI refuses the key, the line is OpenAI rejected this key. Double-check it on platform.openai.com/api-keys. Create a new secret and paste that one. The same idea shows up later as OpenAI rejected your API key (HTTP 401). Open Settings → API Key and paste a valid key from platform.openai.com/api-keys.

Under a saved key, BYOK platform plan has an Activate plan button. That opens checkout in the browser for the $5/month app plan. You pay OpenAI on top of that, for the minutes you actually talk. Bring your own OpenAI key is $5/month plus your OpenAI usage. If checkout does not open, the message is Could not open checkout. Make sure you’re signed in and try again. Sign in on the Account tab, then press Activate plan again.

Prices for the two Mac options, and nothing else: the hosted plan is $19/month for 3 hours, and bring-your-own-key is $5/month plus your OpenAI usage. Both are on the pricing page.

Make sure it actually answers

Verify & save only proves OpenAI recognized the key. It does not prove the account has credits. Ask a real question next.

Hold Control+Option and talk. That is the default push-to-talk shortcut. The panel also says Hold Control+Option to talk. You can change it under Settings → Voice → Push to talk. Prefer hands-free? Set Voice input to Live Tutor. The hint there is In Live Tutor mode, just start talking. Skilly listens automatically.

You are done when you hear an answer and the API Key row still says Using your own OpenAI key.

Skilly also asks for the microphone, screen recording, screen content, and accessibility the first time you set it up. Screen recording lets it see the app you are asking about. Accessibility lets it point. If either permission is still off, use Allow screen recording on Mac and Enable Accessibility on macOS.

Trial ended, monthly limit, or no OpenAI credits

People search “skilly no credits remaining” for a few different stoppages. Skilly does not label a screen with those exact words. Use the sentence in the panel.

The 15-minute trial is over

You will see Trial ended — Subscribe to continue on the panel, or a window titled Free Trial Ended that says you have used all 15 minutes. The Plan card on Settings → Account switches its status to Trial ended, and the button reads Subscribe — $19 / month.

That trial is 15 minutes of use, once, tied to the account. It does not reset next month. No card was required to start it.

Two ways forward:

• Hosted plan. Subscribe from that button. $19/month includes 3 hours. You do not manage an API key.
• Your own key. Paste it as above. A saved key bypasses the 15-minute trial gate, because those sessions bill your OpenAI account. The app plan for that path is still $5/month, plus OpenAI. It is not a $0 mode.

The hosted 3 hours are used up

The panel says Limit reached — Upgrade plan. The Plan card says Out of time. The block message is You’ve reached your monthly usage limit. While you still have time, the strip reads Using … of 3h, and it warns at 80%+ of limit (2 hours 24 minutes).

Those 3 hours reset at the end of the billing period shown on the Plan card, not on a rolling 30-day timer. Buying OpenAI credits does not add hosted hours. Sessions on your own key are billed by OpenAI, and those minutes are not added to this 3-hour counter. If the panel already says Limit reached, the hosted cap is still what blocks the next turn until the period resets. The key is the bypass for the 15-minute trial, not a top-up for a monthly cap you have already hit.

Manage subscription on an active plan opens the billing portal. Cancel anytime from there. You keep access through the end of the period you already paid.

Your own key is valid, and the OpenAI balance is empty

This is the one that feels like “no credits remaining” after setup succeeded.

Verify & save can pass, and the next question can still fail, when the API organization has no prepaid credits. OpenAI’s code for that is credit_balance_exhausted: no prepaid credits remaining. API requests start returning a billing error. On a bring-your-own-key session, a failed mint comes back as OpenAI session mint failed, with OpenAI’s own response included.

Fix it on OpenAI’s side, not in Skilly’s plan card:

1. Open the API billing overview for the organization that owns the key.
2. Choose Buy credits or Add to credit balance, whichever is on the page.
3. Wait a few minutes, then hold Control+Option and ask again.

A ChatGPT subscription still will not fill this balance. If you are looking at the wrong organization’s billing page, the purchase will not help the key you pasted.

No key saved, and the session dies on OpenAI’s quota

Skilly treats OpenAI’s insufficient_quota code as a real failure when the hosted OpenAI credit runs out. That credit is Skilly’s, on the hosted trial and the hosted plan. You cannot top it up from your ChatGPT account.

What you can do:

• If the panel says Trial ended, paste your own key or subscribe. A saved key bypasses that trial gate.
• If the panel says Limit reached, that is the hosted monthly cap. Wait for the reset date on the Plan card, or subscribe if you are not on the hosted plan yet. A key does not refill those 3 hours.
• If there is no trial or limit message, paste your own key and fund that API account. New sessions then run on your key.

No active subscription found and Your subscription has expired are account-state messages. Subscribe again from the Plan card, or use your own key.

Ask hands-free, and let it point

Once a session connects, you do not have to describe the screen. Hold Control+Option and ask, or leave Live Tutor on and just talk. Skilly answers in voice and points at the control it means. It points. You still do the step yourself.

Built-in skills that ship with the app are Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects, Blender and Figma. Houdini is coming soon. It is not in that bundled set. The matching skill turns on when that app is the one in front. Skilly also works in other Mac apps without a skill file.

Wondering how that compares with ChatGPT on a Mac, where live screen sharing is a different feature? Read ChatGPT screen sharing on Mac. Before you leave an API key or a private window on screen, read Is it safe to let AI see your screen?.

Keep going

• Skilly pricing: the 15-minute trial, the $19/month hosted plan, and bring-your-own-key at $5/month plus your OpenAI usage.
• Download Skilly for Mac: the app these steps assume.
• Allow screen recording on Mac: the permission Skilly needs before it can see the app you are learning.
• Enable Accessibility on macOS: the permission that lets Skilly point at a control.
• ChatGPT screen sharing on Mac: what ChatGPT can see on a Mac, if you were about to use that instead of an API key.