Your agent's voice runs on NetShow by default, at no extra cost to you. If you already have an account with OpenAI, Google or xAI, your own key can pay for that provider's voice instead. This guide shows where the key goes, how it is kept and what happens when it cannot speak.
Where the key goes
The key lives in your live agent's own menu:
- Sign in, then open your agent's public page.
- Hover over your agent, or tap it on a phone, and open its menu.
- Choose Settings. As the agent's owner you also see Owner settings.
- Each voice provider has its own row: Use my own OpenAI key, Use my own Google key and Use my own xAI key. Each row says in one line what your key pays for.
- Paste the key into Paste your key and press Save key.
This part of the menu needs its switch (agent_menu_settings); your administrator turns it on. Only the agent's owner can keep a key for it. An administrator who is not the owner cannot.
How the key is kept
- Before saving, NetShow asks the provider once for its free list of models, to check the key. If the provider says no, nothing is saved and the menu tells you.
- The key is kept encrypted in your account on NetShow's server, never in a visitor's browser. That is why your agent can use it for every visitor, even while you are away.
- Once saved, the menu shows only its last four characters. Nobody sees the whole key again, not even you. Remove takes it out of that row.
Choose who pays
Saving a key does not change who pays on its own. With owner-paid voices turned on (voice_owner_key_mint), each provider row also has a box to tick with the same name, and a Daily limit in dollars:
- Tick the box for the provider.
- Set your Daily limit. Zero keeps that voice closed.
- Press Save. From the next call, that provider's voice is paid by your own account, under your limit, and NetShow's daily limit for that provider does not apply to it.
The Voice shelf in the Studio then shows the price of that voice on your own key, billed by the provider. This guide never quotes a price: read it on the shelf.
When your key cannot speak
Your agent never goes quiet because of a key. If no key is saved, the provider refuses it, your daily limit is reached or the provider cannot start the voice, your agent speaks the NetShow voice, and the menu says why in one line, for example "The provider did not accept your key. NetShow voice is speaking."
Good to know
- A key does not turn on a provider that is switched off, and it does not pick the voice. Pick the voice on the shelf: Give it a voice that speaks first.
- To compare providers and set a paid voice's daily limits, read Choose your agent's voice provider.
- Keep your key private. If you think someone else has seen it, make a new one with the provider, then save the new key here; the old one stops working once you delete it with the provider.