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Setting Up AI Providers

A "provider" is the AI service that powers your chats. ClawDesk supports many providers — you can even use several at once and switch between them freely.

What Providers Are Available?​

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ProviderTop ModelsCostNeeds Internet?
AnthropicClaude Sonnet, Claude Haiku, Claude OpusPay-per-use (~$3-15/M tokens)Yes
OpenAIGPT-4o, GPT-4, GPT-4o-miniPay-per-use (~$2.50-10/M tokens)Yes
Google GeminiGemini 2.0 Flash, Gemini ProFree tier availableYes
OllamaLlama 3, Mistral, Gemma, QwenCompletely freeNo (runs locally)
Local (Built-in)Any GGUF modelCompletely freeNo (runs locally)
OpenRouter100+ models from all providersPay-per-use (varies)Yes
AWS BedrockClaude, Llama, MistralPay-per-useYes
Azure OpenAIGPT-4o, GPT-4Pay-per-useYes
CohereCommand R+Pay-per-useYes
Vertex AIGemini, PaLMPay-per-useYes

Adding a Provider​

Step 1: Open Provider Settings​

  1. Click Settings in the left sidebar
  2. Click the Providers tab

You'll see a list of available providers with fields for API keys and configuration.

Step 2: Enter Your API Key​

Find your provider in the list and paste your API key.

What's an API key?

An API key is like a password that lets ClawDesk talk to the AI service on your behalf. Each provider gives you a unique key when you sign up for their developer platform. ClawDesk stores your key locally on your computer — it never sends it anywhere else.

Where to get your key:

  1. Go to console.anthropic.com
  2. Sign up or log in
  3. Click API Keys → Create Key
  4. Copy the key (starts with sk-ant-...)

In ClawDesk:

  • Find "Anthropic" in the providers list
  • Paste the key
  • Click Save

Available models: Claude Opus, Claude Sonnet, Claude Haiku

Where to get your key:

  1. Go to platform.openai.com/api-keys
  2. Sign up or log in
  3. Click Create new secret key
  4. Copy the key (starts with sk-...)

In ClawDesk:

  • Find "OpenAI" in the providers list
  • Paste the key
  • Click Save

Available models: GPT-4o, GPT-4o-mini, GPT-4, o1, o1-mini

Where to get your key:

  1. Go to aistudio.google.com/apikey
  2. Sign in with Google
  3. Click Create API Key
  4. Copy the key

In ClawDesk:

  • Find "Gemini" in the providers list
  • Paste the key
  • Click Save

Available models: Gemini 2.0 Flash, Gemini 1.5 Pro, Gemini 1.5 Flash

Free tier

Google offers a free tier for Gemini API. Great for getting started without paying!

No API key needed! Ollama runs on your computer.

Setup:

  1. Install Ollama from ollama.com
  2. Pull a model: ollama pull llama3.2
  3. In ClawDesk, find "Ollama" in providers
  4. URL should be http://localhost:11434 (default)
  5. Click Save

Models you've pulled will appear automatically.

Popular models to try:

ollama pull llama3.2        # Great all-rounder
ollama pull mistral         # Fast and capable
ollama pull codellama       # Best for coding
ollama pull gemma2          # Good for general tasks

OpenRouter gives you access to 100+ models from many providers through a single API key.

Where to get your key:

  1. Go to openrouter.ai
  2. Sign up and add credits
  3. Go to Keys → create a key

In ClawDesk:

  • Find "OpenRouter" in the providers list
  • Paste the key
  • Click Save

This gives you access to Claude, GPT-4, Llama, Mistral, and many more through one account.

Using Multiple Providers​

One of ClawDesk's strengths is using multiple providers at the same time. You can:

  1. Set up Anthropic, OpenAI, and Ollama all at once
  2. Switch between them freely in the Chat page
  3. Use different models for different tasks

Example setup:

  • Anthropic Claude for writing and analysis
  • OpenAI GPT-4o for coding
  • Ollama Llama 3 for quick offline questions

Smart Failover​

If one provider goes down or hits a rate limit, ClawDesk can automatically switch to another one. This happens behind the scenes — you won't even notice.

The failover system:

  1. Tries your selected model first
  2. If that fails (rate limit, server error, etc.), tries the next available model
  3. Keeps trying up to 15 times across different models and providers
  4. If thinking mode hits context limits, it automatically reduces thinking complexity

You don't need to configure this — it works automatically.

How Much Does It Cost?​

Usage LevelEstimated Monthly Cost
Light (a few chats per day)$1-5
Moderate (regular daily use)$5-20
Heavy (all-day coding assistant)$20-50
Free (Ollama / local models)$0
Free (Gemini free tier)$0
info

You only pay for what you use. There are no subscriptions or monthly fees from ClawDesk — all costs go directly to the AI provider.

Checking Provider Health​

In Settings → Providers, each provider shows a health status:

  • Green — Connected and working
  • Yellow — Connected but experiencing issues
  • Red — Not connected or error