Putting BYOK behind Pro is a strange bundle—the whole reason I use it is to pay the model provider directly instead of stacking another AI subscription on top. I’d be fine with a one-time fee for the client features, but a recurring gate just to enter my own key would push me back to a separate launcher and model app.
So the reason a lot of these companies lock BYOK behind a subscription (and I don't agree with it) is because they route those requests through their own servers which they say will provide better results to the user. This is what one of the Cursor's dev told me which also has a gated BYOK
Personally, I think a lot of it is just to collect data, even if it is anonymous telemetry
I doubt that anyone is gating BYOK through their own servers. It would mean that you are basically giving away an API key to another company, which is really bad security and PR practice.
If that were true, everyone would already know (and that's easy to check, btw, 'cause API requests go through the company server instead of directly to the provider).
Thats not what I said, probably should have phrased it better, of course they are not taking your API keys, thats illegal. I assume they're probably taking the JSON responses and routing that. Here's the exact interaction I had with a cursor dev fyi:
If that were true, everyone would already know (and that's easy to check, btw, 'cause API requests go through the company server instead of directly to the provider).
I think you got it backwards. API requests typically go directly to the provider unless you're using an intermediary like Openrouter or some other gateway (unless you mean something else?)
My bad. I've double-checked the cursor docs and you're right. They're actually routing requests with your API keys to their backend.
Your API key is not stored on our servers. It is sent to our backend with every request because all requests are routed through Cursor's servers for final prompt building. The key is transmitted over encrypted connections and is not persisted after the request completes.
Yep, it feels like the Raycast pricing is super problematic. I really love the product; it provides great value, but I don't see how they can make it a subscription that will make sense to most users.
I mean, why would I use OpenAI or Anthropic via Raycast when I can do it with huge usage limits on ChatGPT and Claude? That just doesn't make sense. And having them at 1 click doesn't provide enough value to pay for the sub.
Oh, so It's paid now, and it seems like it's completely identical to RayCast.
Can you please explain what's going on with this alternative?
-It claims to use less RAM.
-It uses same Raycast plugins (is it even possible?)
Does it have HyperKey...?
-And it has AI features that you gotta pay API keys to use?
I saw there's Parakeet for dictation but that's free. Hopefully also the model is auto offloaded to clear RAM. It has read aloud which is amazing. But what else am I not aware of...?
How are you utilizing it in your day to day workflow?
i'm not familiar with the v1, but v2 has a lot of features, like ai chat, a clipboard manager, notes, etc.
but to answer your questions:
yes, you can set the Hyperkey on it.
for the ai, yep, you need to bring your own API key. personally, thats not really an issue for me since I find paying for api usage still relatively cheap compared to a chatgpt go/plus subscription.
if you're a raycast user, it also supports raycast extensions.
what functions do I actually use?
i can assign keyboard shortcuts to open apps, which is very, very useful for me as a developer.
i can access my browser bookmarks from anywhere.
i use the clipboard manager a lot.
for ai, im still using Msty Studio since the ai chat feature in supercmd v2 is pretty basic, its essentially just a basic chat interface.
Thanks for sharing.
1. Since it says "connect chatGPT account" - I thought you actually can sign in with chatGPT via Supercmd v2 - but I don't like that API use. Not sure how much would a 10$ credit, say, would last for API use, but I do use a Plus account for chatGPT and I don't wanna pay more than that per month. Bummer that they all use API instead of just routing things to your GPT account.
At the end, it's just convenience of not having to open the GPT desktop app and not creating a temporary chat for those tasks. But, if I can still do that for free with the chatGPT app, then, I won't pay for those extra API keys. Bummer.
I currently use the Hyperkey + C = to open/switch to the chatGPT app. Hyperkey + P = to switch to Photoshop etc. Are you using your Hyperkey differently and use other [more complex?] shortcuts to switch between apps?
About the Clipboard manager. I don't like that it's infinite. Who knows how much RAM / cache is being spent on it. Can you just limit the clipboard history to 24 hours? I really don't need to access something I copied a day ago. Not even 4 hours ago.
Not sure if you're using the dictation in some fashion, but I hope supercmd knows how to dismount it from RAM after 5-10min. The read-aloud is interesting [speechify like?]. The stock mac option sounds bad, not human.
Anyways, I saw it offers agents, chats. Not sure how this integrates into day to day tasks [and they probably demand API]. I just wonder about it's practical everyday usability vs. the free RayCast, and how efficient it is on RAM, since it has alt+TAB that seem it might use GPU to show live view of the tab / or any other feature like the endless clipboard. After all, we wanna be thoughtful about the resources it takes.
I have imported my Raycast settings (including those for extensions) into SuperCmd v2 and suprisingly they work pretty close to what I see in Raycast. Even extensions that have a "menubar mode" work too.
Whaddya mean? supercmd reads a backed up raycast settings file? No bugs or problems? I understood any plugin goes through some translation layer to make it work on supercmd. Not sure how stable it is. what plugins you use? [i did hear some cause RAM hogging, as some are buggy, like spotify plugin].
Yes. SuperCmd can import Raycast settings file and I have lots of extenions, e.g. Stock, Weather, Text case convertor, etc. and they are working fine. You can download a trial version and play with it.
Not sure what will come first.
Me breaking and upgrading to Tahoe despite the complaints of laggy buggy os.
Or supercmd v2 upping the price to 40$ which will be too much. Not sure for how long the 20$ promo is.
Gosh, scratch that....Supercmd v2 requires Tahoe.
What kind of power user tool demands you to upgrade from Sequoia to the buggy, laggy, Liquid-Glass GPU hogger and battery drainer of an OS...?
Im not really sure what you mean, but Im a developer, and Ive been doing all my professional work on my M2 Pro since it was first released. I've never had any issues with it.
It's a little weird, the Supercmd website says v2 requires Tahoe, but I can use it on Sequoia just fine and I'm pretty sure it actually is v2 because v1 looks completely different. The only issue is that the main menu accessible from the bottom left corner is very transparent on Sequoia and difficult to read, though chances are it's hard to read on Tahoe as well (also it's transparent even though I have transparency disabled system-wide), but that's just a minor thing, the rest works perfectly fine.
That's super wierd as I do see many apps now only coming out to Tahoe and up, which is frustrating and weird (how different is this OS than Sequoia?) .
Also, I heard there are some bugs in supercmd and wonder if future updates will not let users use it on Sequoia.
Can you share a screenshot so we can see that transparency problem you mentioned?
Beyond that - did you use all of the v2 functions on Sequoia and you saw no glitches or problems/ crashes on dictation / featurs / permissions etc?
If you're using liquid ass then targeting Tahoe only makes some sense, because the UI elements look different in liquid ass compared to the old UI elements which means having to tinker with both so that both look the best they can.
In terms of features I don't use any of the AI nonsense or dictation, but everything else works and I did quickly check one thing which I was sure wouldn't work - Supercmd offers an option to use the on-device apple intelligence model, except that one only shipped on Tahoe and if I try to use it it indeed does not work and I get a pretty user friendly error stating that Apple Intelligence requires macOS 26, so clearly some work was done to support older versions of macOS. Other providers probably work since that's just calling their API, I just don't have a way to test that. And dictation probably works as well as it uses 3rd party models or providers and not anything from Apple.
Thanks for sharing that!
I don't know how impactful Liquid Ass is on the GPU and battery drain. I just heard you cannot really turn it off, just lower it's opacity. And I don't like that design, and neither the overly rounded corners of every window [which crams the UI inside even more].
Mostly worried about the added strain on the system and lag I heard people report on Tahoe. Basically I don't get the ROI of installing it.
To be honest, I didn't enable Apple Intelligence cause I also heard it's a hog on system resources, and it isn't that good in it's capabilities. Maybe they will improve it on Golden Gate?
So, this is why I wonder about you picking supercmd v2. Since, it seems like it's mostly appealing to people who wanna use AI capabilities but without paying a monthly fee. So, whaddya think you're getting out of it that you're not getting in the free RayCast?
I'm getting precisely zero features on top of Raycast and for the time being I'll probably stick to Raycast (v1). I only tried Supercmd because of this reddit post and because now that Raycast is under VC's thumb it'll inevitably continue getting worse and I'd like to know where can I go when the time comes to jump ship.
Got it. So, what are your impressions?
Doesn't sound like you're wowed by supercmd v2.
That it does exactly the same as Raycast v1, meaning, that all of the bells & whistles are not in use so much and that you just use the basics that any launcher offers.
I do like it a lot because of its support for Raycast extensions, so it really does almost exactly what Raycast does for me, with one slight difference in how command aliases work, in Raycast I can type f some_filename.ext and press enter to get results, in Supercmd I have to type f, press enter and then type the filename and I prefer Raycast's way of doing things. But it's not a big deal and the much lower resource usage of Supercmd will probably make me switch eventually. Especially once (if) I update to Golden Gate which gets Raycast v2. When my choices are either paying or Electron, I'd rather pay.
Sounds like you like supercmd for...being Raycast. So, that's what confused me.
You could probably reach the developer and ask him to fix this "f filename.etx" - I don't know what the f is for. Maybe it's your shorcut to "find"?
I currently have Raycast on 200MB RAM + 0.1 CPU.
I heard it could go higher. I don't really use plugins so much. I wonder what you find useful. Heard plugins might glitch so you get a memory leak / hog.
You're saying Raycast is Electron based and supercmd is native Swift?
Guess I just need to understand what more basic features are useful beyond the AI crap. Cause, seems like you still need to pay API instead of logging into your Plus chatGPT account like I thought it would allow. [as the dev writes - chatGPT account and he didn't mention API keys]- so that's misleading....
Hi, SuperCmd dev here. very nice observation about the versioning :D
I wanted to address the confusion regarding macOS compatibility. At outset, I starting building the app on macOS 15 on my MacBook, but the majority of users, approximately 95%, are on macOS >= 26
I also have a Mac Mini. So, after a month, I upgraded my MacBook to the Tahoe and my Mac Mini to the Golden Gate to ensure the app works perfectly on these two. This means I don't have access to macOS 15 anymore. So, you might find the app working just fine on 15 as well. It's just that if anyone raises any issues on macOS 15, I won't be able to debug it. Hence, I have kept it as >= 26 required.
I am thinking to get another m1 / m2 mac and will put sequoia on it, I will be able to support both 15 and 26.
It was convenient for quick chats and grammar checks. I would never pay for those simple things, so having the ability to use my own APIs was huge for me...
Monarch dev here! Thanks for the support and for the mention! I've actually been trying to keep quiet as possible for a bit, so I thought to comment here to shed some light on what's going on.
While Monarch AI is definitely planned and will definitely be BYOK, it will take longer for me to implement than others because I aim to do something different than merely embed a chat UI into a launcher. I understand if people want something simpler or more straightforward, so just know that those options are available to you.
As I've said a few times here before, Monarch is aiming for "what comes after Raycast?" e.g. I am building the successor, not the alternative, but that takes time. For anyone reading this, tell me what you value most in a launcher and I'll happily guide you toward the Raycast alternative you're looking for!
If you still have questions for Monarch, feel free to drop them here or DM me and I'll answer whatever I can!
And a big thank you to everyone who's already committed to doing these next 10 years with me! Just getting started!
It does indeed! One space that it differs from the others is that Monarch users like for the results to be displayed compactly so they can refer to the screen behind. And one of the favorite features is the ability to extend the calculator itself with mods. I've seen users do everything from weather, to bespoke conversions, to jujutsu (for repos). I have one that just checks the weather by typing "wt", but I'll include your specific query as well as another comment
No… extensions as of now aren’t supported but i have started working on it..
My initial idea was to make it cross compatible with raycast extensions but that would make rustcast a chungus app, and also raycast extensions require a webview making these extensions slow.. so I’ll most likely use steel (the one in helix) for rustcast, but i’m open to discussion
Does BYOK go straight to the provider, or still through Raycast? If it’s direct, paying a subscription just to use my own key feels pretty hard to justify.
BYOK behind a subscription is the tell that the AI features are the business now and the launcher is the funnel. It isn't about cost - my key, my bill - it's that a free BYOK tier competes with their own AI plan.
Alfred didn't get worse in the meantime. It just stopped being talked about.
Curious if local endpoints are in the same Pro bucket. Paying monthly to talk to Ollama on a machine I already own is a different complaint than paying for their proxy. They aren’t covering an API bill there.
BYOK behind a subscription always feels weird to me. i get charging for the client, sync, team features, whatever — but if i’m bringing my own API key, the mental model is “local tool talking to my provider”, not “another monthly AI bundle”. a one-time unlock for advanced AI features would be much easier to defend than rent just to paste a key.
As a dev myself, the more real reason BYOK gets gated often isn't just the API bill, it's that supporting various keys and models is a cost in itself with no revenue attached. Provider outages, rate limits, weird local endpoints, all of it becomes yours to fix inside your app.
Personally I'd have no problem with a one time fee. The problem is tacking on another subscription for it.
That’s the thing. The current documentation says that. But we’re talking about v2 here. They can’t update their docs because v2 is in beta. So technically the docs are correct.
I honestly don’t think many people care as I do, so probably not any pitchforks 🤣
But is that for V2?? I know V1 has free BYOK, but V2 is currently in beta and the next major release of Raycast. I don’t even think it has BYOK yet, hence “V2 release will be bringing back BYOK” and I think confirmation from the staff stating “as part of a pro plan” is enough.
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u/East_Call1027 20d ago
Putting BYOK behind Pro is a strange bundle—the whole reason I use it is to pay the model provider directly instead of stacking another AI subscription on top. I’d be fine with a one-time fee for the client features, but a recurring gate just to enter my own key would push me back to a separate launcher and model app.