Turn a BYOK prototype into a paid product without taking away existing keys

Your first users already brought their own provider keys. They configured models, saved prompts, and accepted the rough edges because your prototype solved a problem. Turning it into a paid product should not make those choices disappear.

The cleanest upgrade separates the price of your software from the source that funds an AI request. Existing users can keep direct provider-key BYOK. New users can choose AI Pass, connect a wallet through OAuth, and fund supported usage without giving your app a provider key.

Imagine a research clipping tool that turns saved passages into a comparison table. Its paid product is a dependable research workspace: organized sources, reviewable tables, reusable extraction templates, and exports. AI generation is one operation inside it.

Write the commercial boundary first

Before changing code, produce a short pricing explanation:

The software plan covers workspace features and exports. AI usage is funded separately through your selected provider connection or AI Pass. Connecting AI Pass does not replace your existing provider keys.

Adapt that copy if your plans already include inference credits. Do not retroactively redefine a paid customer's entitlement. Preserve active balances and publish any proposed migration separately.

A useful product matrix has two independent dimensions. One lists software access, such as personal projects versus shared review. The other lists funding routes, such as provider-direct and AI Pass. Avoid making the wallet option look like a superior account tier when it is simply another way to pay for allowed requests.

The billing preservation reference is explicit: changing funding does not bypass subscriptions, role checks, or moderation rules.

Keep the original adapter intact

Find the existing provider wrapper and give it a stable boundary. The clipping tool should request a product operation such as "extract comparison fields," then route that operation through the funding source the user selected.

Add an AI Pass adapter rather than rewriting the provider-key adapter. Keep saved credentials where the existing secure design stores them. Never copy those keys into AI Pass setup, print them in migration logs, or ask users to paste them into a coding assistant.

Follow the integration skill to choose the appropriate implementation. The SDK documentation covers browser integration; the REST documentation supports the backend path when the research workflow requires it.

Start with one operation. Do not reroute extraction, summarization, search, and background jobs in the same release simply because they all call a model.

Preserve behavior, not just credentials

Keeping a key in a database is insufficient if the upgrade changes every request around it. Record the old model selection, prompt templates, output settings, and error handling before introducing the new route.

A provider-direct configuration may not map exactly to an AI Pass model or capability. Show available options for the selected route rather than silently substituting a model under the same label. Saved projects should retain enough context to explain how their previous tables were produced.

For the clipping tool, keep original passages beside extracted cells. Let users mark a cell as reviewed and edit it without triggering generation. Store the extraction template with the result so a later template change does not rewrite the meaning of old work.

These are paid-product improvements that do not depend on persuading users to abandon their keys.

Make rollout reversible

Offer AI Pass as an explicit additional choice, with the existing funding route still selected by default. Test with a project containing saved provider settings and historical outputs. Switching to AI Pass for one extraction should not erase those settings; switching back should not require onboarding again.

Verify the accounting boundary carefully. A wallet-funded extraction must not also decrement included app credits. A provider timeout must not trigger an automatic retry against AI Pass. If the first call might have succeeded, presenting a second paid route as an invisible recovery can create two charges for one intended action.

Keep a release switch that disables the new option without damaging projects or the original provider path. That makes a rollback a routing decision rather than a data recovery exercise.

Charge for an outcome users can name

For this product, a credible paid deliverable is a source-linked comparison workbook ready for review. Team comments, saved field definitions, and export formatting can justify software revenue because they save work outside the model call.

Eligible AI Pass paid usage may also generate developer earnings under current terms. Track that separately from subscriptions or licenses, and do not build a revenue forecast around an assumed commission.

Finish the upgrade with a migration note, a funding comparison, and acceptance evidence from an explicitly approved live request. Loyal BYOK users should recognize their original workflow. New customers should get a simpler funding option, not a compulsory account conversion.