Connect a model

Maxtkn does not include or resell any model. You bring one. Model usage is billed by the provider whose key you use, or counts against your plan, and local models have no usage cost.

Your options

Add a key

1. Open Settings → Models.
2. Pick the provider, or add an OpenAI-compatible endpoint and give its address.
3. Paste the key. It is stored in the Windows Credential Manager, never in your project and never in the history database.
4. Press Test connection. A good result reads like “Connected” with a small token count. A bad one says what the provider answered, in plain words.
5. Press Save providers.

Pick the model for a thread from the model menu in the message box. A model that is being retired is flagged where you choose it, with what replaces it.

Use my AI subscription

If you already pay for a Claude plan or a ChatGPT plan, Maxtkn can use it through the tool you installed, instead of an API key. At the top of Settings → Models there is a card called Use my AI subscription with one row per tool.

• The row’s switch turns on only when the tool is found and signed in. Sign in once in an ordinary terminal (claude, then /login; or codex login), then press Check again.
• Test sends one tiny request through the real path and shows “Working · replied ok” or the tool’s own message. Codex can take up to a minute and a half.
• Maxtkn starts the tool you already use and never reads its login. Usage counts against your plan.
• Pictures and PDFs are not passed on through plan models.
• Plan models appear in the model menu, labelled for example “Claude Sonnet 5.5 (plan)”.
• This needs the desktop app. In a browser build the switches stay off.

Things that help

• Effort. Models that can think harder have an effort setting from low to max. Higher is slower and costs more.
• Prices. Cost estimates use a built-in price list. A model with no known price says “cost unknown” rather than showing a number. See Cost and budgets.
• Provider trouble. A rate limit, quota, key or network problem pauses the run instead of failing it, and it carries on by itself when the provider says when to try again.