BlogNotes
Why we do not resell API keys
If a platform bundles Gemini and SerpAPI into the seat price, it has to cap you when the models get expensive. We chose the other side of that trade.
NovaScope is a hosted workspace. You sign in, run audits, and export a report. The part we do not sell is the metered APIs behind the scan.
That is a product choice, not a pricing gimmick. Call it BYOK — bring your own keys — if you need an acronym. The idea is older than we are: you already have (or will have) accounts at Google, SerpAPI, and whoever else you want in the pipeline. You put those keys in Settings. Usage lands on their invoices, not ours.
The incentive problem
A host that bundles model calls usually has to balance some combination of the following when Gemini or a SERP API gets more expensive:
- Raise the subscription.
- Cap audits, engines, or prompt volume.
- Change or downgrade the model behind the same UI.
- Absorb the cost or meter overages separately.
Those tradeoffs can show up as “the tool got worse” from the buyer’s side. They are not how we want to structure NovaScope's current license.
If you hold the keys, you see the meter. You can choose a cheaper model for drafts, skip an engine, or pause scans. We do not have to pretend a flat monthly fee covers unbounded token use.
The trade is real: you do the provider signup. We do not hide a surprise bill, and we also do not eat yours. Quota, rate limits, and invoices are between you and those vendors. We will not refund a Gemini invoice because an audit was chatty.
What we host instead
The license is the workspace: the pipeline, the tracker, white-label export, and seats on Team and Agency. Gemini can answer visibility queries and is the preferred provider for extraction and report drafting when you give it a key. SerpAPI powers local pack, Maps-backed GBP data, and Google AI Overviews when you give it a key. Claude, ChatGPT, Groq, and Perplexity are optional. NovaScope's native technical scan works without provider keys; a PageSpeed API key is optional and raises Google's API rate limits for performance data.
A license does not include hosted Gemini or SerpAPI. If that sentence is a deal-breaker, we are the wrong tool — a bundled “AI SEO” subscription will feel simpler until the cap shows up.
Step-by-step setup instructions are available in Get your API keys. API keys should be entered only through NovaScope Settings; never send a secret by email.
The practical result
You can see which providers are connected, monitor usage in each provider account, and change providers without waiting for NovaScope to restructure a bundled plan. The additional setup is the tradeoff for direct control over usage and billing.
You keep the provider accounts. We keep the report.