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 resells model calls has to do one of three things when Gemini or a SERP API gets more expensive:
- Raise the subscription.
- Cap audits, engines, or prompt volume.
- Quietly downgrade the model behind the same UI.
All three show up as “the tool got worse” from the buyer’s side. None of them are how we want to spend the year.
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, seats on Team and Agency. Gemini writes the narrative 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. PageSpeed is a Google key if you want Core Web Vitals in the same pass.
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.
We wrote down the dashboard clicks in Get your API keys. We never ask you to email a secret.
Why this belongs on a blog
Most “AI search” products will keep bundling keys because it is easier to demo. We are documenting the other design so buyers are not surprised at Settings, and so we remember why we built it this way when bundling looks tempting.
You keep the provider accounts. We keep the report.