Backend and data
AI in your app
Give your app AI features, like a chatbot that answers visitors or a writing helper, with no API keys. Replies are paid from your credits, with limits you control.
Your app can have its own AI features that your visitors use: a chat that answers their questions, a button that writes a product description, or a form that reads a photo of a receipt. You don't need an account with an AI company or an API key. Buildliy provides the AI, and each reply uses a small amount of your credits.
This is separate from the AI you build with. App AI runs whenever your visitors use it, even while you're away, so every app gets limits you can set.
What you can add
- A chat assistant that answers visitors' questions, for example about your menu, opening hours, classes or products.
- Writing help, such as drafting product descriptions or summarizing long text.
- Reading photos, such as pulling the details out of a photo of a receipt or a paper form. Features that read photos only use AI models that can read them.
Chat replies type out word by word, like other AI chat tools.
Add a chat bubble to my bakery site that answers questions about our menu, prices and opening hours.
On the add-product form, add a "Write it for me" button that drafts a short description from the product name and price.
Add AI to your app
Ask for it in the chat
Describe the AI feature you want. The AI builds it and sets up the AI service your app talks to. There's no key to paste.
Read the "Your app will use AI" card
The first time a build adds AI to an app, a card asks before switching it on. It shows the Model it recommends, the Cost (about how many replies a credit buys), that your plan's free app AI credits are used first (Free each month), and a Safety limit of 50 credits a month that you can change any time in Manage → App AI.
Choose
Click Add AI to go ahead with the recommended model. To pick another kind first, click Choose a different model and select Fast & low cost, Balanced or Most capable; the card's Model and Cost lines change to that choice, then click Add AI. Or click Not now.
If nobody answers the card in time, the build goes ahead with the recommended model and the monthly safety limit. If you click Not now, the feature is still built, but the AI stays switched off until you turn it on in Manage → App AI. Until then, visitors see a short message that it's switched off. Later builds never switch it back on for you.
Choose a model
Each AI feature has its own model, and you can change it any time without rebuilding or publishing. The next reply uses your choice. Models come in three kinds:
| Kind | Best for | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Fast & low cost | Quick answers to everyday questions, like a FAQ chat | The fewest |
| Balanced | Longer, more thoughtful answers, like summaries and descriptions | A few more |
| Most capable | Tricky questions and careful writing | The most |
When the AI adds a feature, it picks a sensible kind for it, and Use recommended lets Buildliy choose a good model within that kind. The model list shows about how many replies each model gives per credit, so you can compare.
Manage → App AI
Open your project, click the Manage tab and choose App AI. Only the project's owner can change these settings, because replies use the owner's credits.
- How it works explains the three steps: a visitor asks, your app asks the AI model you picked, and the reply appears.
- Your app's AI has the AI in this app switch for the whole app, plus a switch for each AI feature. Each feature shows which model answers it, with Change model to pick another.
- This month shows the replies and credits used by each feature, and how many of your free app AI credits are left.
- Limits sets AI requests a day (1 to 20,000; every request counts, even one that fails) and Credits a month (1 to 10,000, or leave it empty for no limit). Click Save limits.
When AI is first added to an app, it starts with a limit of 500 AI requests a day and 50 credits a month.
What it costs
Each reply uses a small amount of your credits, from the same balance you build with. How many replies a credit buys depends on the model. Every plan includes free app AI credits each month (Free: 2, Pro: 5), shared by all your apps and used first. They don't roll over. See Credits and usage.
When the AI pauses
If you run out of credits or a limit is reached, your app's AI pauses instead of using more credits. Visitors see a short, friendly message, and Manage → App AI shows an amber note saying why. Buildliy also emails you when it pauses.
| Why it paused | What visitors see | How it starts again |
|---|---|---|
| You're out of credits | "This app's AI is paused — the owner is out of credits." | Add credits (Add credits on the note) |
| Your account's spending limit was reached | "This app's AI is paused — it reached its owner's spending limit." | When the limit resets, or change it in Settings → Spending |
| The app's monthly limit was reached | "This app's AI reached the monthly limit its owner set." | Next month, or raise Credits a month |
| The app's daily limit was reached | "This app's AI reached today's limit. It starts again tomorrow." | Tomorrow, or raise AI requests a day |
The app's daily and monthly limits follow UTC time, so a new day starts at midnight UTC.
If you switch off the whole app's AI or a single feature, visitors are told it's switched off by the app's owner.
To stop one busy visitor from using it all, each visitor can send up to 20 AI requests a minute, and the whole app up to 60 a minute. Above that, visitors are asked to wait a moment and try again.
Privacy and safety
- To answer, your visitors' messages are sent to the AI company that runs the model you picked. Buildliy only uses providers that don't train on those messages.
- Your app talks to its AI from its own server with a private key, so the key never reaches visitors' browsers.
- Each feature's instructions live on your app's server, so visitors can't replace them with their own.
- If you take your code elsewhere, built-in AI won't work there without your app's Buildliy key. See GitHub.
Use your own AI account instead
If you'd rather use your own account with an AI company, say so in the chat. The AI asks for your key with a secure key card and saves it as a secret for the app. Replies then go through that account and are billed by that company, not from your Buildliy credits. See Secrets and API keys.
Related
Still stuck? Read the FAQ or contact us.
