MIT App Inventor ChatBot API Key Management Site
All Large Language Model (LLM) providers require obtaining an API key (API: Application Programming Interface) to use their service.
API keys are often associated with a billing account used to pay for the service.
MIT provides a default “free” quota for all MIT App Inventor users. When this free quota is being used, an API key obtained and paid for by MIT is used. However, this quota may not be sufficient for a modest class teaching LLM concepts using MIT App Inventor.
The ChatBot component has a property which can be used to provide an API key obtained directly from the LLM vendors.
However, there are two problems with this approach. The keys themselves are large strings of effectively random characters. Something that isn't easy to type. For example, it would not be practical for a teacher to write the key on a blackboard and expect students to correctly enter it into their projects.
Although some LLM vendors offer means of limiting the amount of usage of an API key, not all do. Those that do offer limits, those limits are on all usage of the API key. If you have a number of students, then that usage quota is shared among them.
This site allows a person to obtain an API key from an LLM vendor, enter it here and obtain a simpler to remember and type API key. You can also establish a per-user quota.
To begin, you will need to create an account on this site. Create (if you do not already have one) an account with an LLM provider from our supported providers.
