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Features

Your AI account and cost

Which AI company it thinks with, how good the answers are, and what it costs.

On this page

Choose your AI company#

Your agent thinks with an AI account you connect: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Groq, xAI, DeepSeek, or Mistral, or another service that works like OpenAI's.

  • On your computer
  • Since 0.1.3
Where it is
On each agent's Setup tab, under AI account. Keys you save are listed in Settings, under Saved keys.
How to use it
  1. Open your agent's Setup tab and choose AI account.
  2. Pick an AI company.
  3. Paste the key you made on that company's website.
Limits
  • The free credits you start with run on Claude, because that is the account we pay for.
  • Changing it restarts your agent, which takes a few seconds.
  • Archie does not promise that every AI company does every job equally well.

Ask your agent to switch AI company#

Ask your agent to use a different AI company, such as "use ChatGPT instead", and it switches, or says where to paste a key if you have none saved.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.2.5
How to use it
  1. In a chat, ask your agent to use a different AI company.
  2. If it has no key for that company, paste one where it tells you.
From your phone
You can ask from Archie Mobile or a chat app, since it is a request in a conversation.
Limits
  • It changes only when you ask in a conversation. A routine cannot switch it.
  • The switch restarts your agent, which takes a few seconds.
  • You can turn it off on the agent's Setup tab, under What it can do, with Change which AI answers.

A model on your own computer#

Archie can run your agent on a model on your computer through Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp, after checking that the model can use a tool.

  • On your computer
  • Since 0.2.2
Where it is
On the agent's Setup tab, under AI account, in the Another provider panel.
How to use it
  1. Install Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp and download a model.
  2. Open your agent's Setup tab, choose AI account, then Another provider.
  3. Pick the model Archie found and let Archie check it.
Limits
  • Nothing is saved until the model has been handed a tool and used it, and many small models never do.
  • Only where what you type goes changes. Your mail, your calendar, the pages your agent reads, and Archie's update and plan checks still use the internet.
  • It is not the default and not the trial.
  • Archie makes no promise about speed or quality on a model like this.

The spend meter#

Archie keeps its own estimate of what your agents' AI use has cost, this month and all time, by agent and by AI company.

  • On your computer
  • Since 0.1.1
Where it is
On the Account page, under Spending.
How to use it
  1. Open the Account page and choose Spending.
  2. Pick This month or All time.
Limits
  • It is an estimate from a price table inside Archie. The exact bill is on your AI company's own billing page.
  • Some AI companies are not in the price table, and the page names them.

Response quality, and Use this for every skill#

Pick Economy, Balanced or Best for your agent's replies, and tick Use this for every skill so its add-ons use that setting too.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.1.1
Where it is
On the agent's Setup tab, under Response quality.
How to use it
  1. Open your agent's Setup tab and choose Response quality.
  2. Pick Economy, Balanced or Best.
  3. Tick Use this for every skill to make every add-on follow it.
From your phone
Archie Mobile can change an agent's Response quality too, under Response quality in More.
Limits
  • Many add-ons pick their own setting, so the setting alone barely changes the bill until the box is ticked.
  • Ticking the box also moves add-ons off the level they chose, and Economy answers were weaker in our tests.
  • Web searches stay on Balanced even with the box ticked.

Choose the models yourself#

Pick your own model for any of Economy, Balanced and Best from your AI company's list, and it runs in replies, skills and anything on a schedule.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.2.1
Where it is
On the agent's Setup tab, under Response quality, in Choose the models yourself.
How to use it
  1. Open your agent's Setup tab and choose Response quality.
  2. Open Choose the models yourself.
  3. Pick a model for any setting, or press Put all three back to Archie's choices.
From your phone
Archie Mobile can do the same, under Response quality in More.
Limits
  • It needs an AI account of your own. On the free credits or the plan with the AI included there is one model.
  • Another provider runs the one model typed on its card, so there is nothing to pick there.
  • Some AI companies publish no list, so you type the model's name from their website.
  • A model you pick runs without extended thinking unless it is the one Archie would have used.

Another provider#

Connect any AI service that works like OpenAI's, such as Venice, by pasting its address, a model name and a key.

  • On your computer
  • Since 0.1.3
Where it is
On the agent's Setup tab, under AI account, on the Another provider tile.
How to use it
  1. Open your agent's Setup tab and choose AI account.
  2. Pick Another provider.
  3. Paste the service's address, a model name and a key, copied from its own website.
Limits
  • Venice and services like it are not among the seven named AI companies.
  • Archie says nothing about what that service does with what it receives. Read its own pages for that.
  • It runs the one model you typed, whatever Response quality says.

When the AI runs out#

When the free credits or your plan's AI for the month run out, your agent says so once, with the ways to keep going, and keeps what you send.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.8
Where it is
A card under the reply in your agent's chat, with Set up an AI account, See the plans, or Open the Account page, and Lists and Calendar.
How to use it
  1. Press the way you want on the card.
  2. Keep typing if you like. Each message is kept, and your agent answers it once the AI is back.
From your phone
Archie Mobile shows the same ways, each saying where on the computer to do it, with Lists and Calendar to press. A chat app gets them in words.
Limits
  • Only your own messages are kept: the newest 20, each cut at 600 characters, and a photo only as its caption.
  • It picks up within about half an hour of the AI coming back, and only while Archie is open on your computer.
  • A reminder asked for while the AI is out is set only once the AI is back, so it can be late.
  • A chat app gets the ways in words, with no prices and no card.

Try again#

If the AI company has a passing problem, Archie asks it once more. If that fails too, the reply says whether anything was saved or sent, with Try again.

  • On your computer
  • From your phone
  • Since 0.3.8
Where it is
Under the reply in your agent's chat.
How to use it
  1. Press Try again to send the same words again.
From your phone
Archie Mobile, Telegram, Slack, and Discord show Try again under the reply.
Limits
  • It asks once more, and a second failure reaches you.
  • There is no Try again for a picture, a pin, a message over 2,000 characters, or a turn that already saved something.
  • No button on Signal, iMessage, or Matrix, or in Archie while one of those is the chat app.
  • When the AI runs out, you get the card of ways to keep going instead.