How to Add Your AI API Keys to CiteTrack AI (and What They Cost)

CiteTrack does one thing differently from the hosted trackers. It uses your API keys to ask the AI engines your questions. That's why there's no monthly fee and no per-query markup: you pay the providers directly, at their cost, and the flat license is just for the software.

The trade is a few minutes of setup. Here's exactly what to do.

Which keys you actually need

Citation tracking queries each AI engine with a key from that engine's provider. In practice, that's four keys:

You do not need all four to start. Add one, run a prompt, and add the rest when you want a fuller picture. Plenty of people begin with just OpenAI or Perplexity. Crawler logging, the part that tracks which AI bots hit your site, needs no key at all and runs free.

How to add a key safely

1. Create the key in the provider's console (and add a little credit, since a new key usually needs a balance before it can run).
2. In wp-admin, open CiteTrack AI → Citations and paste the key next to its engine.
3. Click Test. CiteTrack runs one cheap call to confirm the key works.

That's it. The setup wizard walks you through the same steps the first time you activate.

Your keys are encrypted with AES-256 in a local vault and never leave your server except to talk to the provider they belong to. If you'd rather not keep a key in the database at all, set it as a CITETRACK_KEY environment variable on the server, and CiteTrack uses that as the encryption secret. Either way, there's no CiteTrack cloud in the middle. Your site calls the provider directly, and the answer comes straight back.

What it actually costs

This is the part people worry about, so let's be concrete. Each citation check is one API call, and the cost is driven mostly by each provider's per-search fee, not by tokens. Rough all-in figures, per call:

• Perplexity — about 2 cents
• ChatGPT — about 3 cents
• Claude — about 3 cents
• Gemini — about 3.5 cents, but free under Google's daily grounding quota, so usually nothing for a normal site

Your monthly bill is simply prompts times engines times how often you check. Ten prompts across two engines, checked weekly, is around 80 calls a month, roughly two dollars. An active site tracking 25 prompts across three engines, weekly, lands near six to nine dollars. You'd have to track fifty-plus prompts daily across every engine to reach agency-scale numbers. Our full API cost guide has a live calculator if you want exact figures for your setup.

Keep it predictable

Two habits keep the bill boring:

• Set a monthly cap at each provider. Every console lets you cap spend per key. Do it once and a runaway loop can never surprise you.
• Tune the volume, not the model. Since the cost is mostly the per-search fee, switching to a cheaper chat model barely helps. Checking weekly instead of daily, or trimming to your highest-intent prompts, is what actually moves the number.

Why bring your own keys at all?

Because it makes CiteTrack the most affordable way to do this. The hosted trackers run $30 to $500-plus a month and mark up the queries they run for you. CiteTrack is a flat $59 a year with no monthly fee, and you pay the engines directly at cost. You set your own conditions, and you only pay for what you actually use. That's the whole pitch, and the keys are how it works. See the pricing for the plan details.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• How to Manage Multiple Clients with CiteTrack AI
• 9 Best Tools to Track AI Citations
• How to Track Whether AI Is Citing Your Site (AEO Guide)
• Best AI Visibility Tools for WordPress

Guides · API, How-To, Pricing, Setup