BYOK AI Chrome Extension: Use ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini on Any Webpage Without Sharing Your Data (Monica AI / Merlin Alternative)

52% of AI Chrome extensions are collecting your data. 29% are collecting personally identifiable information. And two fake AI sidebar extensions were caught stealing complete chat histories from 900,000 users.

If you've been using AI through a browser extension, there's a coin-flip chance your prompts, responses, and browsing activity are being logged on someone else's server. If you've followed the data privacy conversation in browser automation, these numbers keep getting worse.

The fix isn't to stop using AI in your browser. It's to stop letting someone else's server sit between you and the AI provider. Bring Your Own Keys (BYOK) means your API keys stay in your browser, your requests go directly to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google, and nobody in the middle touches your data.

This guide covers how Prompt Anything Pro works, why the BYOK model saves you 70-90% versus subscriptions, and how to set it up in under five minutes. For the full landscape, see our best AI Chrome extensions roundup and our Prompt Anything Pro vs Monica AI head-to-head comparison.

What Is Prompt Anything Pro?

Prompt Anything Pro is a Chrome extension that lets you select text on any webpage and prompt AI with it instantly. Highlight a paragraph, click the floating button, pick a template or write your own prompt, and get a response — without leaving the page.

The core difference from extensions like Monica, Sider, or Merlin: you connect your own API keys. Your prompts go directly to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google. No middleman server. No data collection. No markup on top of the API cost you're already paying.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

1. Select text on any webpage — an article, documentation, an email, a code review
2. Click the floating button that appears near your selection
3. Choose a provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, Groq, or a key-free local model) and a preset template or custom prompt
4. Get the response in a clean overlay. Save it to your prompt library if you want to keep it

Everything runs locally. Your API keys are stored in Chrome's local storage, not on a remote server. Your prompt history stays on your device unless you choose to export it.

45 AI Prompt Templates for Every Workflow

Most AI extensions give you a blank text box and leave you to figure out the prompting. Prompt Anything Pro ships with 45 ready-to-use templates organized by what you're actually trying to do.

Category	Templates	Best For
Writing & Email	4	Grammar, tone, rewrites, email drafts
Coding	6	Explain, debug, security audit, refactor, docs
Research & Study	5	Summaries, study notes, compare & contrast
Business & Strategy	6	SWOT, meeting notes, risk assessment
Content Creation	5	SEO, headlines, outlines, FAQ, CTAs
Analyze, Social, Creative, Data, Productivity, Translate	19	Decision matrices, tone rewrites, data insights, translations

For Writers and Editors

• Improve Writing — rewrites your selection for clarity and flow
• Make Professional — adjusts tone for business communication
• Grammar & Spelling Check — catches errors without sending keystrokes to a third-party server
• Draft Email Response — generates a reply based on the email you've highlighted

For Engineers and Developers

• Explain Code — breaks down what a code block does, line by line
• Find Bugs — identifies potential issues in highlighted code
• Security Audit — flags vulnerabilities and suggests fixes
• Refactoring Suggestions — recommends cleaner implementations
• Code Review Checklist — generates review criteria for the selected code
• API Documentation — writes docs for the code you highlight

Six coding templates is more than most general-purpose AI extensions offer. And because your prompts go directly to the AI provider, you're not sending proprietary code through a third-party proxy server — a real concern if you care about data ownership in your browser tools.

For Researchers and Students

• Research Summary — condenses long papers or articles into key findings
• ELI5 Technical Concepts — explains complex topics in simple terms
• Create Study Notes — turns highlighted content into organized notes
• Compare & Contrast — analyzes differences between concepts
• Generate Study Questions — creates quiz-style questions from any text

For Business and Strategy

• SWOT Analysis — generates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from any text
• Executive Summary — condenses reports into key takeaways for leadership
• Competitive Analysis — extracts competitive insights from articles or reports
• Risk Assessment — identifies risks in project descriptions or proposals
• Extract Requirements — pulls requirements from specs or briefs
• Structure Meeting Notes — organizes messy notes into actionable summaries

For Content Creators

• SEO Meta Description — writes meta descriptions from your content
• Generate Headlines — produces headline variations for any topic
• Content Outline — creates structured outlines from rough ideas
• Generate FAQ — builds FAQ sections from existing content
• Call-to-Action Copy — writes CTAs based on the page context

Additional Categories

Analyze — Pros & Cons Analysis, Extract Action Items Social — Tweet/Social Reply generation Creative — Tone rewrites, counterarguments, analogies, jargon simplification Data — Data Insights, Trend Analysis, Hypothesis Generation Productivity — Decision Matrix, Goal Breakdown, Time Estimation Translate — Translate & Explain (translation with context)

All templates work with any of the seven providers — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, Groq, local models, and Chrome's built-in AI. You can also save your own custom templates to the prompt library and reuse them across any webpage.

Privacy: How a BYOK AI Chrome Extension Compares to the Alternatives

The Incogni 2026 study analyzed 442 AI Chrome extensions. Here's what they found about the category as a whole:

• 52% collect at least one type of user data
• 29% collect personally identifiable information
• 22% track activity down to individual keystrokes
• 42% require the scripting permission, which allows injecting code into web pages — potentially affecting 92 million users

The popular extensions aren't exempt. Writing assistants like Grammarly and QuillBot were flagged as the most potentially privacy-damaging popular extensions, collecting website content, personal communications, keystrokes, scrolling behavior, and navigation events.

Here's how Prompt Anything Pro's architecture compares to the major subscription-based alternatives:

	Prompt Anything Pro	Monica AI	Sider AI	Merlin AI	MaxAI
Data collection	None	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
API key storage	Local (your browser)	Their servers	Their servers	Their servers	Their servers
Prompt routing	Direct to provider	Through Monica	Through Sider	Through Merlin	Through MaxAI
Tracking/analytics	None	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Your prompts on their servers	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

The distinction matters. When you use a subscription-based AI extension, your prompts travel through the company's proxy server before reaching OpenAI or Anthropic. That's a third party reading your prompts — even if their privacy policy says they don't log them. You're trusting a promise, not a technical guarantee. (For a deeper look at Monica specifically, see our Monica AI alternative page.)

With BYOK, the technical architecture is the guarantee. Your browser makes a direct API call to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google. There's no middleman server to trust or distrust because it doesn't exist in the chain.

The Cost Math: BYOK vs. AI Extension Subscriptions

Most subscription AI extensions charge $5-20/month. They're buying API access from OpenAI or Anthropic at wholesale rates and reselling it to you at a markup. That markup pays for their servers, their data pipeline, their team, and their profit margin.

With BYOK, you pay OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google directly at their published API rates. For most users, the savings are significant.

The typical user sends about 30 prompts per day, 5 days a week — roughly 600 prompts per month. Here's what that actually costs at current API rates:

Model	Cost per prompt (avg)	Monthly cost (600 prompts)
GPT-4o	~$0.01	~$6
Claude Sonnet 4.5	~$0.015	~$9
Gemini 2.5 Flash	~$0.002	~$1.20
Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite	~$0.001	~$0.60

Now compare that to subscription pricing:

Extension	Monthly cost	Yearly cost
Prompt Anything Pro (BYOK + extension)	$6.99 + ~$1-9 API	$29.99/yr + API
Monica AI	$8.30	$99.60
Sider AI	$4.20	$50.40
Merlin AI	$19.00	$228.00
MaxAI	$12-30	$144-360

Prompt Anything Pro's lifetime license is $49.99 — a one-time payment. At Monica's rate of $8.30/month, you break even in six months. Against Merlin's $19/month, you break even in under three months. After that, you're only paying API costs — which for most users run $1-9/month depending on the model.

If you use Gemini 2.5 Flash for most tasks and only switch to GPT or Claude for complex reasoning, your total monthly cost after the lifetime purchase drops to under $3/month. Try finding that deal with a subscription extension.

The same local-first architecture that makes this cost-effective is what keeps your data private — no cloud servers means no infrastructure costs passed on to you and no data sitting on someone else's machine.

30+ AI Models Across Seven Providers

Subscription extensions lock you into whatever models they've negotiated access to. With BYOK, you get every model your API key supports — including new ones the day they launch.

Prompt Anything Pro currently supports 30+ active models across seven providers:

OpenAI

• GPT-5.4 — best for complex reasoning and analysis
• GPT-5.4 Mini — the cheapest capable option for high-volume work
• o3 and o4-mini — reasoning-optimized models for multi-step problems
• GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 Mini, GPT-4.1 Nano — previous generation, kept for compatibility

Anthropic

• Claude Opus 4.6 — top-tier reasoning and the strongest long-form writer
• Claude Sonnet 4.6 — the balanced daily driver
• Claude Haiku 4.5 — fastest Anthropic model, great for quick tasks
• Claude Sonnet 3.5 — earlier release, still selectable

Google

• Gemini 3.1 Pro — Google's flagship, best for long documents
• Gemini 3.1 Flash — excellent speed-to-quality ratio
• Gemini 2.5 Pro / 2.5 Flash, Gemini 2.0 Flash / Flash-Lite, Gemini 1.5 Pro / 1.5 Flash — earlier releases retained for compatibility
• LearnLM 2.0 — tuned for teaching and explanation

xAI

• Grok 4.3 — xAI's current flagship, plus the rest of the Grok line

Groq

• Fast open-weight models served at very high throughput — reach for these when latency matters more than frontier reasoning

Local and on-device (no API key required)

• Ollama and LM Studio — run models on your own machine; the text never leaves it
• Chrome's built-in AI (Gemini Nano) — runs inside the browser, no key and no network round-trip

When to Use Which Model

Quick summaries and translations: Gemini 3.1 Flash. Cheapest capable option, fast enough for simple tasks. Costs almost nothing.

Code explanation and debugging: GPT-5.4 or Claude Opus 4.6. Both excel at complex code analysis. GPT edges ahead on structured output; Claude is better at explaining reasoning. For multi-step problems, o3 is worth a look.

Long-form writing and editing: Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Sonnet 4.6. Anthropic's models consistently produce the most natural prose and handle nuanced tone adjustments well.

Research and analysis: Gemini 3.1 Pro or GPT-5.4. Both handle large context well and produce structured, citation-friendly output.

Cost-sensitive daily use: GPT-5.4 Mini or Gemini 3.1 Flash. Best quality-per-dollar for everyday prompting. Use one as your default and switch to premium models when the task demands it.

Anything confidential: a local model via Ollama or LM Studio, or Chrome's built-in AI. Lower ceiling on hard reasoning, but the text never leaves your machine and costs nothing per prompt.

Setup Guide: Five Minutes to Your First Prompt

Step 1: Install the Extension

Add Prompt Anything Pro from the Chrome Web Store. Pin it to your toolbar for quick access to settings and your prompt library.

Step 2: Get Your API Keys

You need at least one API key — unless you only plan to use local or on-device models, which need none. You can add all of the supported providers or start with one.

OpenAI:

1. Go to platform.openai.com/api-keys
2. Click "Create new secret key"
3. Add $5-10 in credit (pay-as-you-go billing)
4. Copy the key

Anthropic:

1. Go to console.anthropic.com/settings/keys
2. Click "Create Key"
3. Add a payment method and set a spending limit
4. Copy the key

Google:

1. Go to aistudio.google.com/apikey
2. Click "Create API key"
3. Copy the key (Google offers a generous free tier)

Step 3: Add Keys to the Extension

Click the Prompt Anything Pro icon in your toolbar. Go to Settings. Paste each key into the corresponding provider field. Keys are stored locally in your browser — they never leave your device.

Step 4: Start Prompting

Go to any webpage. Highlight some text. Click the floating PlugMonkey button. Choose a template and provider. That's it.

Step 5: Build Your Library

Every prompt-response pair can be saved to your library. Tag entries for easy retrieval later. Over time, you'll build a personal knowledge base of AI-assisted analysis, summaries, and insights — all exportable to JSON or CSV.

Who Should (and Shouldn't) Use This

Use Prompt Anything Pro if you:

• Want AI assistance without sending your data through a third-party server
• Are tired of paying $8-30/month for subscription extensions
• Need access to multiple AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, Groq, plus local models) in one tool
• Work with sensitive content — code, legal documents, financial data, client information
• Want to build and export a prompt library over time

Consider a subscription extension instead if you:

• Don't want to set up API keys (BYOK requires a 5-minute setup)
• Need built-in image generation (Prompt Anything Pro is text-focused)
• Want a single monthly bill with no usage-based component

For most knowledge workers, the five-minute setup is worth the 70-90% cost savings and the guarantee that your data stays local.

Try Prompt Anything Pro free — 7 prompts per week, all 45 templates, all providers. Upgrade to lifetime for $49.99 when you're ready.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need my own API keys to use Prompt Anything Pro?

Only for the cloud providers. Prompt Anything Pro uses a BYOK (Bring Your Own Keys) model: you connect your own API keys from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, or Groq. Local models via Ollama/LM Studio and Chrome's built-in AI need no key at all. Keys are stored locally in your browser and requests go directly to the AI provider — no middleman server handles your data.

How much does it cost to use with my own API keys?

The extension itself is free for 7 prompts per week. Pro plans start at $6.99/month or $49.99 for a lifetime license. On top of that, you pay your AI provider directly. Most users spend $1-9/month on API costs depending on which models they use. Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite costs under $1/month for typical usage.

Is my data private?

All prompt data, API keys, and history are stored locally in your browser. Prompt Anything Pro doesn't proxy your traffic through its own servers — your requests go directly from your browser to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google. There's no data collection, tracking, or analytics.

How does Prompt Anything Pro compare to Monica AI or Sider?

Monica, Sider, Merlin, and MaxAI are subscription-based extensions that route your prompts through their own servers and collect user data. Prompt Anything Pro uses BYOK — your keys, direct API access, no middleman. It's typically 70-90% cheaper for light-to-medium users and offers a $49.99 lifetime option that no subscription competitor matches.

Does it work on any website?

Yes. If you can highlight text on a page, you can prompt it. The floating button appears on text selection anywhere — articles, documentation, emails, code repositories, PDFs rendered in the browser, and more.

Can I use multiple AI providers at the same time?

Yes. You can add API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, and Groq simultaneously and switch between them per prompt. This lets you use the best model for each task — Gemini Flash for quick summaries, Claude for writing, GPT for code analysis, a local model for anything confidential — without maintaining separate subscriptions.

Can I export my prompt history?

Yes. Pro users can export and import their entire prompt library as JSON or CSV. This means your data is fully portable — you can back it up, analyze it, or migrate it to another tool at any time.

What happens if I hit the free tier limit?

The free version allows 7 prompts per week, resetting every Monday. You also get 50 saved library entries and access to all 45 preset templates. If you need unlimited prompts and library entries, the Pro plan starts at $6.99/month — or $49.99 for lifetime access.