Find an answer and keep cooking.

Viandly can use an AI service account you control. The connection enables smarter recipe imports, scanned-page understanding, recipe development, cookbook design help, and hands-free Cook Assist. The AI service applies its own usage limits, privacy terms, and charges directly to your account.

Choose an AI service

Google Gemini

Gemini is a practical starting point, especially when you already use Google. It performs text and image recipe work and provides natural Gemini Live voice for Cook Assist. Google currently offers limited no-cost Gemini API usage in supported regions, subject to Google's limits and data terms.

Your Google sign-in to Viandly does not automatically connect Gemini. Open Google AI Studio, create a Gemini access key, and return to Viandly with the key.

OpenAI

OpenAI provides strong recipe work and natural Realtime voice for Cook Assist. A ChatGPT subscription does not include OpenAI API usage. Create and fund an API account separately, then create a key in the OpenAI Platform.

Anthropic Claude

Claude provides strong recipe reasoning and troubleshooting. Anthropic does not currently provide Viandly with native realtime speech, so Cook Assist uses Claude for reasoning and the browser for speech recognition and playback. Claude subscriptions and Claude API credits are separate. Create a key in the Anthropic Console.

Connect the service

1. Open Account Settings.
2. Select AI assistant.
3. Choose Google Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic Claude.
4. Use the service link to create an access key. This key is not your normal account password.
5. Paste the key and select Find available models.
6. Keep Viandly's suggested balanced model or choose another model from the service's list.
7. Select Check compatibility. Viandly sends a small recipe request and a small image request so it can report whether structured recipe work and scanned-page understanding are available.
8. Select Finish setup.

After configuration, the page shows only Edit and Remove until you choose to change it.

Control feature usage

The AI features section separates usage into the Viandly jobs you recognize, such as recipe scanning, recipe import, draft adjustment, recipe development, cookbook design, and Cook Assist. Each feature has:

• an Enabled checkbox that permits or prevents that workflow from contacting your provider;
• an optional monthly estimated-cost limit;
• current-month request, token, page-image, audio, and estimated-cost totals.

Leave the monthly limit blank when you do not want a Viandly limit. Disabling a feature does not remove its previous usage history or your provider connection. It only prevents new work for that feature. Background jobs recheck the setting before they contact the provider.

Select Show provider and model details under Usage details when you need to understand which model or modality contributed to a feature total.

Understand cost estimates

Viandly records usage metadata returned by the provider and applies a dated catalog of public model prices. It does not store prompts, recipes, source text, images, model responses, or API keys in the usage ledger.

The displayed amount is an Estimated provider cost, not a Viandly charge. Provider credits, taxes, negotiated pricing, service tiers, activity outside Viandly, and provider billing changes can make your invoice differ. Your provider invoice is authoritative.

Change providers

Editing the model on the same service does not require replacing the access key. Changing services removes the stored key because access keys are not interchangeable. Viandly warns before making that change.

If model testing fails

Finding models confirms only that the key can read service metadata. It does not guarantee that the account has permission or quota to use every listed model. The compatibility check reports the most specific remedy the provider response supports:

• Recheck or replace a rejected access key.
• Choose another model when the selected model is unavailable or cannot perform structured text requests.
• Check provider billing, credits, quota, or project spending limits for persistent account-limit errors.
• Wait and retry when the provider reports a temporary rate limit or service outage.
• Choose a model with image input when you want scanner AI vision; otherwise scanner imports retain the local OCR option.

Viandly tests changed credentials and models again before saving, so a failed test does not replace a working connection.

Cook Assist voice support

• OpenAI uses its native Realtime voice service over WebRTC.
• Google uses native Gemini Live audio over a secure WebSocket and a short-lived credential created from your saved Google access key.
• Anthropic uses the selected Claude text model for reasoning and cooking tools. Speech recognition and spoken playback come from the browser, so voice quality and availability depend on the browser and operating system.

Native voice models are selected by Viandly independently of the structured-text model shown on this page. Anthropic uses the selected model because it supplies the text-and-tool portion of its composed voice pipeline.