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AI Chat Importer
Desktop App · Setup Guide

How to Set Up Cloud AI for Auto-Sort

AI Chat Importer's Auto-Sort feature can use cloud AI providers instead of a local Ollama model. This is useful if your machine doesn't have enough RAM to run a local model comfortably, or if you want faster sorting results. This guide covers getting an API key from each supported provider and entering it in AI Chat Importer's settings.

Cloud AI providers send your conversation titles to their servers for classification — not the full conversation content. If you prefer to keep everything 100% local, use the Ollama setup guide →

OpenAI

Step 1 — Create an OpenAI account
  1. Go to platform.openai.com and sign up or log in.
  2. Navigate to Settings → Billing and add a payment method — OpenAI requires a funded account before API keys will work.
  3. A small starting credit (a few dollars) is enough for many months of Auto-Sort usage.
Step 2 — Get your API key
  1. Go to API Keys in the left sidebar.
  2. Click Create new secret key.
  3. Give it a name like “AI Chat Importer” so you can identify it later.
  4. Copy the key immediately — it will not be shown again.
Step 3 — Enter the key in AI Chat Importer
  1. Open the desktop app and go to Settings → Auto-Sort.
  2. Select OpenAI as the provider.
  3. Paste your API key into the API Key field.
  4. Set the model to gpt-4o-mini — it is fast, accurate, and very low cost for classification tasks.
  5. Click Test Connection to confirm it is working.

Anthropic

Step 1 — Create an Anthropic account
  1. Go to console.anthropic.com and sign up or log in.
  2. Navigate to Billing and add a payment method — Anthropic requires a funded account before API keys will work.
Step 2 — Get your API key
  1. Go to API Keys in the left sidebar.
  2. Click Create Key.
  3. Give it a name like “AI Chat Importer”.
  4. Copy the key immediately — it will not be shown again.
Step 3 — Enter the key in AI Chat Importer
  1. Open the desktop app and go to Settings → Auto-Sort.
  2. Select Anthropic as the provider.
  3. Paste your API key into the API Key field.
  4. Set the model to claude-haiku-4-5 — it is the fastest and most cost-effective Claude model for classification tasks.
  5. Click Test Connection to confirm it is working.

Google Gemini

Step 1 — Get a Gemini API key
  1. Go to aistudio.google.com and sign in with your Google account.
  2. Click Get API Key in the left sidebar.
  3. Click Create API key and select a Google Cloud project (or create a new one).
  4. Copy the key.
Step 2 — Enter the key in AI Chat Importer
  1. Open the desktop app and go to Settings → Auto-Sort.
  2. Select Gemini as the provider.
  3. Paste your API key into the API Key field.
  4. Set the model to gemini-1.5-flash — it is fast and has a generous free tier suitable for Auto-Sort.
  5. Click Test Connection to confirm it is working.
Google Gemini has a free tier with rate limits. For most Auto-Sort usage this is sufficient — you may not need to add a payment method at all.

OpenRouter

Step 1 — Create an OpenRouter account
  1. Go to openrouter.ai and sign up or log in.
  2. OpenRouter gives you access to dozens of AI models through a single API key — useful if you want to try different models without separate accounts.
Step 2 — Add credits and get your API key
  1. Go to Credits and add a small amount — a few dollars covers a large volume of Auto-Sort requests.
  2. Go to Keys and click Create Key.
  3. Give it a name and copy the key.
Step 3 — Enter the key in AI Chat Importer
  1. Open the desktop app and go to Settings → Auto-Sort.
  2. Select OpenRouter as the provider.
  3. Paste your API key into the API Key field.
  4. Set the model to mistralai/mistral-7b-instruct — a good balance of speed and accuracy at very low cost.
  5. Click Test Connection to confirm it is working.

Troubleshooting

“Invalid API key” error

Double-check you copied the full key with no spaces at the start or end. API keys are long strings — it is easy to accidentally cut off the last few characters when copying. Create a new key if in doubt.

“Insufficient credits” or billing error

OpenAI and Anthropic require a funded account before their API keys work — even for very small amounts. Go to the billing section of your provider's dashboard and add a payment method or top up your credit balance.

Test Connection passes but Auto-Sort produces no results

Make sure you have conversations imported before running Auto-Sort. If conversations are imported and it still produces nothing, check the model name matches exactly what is shown in your provider's documentation — model names are case-sensitive.

You're all set

Cloud Auto-Sort is the fastest way to organise a large archive. Once your API key is configured, sorting hundreds of conversations typically takes under a minute. Costs are minimal — most users spend less than $1 per month on Auto-Sort requests.

Prefer to keep everything local? Read the Ollama setup guide →