AI guides: step-by-step help for everyday AI use
Short, practical step-by-step guides for everyday AI use.
These guides solve one task each. They are short, in plain words, and tell you what to click or decide.
What you find here
- Choose a model. Match task, quality and price. Start with how to choose a model.
- Set a spending limit. An API key without a cap can run up a large bill. See how to create a key with a spending limit.
- Subscription or API. Which way of paying fits your use? Read subscription or API.
- Stay safe. Know what never to paste into a chat.
How to use a guide
Read it once from top to bottom, then do the steps. Where a guide shows a price or limit, it names the source and the date we checked it. Provider menus change, so a button may have moved. If a step no longer matches, tell us in the form at the bottom of the page.
What is coming
We add guides as readers ask for them. Use the form on any page to suggest one.
All pages in this section
- Create an API key and set a spending limit
Create a key, keep it out of your code, cap your monthly spend and know how to switch it off, with steps for OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
Read next
- How to choose an AI model
Match the model to the job: small for volume, mid for daily work, top or reasoning for hard problems and local for private data, with a decision tree and a test.
- Create an API key and set a spending limit
Create a key, keep it out of your code, cap your monthly spend and know how to switch it off, with steps for OpenAI, Anthropic and Google.
- Subscription or API: what is cheaper for you?
A flat $20 plan or pay per token: one formula and three examples show where each wins, plus the limits and privacy settings that count beyond cost.
- What not to paste into AI chatbots
Passwords, client data, IDs and secrets do not belong in a chatbot: a traffic-light checklist, provider data rules, Swiss and EU basics, and safer options.