Do you need an AI API key for RankReady?

Short answer: no, not for most of the plugin. A key is needed for exactly two features. Everything else runs with no key, no account and no external service. This page tells you which is which so you can decide whether to bother.

What works with no key at all

All of this is live as soon as you turn it on, with nothing to sign up for:

• /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt
• Markdown endpoints, /{post-slug}.md and /index.md
• AI crawler controls for the 29 named crawlers, plus the Content Signals directives ai-train, search and ai-input
• The managed robots.txt block
• Article schema
• The author box, which emits Person JSON-LD
• AI referral tracking
• The freshness scanner
• The WebMCP manifest at /.well-known/mcp.json
• The Open Knowledge Format bundle at /okf/

If your goal is to make the site fetchable and parseable by AI clients, you can stop here. None of it costs anything.

What needs a key

Two features:

• AI Summaries, under AI Content, sub=summary
• FAQ Generator, under AI Content, sub=faq

Both call an AI provider to write text, so they need credentials to call with.

One important knock-on effect

Article schema itself works with no key, but it requires a generated AI summary to exist on the post. It builds its description from the summary and returns early when there is none. So a post with Article schema toggled on and no summary generated emits no Article JSON-LD.

In practice: if you want Article schema on a post, you need a summary on that post, which means you need a key. If you do not want Article schema, you do not.

What you see when no key is set

Nothing breaks and nothing is hidden. You can open the AI Content tab, read every option and set your preferences. The generate actions are the part that cannot run, because there is no provider to call.

There is no trial counter, no locked screen and no upgrade prompt, because there is nothing to upgrade to. Generation is unlimited once you add a key. The plugin does not meter it.

Choosing a provider

Four providers are supported. You pick one and paste its key:

• OpenAI
• Anthropic Claude
• Google Gemini
• DeepSeek

Any of them will generate summaries and FAQs. Pick the one you already have an account with. If you have none, pick whichever you are willing to hold a billing relationship with, because the billing is between you and them.

Where to paste the key

Go to RankReady, Settings (tab=settings), choose your provider and paste the key.

Where the key is stored

The key stays on your own site. It is written to your WordPress wp_options table and encrypted at rest. It is not proxied through a service belonging to the plugin, and there is no RankReady account to create.

Standard care still applies. Use a key scoped to this purpose if your provider supports scoping, and rotate it if you ever paste it somewhere it should not have gone.

What it costs

RankReady adds no cost. Generation is unlimited with no monthly cap and no per-post allowance. Your bill is your own provider usage: you are charged by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or DeepSeek for the calls you make, at their rates.

Because there is no cap, the practical control is you. Generate summaries for the posts that matter rather than every post you have ever published.

DataForSEO, the optional extra

DataForSEO is a separate optional service used by the FAQ Generator only. Its job is to find real People Also Ask questions rather than having the model guess at question phrasing.

It is not required. The FAQ Generator works without it. If you do connect it, note what leaves your site: it sends the focus keyword only. It never sends your article text.

A decision table

A reasonable starting point

Turn on the endpoints and crawler controls first with no key. Confirm /llms.txt and a .md URL respond. Then, if you want summaries, FAQs and Article schema, add a key and generate for your most important posts. That way you have a working install before you spend anything.