Why Your Chats Never Leave Your Computer
Personarium is a desktop app. That's not a marketing line — it's the foundation for everything in this article: your characters, your conversations, and your keys live on your device, not on our servers.
Bring your own key
Personarium doesn't store or run any language models itself. Instead, you connect with your own API keys directly to the providers you choose. For text chat we offer a one-click connection to OpenRouter; for images and read-aloud (TTS), a connection to fal.ai. Both connections run on your own access key — Personarium is the go-between on your device, not the sender.
Where your keys actually live
Your API keys don't end up in a database we run. They live in your operating system's keychain — the same protected storage your browser or mail client already uses for passwords. When Personarium talks to a model, the app pulls the key from that keychain, sends the request straight to the provider, and shows you the answer. No detour through a Personarium server in between.
Model costs are paid directly to the provider — usually a few cents per message. The Personarium membership covers the Hub, curation, and updates, not model costs.
What the Hub actually sees
The public Hub is the one place where Personarium talks to a server at all — and even there, the line is drawn narrowly. Your account knows an email address and your membership status. It doesn't know any conversation content. Characters you deliberately share become visible in the Hub (strictly SFW, moderated) — everything you keep to yourself stays on your machine.
Import, export, no lock-in
Because your data is yours, Personarium supports Character Card V2/V3 losslessly — you can import characters from SillyTavern and export them again at any time. Reading and exporting your own data is, and stays, free, regardless of your membership.
Your account knows only your email and membership — never your conversations.