Platform Details

This article covers the models, vendor configurations, data center availability, and pricing for Zia Agents. If you're setting up your first agent and wondering which model to pick or what it's going to cost, this is where you'll find those answers.

Supported vendors and models

When you create an agent, one of the first things you configure is the vendor and model. Zia Agents supports two vendor configuration types.

ZKS (Zoho Key System) gives you access to models hosted and managed through Zoho's infrastructure. There's no API key setup involved — the models are available out of the box. Under ZKS, you can choose from OpenAI models (GPT-4o-mini, GPT-4.1-mini, GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-5.1) or Zoho's in-house LLMs (Qwen 14B, Qwen 30B MoE, GLM 4.7 Flash, GLM 5).

BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) lets you connect your own API key from a supported vendor and use their models directly. Zia Agents doesn't charge anything for this. You pay the vendor on their billing cycle, and the platform simply routes the requests. BYOK currently supports OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude 3 Haiku, Claude Sonnet 4, Claude Opus 4), and Google Gemini (Gemini 2.0 Flash, Gemini 2.0 Flash Lite, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini 2.5 Flash).

The choice between ZKS and BYOK usually comes down to two things: whether your organization has an existing API arrangement with a vendor, and whether data residency matters to you. With Zoho-hosted models under ZKS, your data stays within Zoho's infrastructure. With BYOK, data is processed by whichever vendor you connect to.

Model availability by data center

Notes:

• Availability depends on the vendor, the configuration type (ZKS or BYOK), and the data center of your organization.
• If a model doesn't show up in your agent creation screen, it's likely not available for your data center. Check this table or contact support for the latest availability.

Pricing and credits

Zia Agents is a free-to-use platform. The agent builder, the deployment infrastructure, and BYOK integration all come at no cost. What you pay for, if anything, depends entirely on which models you use and how much.

There are three billing scenarios to understand:

• BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) is entirely free on the Zia Agents side. You connect your own API key, the vendor bills you directly based on their rates, and Zia Agents doesn't add a markup. Nothing to track here.
• Zoho-hosted models through ZKS (the Qwen and GLM families) come with a monthly free token allowance. For most teams, this covers typical usage entirely. You only start paying if you exceed the allowance. These models are organized into two tiers:

External models through ZKS (OpenAI models accessed using Zoho's keys, not your own) do not have a free allowance. Usage is billed at exact vendor rates with no markup, and credits are deducted from your wallet from the first token.

The difference between this and BYOK is who manages the API key. With BYOK, you handle the key and the vendor bills you. With external models through ZKS, Zoho manages the key and deducts credits from your Zia Agents wallet instead.

How credits work

Zia Agents uses a prepaid credit system to keep costs predictable.

The exchange rate is straightforward: 1 USD = 1,000 AI Credits. You maintain a prepaid wallet, and credits are only consumed once you've exhausted your monthly free allowance on Zoho-hosted models or when using external models through ZKS. Purchased credits roll over month to month. The free monthly token allowance does not roll over and resets on the 1st of each month.

To view your current credit balance, purchase credits, or see usage breakdowns by model and agent, go to Settings > Plan&Billing.

What this looks like in practice

• A team using only Zoho-hosted Standard models. They run Qwen 30B for internal support bots and consume 25 million tokens in a month. Cost: zero. They're within the 30 million free Standard allowance.
• A high-volume production team. They run GLM 5 (Pro Tier) for a complex autonomous agent and consume 25 million tokens. The first 20 million are covered by the free Pro allowance. The remaining 5 million cost 15,000 AI Credits, which is $15.00.
• A team using OpenAI models through ZKS. They use GPT-4.1 through Zoho's keys. Usage is deducted from their wallet at exact vendor rates from the first token. No free allowance applies.
• A team using BYOK. They connect their own Anthropic API key and use Claude Sonnet 4. Cost on Zia Agents: zero. Anthropic bills them directly.