Bring Your Own Key (BYOK)
1. What is BYOK?
LeadLion finds real local businesses using Google's Places data — ratings, reviews, photos, websites, opening hours. Every search makes calls to Google's API, and Google charges for those calls.
BYOK — "Bring Your Own Key" — means those searches run on your Google account, using a free key you create in a few minutes, instead of ours.
You paste your key once into Settings → Your Google API key. From then on:
- Your searches are unlimited — capped only by your own Google budget, not by us.
- Google bills you directly for what you use (usually nothing — see below).
- We stop counting API credits for you entirely.
2. Why we do it this way
Most lead-generation tools quietly resell you the same Google data at a markup, or lock "unlimited" searches behind a subscription that gets more expensive the more you use it. We think that's backwards.
- The Google calls have a real cost. Rather than marking them up and reselling them to you, you pay Google directly, at cost — which is usually $0 thanks to Google's free tiers.
- That keeps LeadLion cheap and honest: a one-time tool, not a meter that punishes you for using it.
- It makes your searches genuinely unlimited. Your volume is limited by your own Google allowance — not by credits we ration to protect our own bill.
In short: BYOK is how we keep the software affordable and your searches uncapped — by taking our markup on API calls down to zero.
3. What it actually costs you
For almost everyone, running LeadLion on your own key costs nothing for a long time:
- New to Google Cloud? Google gives every new account a one-time free trial — currently $300 in credit over 90 days. Your first months typically cost $0, and Google does not charge your card during the trial; services simply pause if you exhaust it.
- After the trial, Google still includes a free monthly usage allowance that renews on the 1st of each month. Light and normal usage usually stays inside it.
- Only if you exceed the free allowance in a heavy month do you pay Google — directly, and typically a small amount.
The usage counter in Settings shows where you stand each month (it resets on the 1st). Call counts are exact; the dollar figure is a labelled estimate.
4. Your key is private
We designed BYOK so we never hold your billable credential:
- Your key is stored in your browser only. Clearing your browser data removes it.
- It is sent with each search so the search can run — and then discarded. We never save it on our servers or in any database.
- Why it matters: if we stored customer keys, a single breach could leak every customer's billable Google key at once. Keeping it in your browser removes that risk entirely.
5. Setting up your key (about 5 minutes)
- Go to console.cloud.google.com and create a project (any name).
- Enable these three APIs (search each by name, click Enable):
- Places API (New)
- Geocoding API
- PageSpeed Insights API
- Go to APIs & Services → Credentials → Create credentials → API key.
- Click the new key. Under "APIs that can be accessed using this key," restrict it to just those three APIs. Press OK, then Save at the bottom of the page.
- Enable billing on the project. Google requires a card on file even for the free tier, but it isn't charged unless you exceed the free allowance.
- Copy the key (it starts with
AIza…) and paste it into LeadLion → Settings → Your Google API key.
- In step 4, the OK button alone does not save — you must also click Save at the bottom.
- Leave Application restrictions on
None. LeadLion's searches run from our server, so a website restriction would block every request. Restricting by API (step 4) is what keeps the key safe.
6. Test your key
After pasting your key, click Test key next to the input in Settings. It runs one live search on your key and tells you exactly where you stand:
| Result | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Working | Your key is valid and LeadLion ran a real search on it. | Nothing — you're all set. |
| Rejected by Google | The key exists but Google won't accept it — usually the API isn't enabled, or a website restriction is blocking it. | Confirm Places API (New) is enabled and Application restrictions = None. |
| Bad format | What you pasted doesn't look like a Google key (they start with AIza…). |
Re-copy the key — a stray space or a truncated paste is the usual cause. |
Why testing matters: without it, a mistyped or mis-restricted key can fail silently — your searches would quietly fall back to a shared key, or fail mid-search, and you'd never know. The Test button removes the guesswork.
7. FAQ
Will my card be charged?
Not by LeadLion, ever. By Google, only if you exceed its free monthly allowance — and never during the one-time $300 / 90-day trial.
Do you see or store my key?
No. It stays in your browser and is only passed along to run each search. We never save it.
Why must "Application restrictions" be None?
Searches are made from LeadLion's server, not your browser, so there's no fixed website or IP to restrict to. The API restriction is what secures the key.
Can I remove or change my key?
Yes — clear the field in Settings (or clear your browser data) and it's gone. Paste a new one anytime.
What if I don't add a key?
You can explore with sample data and any credits issued to you, but live, unlimited searching needs your own key — that's the model.
Does a different Google account reset the free trial?
Each new Google account gets its own one-time $300 / 90-day trial, so a fresh account is also a fresh allowance.