Using your own ChatGPT or Claude account in a layout app

Yes, you can. Publish by Zaweba connects to your own AI account rather than selling you one. It works with Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Azure OpenAI, Mistral, Grok, DeepSeek and others, with models running on your own PC through Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp, or by copy and paste with a chat website. Your keys are stored encrypted for your Windows account. Publish itself is free, offline software.

That approach is sometimes called bring your own AI. It means the layout app doesn't need its own subscription for AI features, and you choose which service, if any, sees your text.

How it works

Open the AI menu or the Ask AI panel with Ctrl+J and set up the account you want to use. Once it's connected, the AI actions in Publish light up. Without one, they're greyed out and nothing else changes.

Nothing is built in and nothing is sent until you ask. When you do ask, the panel's Context sent view shows exactly what goes to the model, so there's no guessing about what left your PC.

If you use the copy and paste route with a chat website, the exchange happens through the clipboard rather than a stored connection, which some people prefer for occasional use.

What the AI can do in Publish

Write copy for this text box drafts a headline, strapline or body text from a few words, aimed at the size of the box. Fill the page drafts text for every empty box on the page, shown for you to check before anything is placed.

Rewrite works on selected text with Shorter to fit, Punchier, More formal and Friendlier. Proofread checks in UK English. Translate takes whatever language you type. Suggest a headline offers ideas. Results come with buttons to replace the text, insert it into the box, make a new text box or copy it.

Describe pictures drafts alt text for pictures using a model that can see. Generate picture puts a generated PNG into a frame, and Suggest a picture prompt writes a prompt from the page text.

Every AI change is one undo step.

Why keep your own account

Control is the main reason. You already pay for or trust a particular service, and you'd rather use that than sign up to another. Your data goes to the service you chose, under the terms you agreed with them.

Privacy is another. A local model running on your own PC keeps everything on the machine, which suits sensitive material such as a school's internal newsletter or a company price list before launch.

And you can switch. If a different model suits your writing better, change it in the settings; your publications don't care which one wrote the draft.

What the AI doesn't change

The layout tools, templates, export and printing all work without any AI. AI is an optional helper for words and pictures, not a requirement. Plenty of people use Publish without ever setting it up.

If you have an account already, connect it, try Write copy for this text box on a template, and see whether it earns a place in how you work.