# AI travel planner: mark an area on the map and get specific places

> An interest is a question about an area of the map, one of your places or a topic. Kokai sends it to the AI you choose, Anthropic or OpenAI, with your own key and straight from your device, along with what it needs to know about the trip. The AI chats with you and suggests 6 to 10 specific places, which don’t go into your trip until you accept them. It never receives your documents, your location or your route.

- Address: https://kokai.app/en/ia/
- Reviewed on: 2026-09-17
- Language: en

## In a nutshell

- **Which AI:** Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI (GPT), with your API key. Without a key, the whole app works without AI.
- **Area size:** A radius from 100 m to 500 km. Shortcuts: a neighbourhood (1 km), a city (8 km), a district (40 km) and a region (150 km).
- **Places per request:** 6 in areas up to 2 km, 8 up to 20 km and 10 in larger areas.
- **Web search:** Optional, only when chatting. With Anthropic, up to 5 searches per answer; not available with Claude Haiku 4.5.
- **Context sent:** The trip, the plan, where you sleep and up to 60 of your places, the ones closest to what you ask about.
- **Never sent:** Your documents, the trip’s private notes, your location, your route and the price or booking reference of your stays.
- **Where your key goes:** On your device. On iPhone and Android, in the system’s secure storage. It never passes through the Kokai server.
- **Cost:** Kokai doesn’t charge for AI: each request is billed by your provider, at their rates.

## What an interest is

An interest is a question you ask the AI about your trip that stays saved in it, with its conversation and the places it has suggested. You create them in each trip’s **Intereses** (“Interests”) section, with «Nuevo interés» (“New interest”), and each one has a title, a question and a scope: what you’re asking about.

| Scope | How it appears in the app | What it’s for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Area | «Una zona del mapa» (“An area of the map”) | A circle on the map, as small as a street or as big as a region. The AI looks for places inside it or very close. |
| Place | «Uno de mis sitios» (“One of my places”) | One of the places you’ve already saved: what’s around the hotel, what to see after the museum. The AI also receives its address and your notes. |
| Topic | «Un tema, sin lugar concreto» (“A topic, no specific place”) | An idea that doesn’t fit in a circle: where to try the best pastel de nata, what to do if it rains. |

You can change everything later with «Editar el título, la zona o la pregunta» (“Edit the title, area or question”). If you switch the type of scope (from area to topic, for example), the previous one is replaced entirely. From the card of any place on the [map](https://kokai.app/en/mapa/), «Preguntar a la IA por este sitio» (“Ask the AI about this place”) creates an interest with that place as its scope straight away.

> What the AI suggests doesn’t go into your trip on its own: it stays as a draft until you accept it. The same goes for the plan and for a place’s notes. The one exception is the packing list, where suggestions go straight into the list, marked, and are removed with one tap.

## The area: from 100 m to 500 km

When you choose «Una zona del mapa», you can mark the area in two ways: by typing a place name in «Buscar la zona» (“Find the area”), or by tapping the map to set the centre. If you search for something with an extent (a city, an island, a park), the area grows to cover it entirely, with a minimum of 500 m. If you search for a point (a museum), the area centres on it and keeps its radius. A new area starts at 1 km.

The «Radio» (“Radius”) slider is logarithmic, with 1,000 steps: it moves just as finely between 100 and 200 m as between 100 and 200 km. The value is rounded to multiples of 50 m below 1 km, 100 m up to 10 km, 1 km up to 100 km and 5 km above that. So you don’t have to fine-tune it, there are four shortcuts in «Tamaños de zona» (“Area sizes”):

| Shortcut | Radius | Places the AI suggests |
| --- | --- | --- |
| «Un barrio» (“A neighbourhood”) | 1 km | 6 |
| «Una ciudad» (“A city”) | 8 km | 8 |
| «Una comarca» (“A district”) | 40 km | 10, spread across the whole area |
| «Una región» (“A region”) | 150 km | 10, spread across the whole area |

The size changes the request, not just the drawing. Up to 2 km it asks for 6 places; up to 20 km, 8; above that, 10. And with an area of more than 5 km, Kokai asks the AI to spread them across different towns, landscapes and corners instead of bunching them in the main square, and to say how long it takes to get there from the most visited spot.

### Example: Three areas for a trip to Lisbon, and what to ask in each

- **Alfama, 1 km («Un barrio»):** “Viewpoints you can walk to for the sunset, and somewhere near each one for a drink without booking.”
- **Sintra, 8 km («Una ciudad»):** “We only have one morning and we’re with a 6-year-old: which palace to choose, how long it takes and whether we need to buy tickets in advance.”
- **150 km around Lisbon («Una región»):** “Day trips by car, without repeating beaches, with an idea of where to eat on each one.”

What they have in common: they say **how much time** there is, **who** is going and **what to avoid**. “What is there in Sintra?” works too, but the answer will look like any guidebook’s. The «Qué quieres saber» (“What do you want to know”) field suggests the tone: “What to see in three hours, places for dinner without booking, pretty villages for a road trip…”.

## Chatting about an interest

Inside an interest, the map shows the area and the panel shows the conversation. The first time you tap «Empezar» (“Start”), and from then on you type in «Sigue preguntando…» (“Keep asking…”) and tap «Preguntar» (“Ask”). If you leave the field empty, it uses the interest’s question or, if it has none, «¿Qué me recomiendas?» (“What do you recommend?”).

- The answer is **streamed**, appearing as it’s written, with «Pensando…» (“Thinking…”) in the meantime. «Parar» (“Stop”) cuts it off.
- Each question carries that interest’s previous conversation, so you can narrow things down: “and of those, which one opens on Mondays?”.
- The question and answer are saved in the interest when the answer finishes. If something fails, nothing is saved and the question stays in the field so you can try again.
- «Vaciar la conversación» (“Clear the conversation”) deletes the questions and answers, but keeps the suggested places and the ones you’ve already added to the trip.

The conversation is saved with the trip: on your device and, if the copy in your account is on, on the Kokai server so you can see it on your other devices. More in [Your data](https://kokai.app/en/tus-datos/).

## Suggested places: accept, dismiss and bring back

The conversation gives you ideas; «Proponer sitios» (“Suggest places”) turns them into places you can put on the map. Kokai asks the AI for an answer with a fixed structure, and for each place it gets the name, the category, why it’s worth it, the coordinates, the address, the recommended visit time in minutes and the official website if it knows it for sure. It also passes on the latest part of your conversation (up to 6 messages) and the places it has already suggested, so it doesn’t repeat them.

1. The places appear in the «Sitios propuestos» (“Suggested places”) list and on the map in **the suggestion colour with a dashed border**, different from your saved places.
2. You tap one to see it on the map and read why it was suggested.
3. «Añadir al viaje» (“Add to trip”) saves it as one more place, with the reason in its notes and its website in its links. If there are several, «Añadir los 8 al viaje» (“Add all 8 to the trip”, or however many are left) saves them all at once.
4. «Descartar» (“Dismiss”) removes it from the list. Dismissed places show up when you tap «3 descartadas» (“3 dismissed”, or however many there are) and come back with «Recuperar» (“Restore”).

When you add a place, Kokai finds its photos and links on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons by itself, like any new place on the [map](https://kokai.app/en/mapa/).

> The coordinates an AI model gives can be off by hundreds of metres. That’s why a place added from the AI is marked as an **approximate location**: its card says «La ubicación la dio la IA y puede estar desplazada. Arrastra el marcador al sitio exacto o confírmala.» (“The location came from the AI and may be off. Drag the marker to the exact spot or confirm it.”) The mark goes away when you drag it or tap «Está bien» (“It’s fine”).

## Web search: this year’s opening hours and closures

What a model knows only goes up to the date it was trained. It doesn’t know about a restaurant that has closed or a museum that has changed its hours. With **«Buscar en la web al conversar»** (“Search the web when chatting”), in Settings, the provider searches the internet before answering.

|  | Anthropic | OpenAI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How it searches | With its web search tool, which Anthropic runs on its server. | With its `web_search` tool, which OpenAI runs. |
| Limit per answer | Up to 5 searches. If the answer pauses, Kokai continues it, at most three times. | Kokai doesn’t set a limit. |
| Models | All except Claude Haiku 4.5. | All. |

It’s on by default and only used in an interest’s conversation: suggesting places, the plan, notes and the packing list don’t search the web. Searching takes longer and uses more of your provider account; if you don’t need it, turn it off.

## Providers and models

Kokai doesn’t include an AI of its own. In Settings, under «Inteligencia artificial» (“Artificial intelligence”), you choose the «Proveedor» (“Provider”): «Ninguna: no usar IA» (“None: don’t use AI”, the default), «Anthropic (Claude), con tu clave» (“Anthropic (Claude), with your key”) or «OpenAI (GPT), con tu clave» (“OpenAI (GPT), with your key”). Then the «Modelo» (“Model”):

| Anthropic | OpenAI | What the app says |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Claude Opus 5 (default) | GPT-5.6 Sol (first on its list) | «El mejor equilibrio para planificar» (“The best balance for planning”) |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | GPT-5.6 Terra | «Más rápido y más barato» (“Faster and cheaper”) |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | GPT-5.6 Luna | «El más rápido, para listas cortas» (“The fastest, for short lists”) |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | GPT-6 Astra | «El más capaz, y el más caro» (“The most capable, and the most expensive”) |

With Claude Opus 5 and Claude Fable 5.1, Kokai turns on Anthropic’s server-side fallbacks: if the model declines a request by mistake (a question about how safe a neighbourhood is, a border area), Anthropic retries it with the model it recommends for that case. If it still doesn’t answer, the app says so instead of looking like a failure: «El modelo ha preferido no contestar a esto» (“The model has chosen not to answer this”).

Each task asks for a different level of effort and has an answer cap, which limits what it can cost:

| Task | Effort | Answer cap | Web search |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Chatting about an interest | Medium | 8,000 tokens | Depends on the setting |
| Suggesting places | Medium | 6,000 tokens | No |
| Trip plan (per batch of 3 days) | Medium | 16,000 tokens | No |
| Notes for a place | Low | 2,000 tokens | No |
| Packing list | Low | 4,000 tokens | No |

With OpenAI, the model’s reasoning counts towards the cap, so Kokai adds a margin: 2,000 tokens with low effort and 8,000 with medium effort. You only pay for what’s used. It also asks OpenAI not to store the answers on its server for reuse.

## Your key, on your device

You get the API key from each provider’s console (Anthropic or OpenAI) and type it in «Clave de API de Anthropic» (“Anthropic API key”) or «Clave de API de OpenAI» (“OpenAI API key”). «Guardar la clave» (“Save the key”) stores it; «Probar la conexión» (“Test the connection”) checks it works; «Olvidar la clave» (“Forget the key”) deletes it.

| Where you use Kokai | Where the key is stored | Status |
| --- | --- | --- |
| iPhone | In the system keychain (Keychain). | Soon |
| Android | In the system key store (Android Keystore). | Soon |
| Browser | In the browser’s local storage (`localStorage`). It isn’t secure storage: it’s protected by your computer user account. On a shared computer, forget the key when you’re done. | Now |
| Mac and Windows | Same as in the browser, until there’s secure storage for the desktop. | Later |

- The key goes **straight from your device to the provider**, with each request. It doesn’t pass through the Kokai server and isn’t uploaded with the copy of your trips.
- It’s stored per account and per device: two people sharing a computer don’t spend each other’s key, and on each new device you have to type it again.
- Since the key is yours, so is the relationship with the provider: it handles what you send under its own terms and privacy policy.

**Before the first request to each provider**, Kokai asks: «¿Enviar texto a Anthropic?» (“Send text to Anthropic?”, or OpenAI), explains what is sent and that it doesn’t go through its server, and waits until you tap «Permitir» (“Allow”) or «Ahora no» (“Not now”). Without permission, nothing is sent. It asks once per provider, and you withdraw permission in Settings, under «Permisos dados» (“Permissions given”), with «Retirar» (“Withdraw”): the next request asks again.

## What is sent to the AI and what never is

A recommendation isn’t much use if the AI doesn’t know where the trip is, when, and what you’ve already planned. Kokai writes that context as plain text, always in the same order, and each task carries the part it needs: the conversation goes with everything in the table; suggesting places, without the plan or accommodation; notes, only with the trip and that place. This is what can be sent and what can’t:

| Data | Sent? | Details |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The trip | Yes | Name, destination, its location on the map, dates and number of days with the time zone, travellers, currency and the description you’ve written. |
| Your places | Yes, up to 60 | The ones closest to what you ask about: name, category, priority, whether you’ve visited it and coordinates. Without their notes, unless the interest is about that place or you ask for its notes. |
| The plan | Yes | Time, name and means of transport of each item. |
| Where you sleep | Yes | Only what’s booked: which nights, the accommodation’s name and location and its check-in and check-out times, and the nights that don’t have accommodation yet. |
| Price, booking and notes of a stay | No | Not the price, not the booking document, not its notes. |
| The interest | Yes | Title, area or place, the question and that interest’s conversation. |
| Your documents | Never | No passports, no tickets, no bookings with their reference, no files. |
| The trip’s private notes | Never | The trip’s notes aren’t sent; the description is. |
| Your location and your route | Never | What [On the road](https://kokai.app/en/en-ruta/#recorrido) mode records stays on the device. |
| Your account | No | The request goes with your key: Kokai doesn’t add your name or your email. |

The fixed instructions that go with each request ask the AI for real names, how long each thing takes, not to repeat what you’ve already saved, and to say when something depends on the season or when it isn’t sure it’s still open.

## Place notes and packing list

The AI also helps in two small places, with low effort so they’re quick and cheap:

- **Notes for a place:** On the place’s card, «Proponer» (“Suggest”) next to «Notas» (“Notes”). It asks for three to six practical sentences: what not to miss, how long, the best time, whether you need to book and a tip that isn’t in every guidebook. If you already have notes, it adds to them. It receives the trip and that place with its address.
- **Packing list:** In the Maleta (“Packing list”) section, «Proponer para este viaje» (“Suggest for this trip”). It asks for specific items for that destination and time of year (“type G adapter”, not “adapter”), without repeating what’s already on the list. It receives the trip, up to 25 of your places and the current list. There’s no draft here: suggestions go straight into the list marked «Propuesto por la IA» (“Suggested by the AI”), the app says how many items it has added, and each one is removed with its button, like anything else on the list.

Suggested notes appear separately, marked as an unsaved suggestion, with «Aceptar» (“Accept”), «Otra» (“Another”) and «Descartar» (“Dismiss”): they don’t touch yours until you accept.

## The trip plan with AI

When the trip has dates, the [Plan](https://kokai.app/en/plan/) shows «Crear el plan con IA» (“Create the plan with AI”), or «Completar con IA» (“Complete with AI”) if you already have something. You choose the days, the pace, what you fancy, whether to use your places, suggest others and where to eat, and whether to keep what’s there or redo those days. The AI generates it in **batches of 3 days**, each one aware of what was suggested in the previous ones, and you can keep using the app in the meantime.

The result is a draft saved only on that device: you review it day by day on the map, and it doesn’t change your plan until you tap «Guardar en el plan» (“Save to plan”). The details, with the paces and how times and places are checked, are on the [Plan](https://kokai.app/en/plan/) page.

## Reporting an answer

Every AI answer (the conversation, suggested places, the plan, notes and the packing list) has a **«Reportar»** (“Report”) button. It opens «Reportar esta respuesta de la IA» (“Report this AI answer”), with four reasons: «Ofensiva o inapropiada» (“Offensive or inappropriate”), «Peligrosa o ilegal» (“Dangerous or illegal”), «Falsa o engañosa» (“False or misleading”) and «Otra cosa» (“Something else”), plus a «Comentario (opcional)» (“Comment (optional)”).

When you tap «Enviar el reporte» (“Send report”), the text of that answer, the provider, the reason and your comment are sent to the owner of Kokai, together with your account. Nothing else from your trip. It arrives as an email, which the server deletes automatically after twelve months, and each account can send up to 20 reports a day. The [privacy policy](https://kokai.app/en/privacidad/) explains it.

## How much it costs

Kokai doesn’t charge for AI or take a cut of what you pay. Each request goes with your key, so your provider bills it at their rates: by input and output tokens, different for each model, with web searches priced separately. Rates change: always check the pricing pages of [Anthropic](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing) and [OpenAI](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing).

- The most capable models are the most expensive; for short lists, like the packing list, a fast model is enough.
- Web search makes the conversation more expensive: turn it off if you don’t need this year’s information.
- The plan is requested in batches: a 9-day trip is 3 requests.
- Providers let you set a spending limit in their console. If you reach it, Kokai tells you: «Has llegado al límite de uso de tu cuenta de Anthropic» (“You’ve reached the usage limit of your Anthropic account”).

## Check it yourself

1. In Settings, open «Inteligencia artificial» (“Artificial intelligence”) and under «Proveedor» (“Provider”) choose «Anthropic (Claude), con tu clave» or «OpenAI (GPT), con tu clave» (“with your key”).
2. Type your key, tap «Guardar la clave» (“Save the key”) and then «Probar la conexión» (“Test the connection”): it should reply with a short sentence.
3. Open a trip, go to «Intereses» (“Interests”) and tap «Nuevo interés» (“New interest”). Under «Sobre qué» (“About what”), choose «Una zona del mapa» (“An area of the map”), search for a place in «Buscar la zona» (“Find the area”) and try the shortcuts in «Tamaños de zona» (“Area sizes”).
4. Tap «Crear» (“Create”) and, inside the interest, «Empezar» (“Start”). The first time, «¿Enviar texto a Anthropic?» (“Send text to Anthropic?”, or OpenAI) appears: read what is sent and tap «Permitir» (“Allow”).
5. Tap «Proponer sitios» (“Suggest places”): they appear on the map with a dashed border. Add one with «Añadir al viaje» (“Add to trip”) and open its card on the map: it says the location came from the AI.
6. Dismiss another with «Descartar» (“Dismiss”) and bring it back from the dismissed list with «Recuperar» (“Restore”).
7. In Settings, «Inteligencia artificial», look at «Permisos dados» (“Permissions given”): the provider is there with the date, and «Retirar» (“Withdraw”).

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I use Kokai without AI?

Yes. The app comes set to «Ninguna: no usar IA» (“None: don’t use AI”), and the map, the plan, documents, accommodation and On the road mode work just the same. AI is an extra for anyone who wants to add their key.

### Do I have to pay Kokai anything for AI?

No. You pay Anthropic or OpenAI for what you use with your key, at their rates. Kokai doesn’t charge for AI and doesn’t see your bill.

### Does the AI see my passport or my bookings?

No. Documents are never sent, neither their details nor their files. From your stays it gets where you sleep and when you check in and out, but not the price, the booking or its notes. Nor your location or your route.

### Why does a place from the AI say its location is approximate?

Because the coordinates a model gives can be off by hundreds of metres. Drag the marker to the exact spot, or tap «Está bien» (“It’s fine”) if it’s already right. Until then, better not to rely on it for an on-the-road alert.

### Do I have to type the key on every device?

Yes. The key doesn’t leave your device, not even to the copy in your account, so you type it separately on your phone and on your computer. What you do have everywhere is the conversation and the accepted places, if the copy in your account is on.

### What if the AI gets it wrong or says something inappropriate?

Nothing goes into your trip without you accepting it, so a wrong place just gets dismissed. If the answer is offensive, dangerous or false, tap «Reportar» (“Report”) on it: it reaches the owner of Kokai for review.

## Sources and references

- [Pricing (Claude API prices)](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing) — Anthropic
- [Web search tool (web search and max_uses)](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/agents-and-tools/tool-use/web-search-tool) — Anthropic
- [How long do you store my organization’s data?](https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/7996866-how-long-do-you-store-my-organization-s-data) — Anthropic Privacy Center
- [Pricing (API prices)](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing) — OpenAI
- [Data controls in the OpenAI platform](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/your-data) — OpenAI
- [Keychain services](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/keychain-services) — Apple Developer
- [Android Keystore system](https://developer.android.com/privacy-and-security/keystore) — Android Developers
- [Window: localStorage property](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/localStorage) — MDN Web Docs