> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://gomodel-docs-providers-restructure.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Google Gemini

> Configure Google Gemini via AI Studio in GoModel, choose native or OpenAI-compatible routing, and understand image_url behavior.

This page covers Gemini through **Google AI Studio** API keys. For Gemini on
Google Cloud's Vertex AI, see the [Google Vertex AI guide](/providers/vertex).

GoModel routes Gemini chat and Responses API requests through Gemini's native
`generateContent` API by default. You can switch those requests back to
Gemini's OpenAI-compatible API when you need compatibility behavior that the
native adapter does not implement yet.

## Configure AI Studio

Use the `GEMINI_*` prefix for Gemini API keys from AI Studio:

```bash theme={null}
export GEMINI_API_KEY="..."
export GEMINI_API_MODE="native"
```

Or in `config.yaml`:

```yaml theme={null}
providers:
  gemini:
    type: gemini
    api_key: "${GEMINI_API_KEY}"
    api_mode: native
```

## Native versus OpenAI-compatible mode

Gemini native mode is enabled by default:

```bash theme={null}
export GEMINI_API_MODE="native"
```

Set the per-provider API mode to `openai_compatible` to route chat and
Responses API requests through the upstream OpenAI-compatible
`/chat/completions` endpoint:

```bash theme={null}
export GEMINI_API_MODE="openai_compatible"
```

`GEMINI_BASE_URL` configures the Gemini base. GoModel keeps separate internal
bases for native Gemini and the OpenAI-compatible API:

* native chat/models default: `https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta`
* OpenAI-compatible default: `https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai`

When `GEMINI_BASE_URL` ends in `/openai`, GoModel uses that value for the
OpenAI-compatible client and derives the native base by stripping `/openai`.
Gemini embeddings, files, and batches still use the OpenAI-compatible surface.

```bash theme={null}
export GEMINI_BASE_URL="https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai"
```

<Note>
  `USE_GOOGLE_GEMINI_NATIVE_API` is still supported as a legacy global toggle
  when per-provider `GEMINI_API_MODE` is unset. Prefer `GEMINI_API_MODE` for
  new deployments.
</Note>

## Image URL behavior

Gemini models support image input, but the two GoModel routing modes handle
OpenAI-style `image_url` values differently.

In native mode, GoModel converts OpenAI-compatible messages to Gemini
`generateContent` requests. That adapter currently supports inline image data
only:

```json theme={null}
{
  "type": "image_url",
  "image_url": {
    "url": "data:image/jpeg;base64,..."
  }
}
```

Remote image URLs such as `https://example.com/image.png` are rejected in
native mode. Google's native Gemini API supports inline image data and Files
API references; for URL-hosted images, Google's examples fetch the URL first
and send the bytes to `generateContent`.

Set `GEMINI_API_MODE=openai_compatible` when you need GoModel to pass the
OpenAI-compatible `image_url` request shape through to Google's
OpenAI-compatible endpoint instead. Google documents image input for that
endpoint using the OpenAI `image_url` field.

## Current support

Integrated:

* chat completions and streaming
* Responses API and streaming
* model listing through AI Studio `/models`
* usage metadata normalization for native responses
* tool calls and function-call results
* inline image data via `data:` URLs in native mode

Not integrated yet:

* fetching remote `image_url` values
* uploading remote images through the Gemini Files API before a chat request

References:

* [Gemini image understanding](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/image-understanding)
* [Gemini OpenAI compatibility](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/openai)