Get a Gemini key: FREE or paid

AI Studio hands out a Gemini key without a billing account attached, which is the usual card-free way into this set. The trade is written on the provider's pricing page: free-tier content is used to improve its products, paid-tier content is not.

Creating the key in AI Studio

1. Open aistudio.google.com/apikey. The older /app/apikey path still lands there.
2. Create the key and pick the project it belongs to.
3. Copy it before leaving the page.

Which console you used decides the bill

A key made in AI Studio with no billing account sits on the free tier. A key created against a project that carries Cloud billing sits on the paid tier. Same vendor, two consoles, two keys - and the console you chose settles both whether you owe money and which content-use term applies to you.

Adding it to Big-AGI

Open Models (Ctrl + Shift + M). If the Setup AI Models wizard greets you, press More Services to reach the setup screen. Then Add -> Gemini, paste into Gemini API Key, and press Models; the list forms below the panel (adding and managing keys).

What there is to cap

A free-tier key has no bill, so its limit is a rate limit instead. Once the key is bound to a paid project, put a Cloud Billing budget on that project. Big-AGI's cost readout is an estimate and never a limit.

Where the key travels

Route	The key travels as	Where
server path	x-goog-api-key	a request header
Direct Connection	?key=<key>	appended to the request URL

Direct Connection can be turned on once the key is in the browser; the query form is what Google accepts from a browser.

Related

• Connect an AI service
• What your provider does with your text
• Direct Connection