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This page covers Gemini through Google AI Studio API keys. For Gemini on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, see the Google Vertex AI guide. By default, GoModel routes Gemini chat and Responses requests through Gemini’s native generateContent API. Switch to the OpenAI-compatible endpoint when you need compatibility behavior the native adapter does not implement yet (notably remote image_url values).

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Configure

GEMINI_API_KEY=...
GEMINI_API_MODE=native        # or openai_compatible
Or in config.yaml: 
providers:
  gemini:
    type: gemini
    api_key: "${GEMINI_API_KEY}"
    api_mode: native
USE_GOOGLE_GEMINI_NATIVE_API is still honored as a legacy global toggle when per-provider GEMINI_API_MODE is unset. Prefer GEMINI_API_MODE.

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Base URLs

GoModel keeps separate internal bases for native Gemini and the OpenAI-compatible API:
  • native chat/models: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta
  • OpenAI-compatible: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai
GEMINI_BASE_URL overrides them. When the value ends in /openai, GoModel uses it for the OpenAI-compatible client and derives the native base by stripping /openai. Embeddings, files, and batches always use the OpenAI-compatible surface.

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Image input

ModeOpenAI-style image_url
native (default)inline data: URLs only — remote https://... URLs are rejected
openai_compatibleOpenAI-style remote URLs pass through to Google’s OpenAI-compatible endpoint
For URL-hosted images in native mode, Google’s own examples fetch the URL first and send the bytes to generateContent.

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Not yet integrated

  • Automatic fetching of remote image_url values in native mode.
  • Uploading remote images through the Gemini Files API before a chat request.

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References