---
title: "Google (Gemini)"
summary: "Google Gemini setup (API key + OAuth, image generation, media understanding, web search)"
read_when:
  - You want to use Google Gemini models with OpenClaw
  - You need the API key or OAuth auth flow
---

# Google (Gemini)

The Google plugin provides access to Gemini models through Google AI Studio, plus
image generation, media understanding (image/audio/video), and web search via
Gemini Grounding.

- Provider: `google`
- Auth: `GEMINI_API_KEY` or `GOOGLE_API_KEY`
- API: Google Gemini API
- Alternative provider: `google-gemini-cli` (OAuth)

## Quick start

1. Set the API key:

```bash
openclaw onboard --auth-choice google-api-key
```

2. Set a default model:

```json5
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview" },
    },
  },
}
```

## Non-interactive example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice google-api-key \
  --gemini-api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY"
```

## OAuth (Gemini CLI)

An alternative provider `google-gemini-cli` uses PKCE OAuth instead of an API
key. This is an unofficial integration; some users report account
restrictions. Use at your own risk.

Environment variables:

- `OPENCLAW_GEMINI_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID`
- `OPENCLAW_GEMINI_OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET`

(Or the `GEMINI_CLI_*` variants.)

## Capabilities

| Capability             | Supported         |
| ---------------------- | ----------------- |
| Chat completions       | Yes               |
| Image generation       | Yes               |
| Image understanding    | Yes               |
| Audio transcription    | Yes               |
| Video understanding    | Yes               |
| Web search (Grounding) | Yes               |
| Thinking/reasoning     | Yes (Gemini 3.1+) |

## Environment note

If the Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure `GEMINI_API_KEY`
is available to that process (for example, in `~/.openclaw/.env` or via
`env.shellEnv`).