Building & Product

How do I get an API key for OpenAI or Gemini?

Both take a few minutes and only need a sign-in. For Gemini, open the API keys page in Google AI Studio (aistudio.google.com/apikey): new users get a default project and key once they accept the terms, and Gemini 3.8 Flash is free on the free tier, though Google uses free-tier data to improve its products and Gemini 4 Argon is not on it. For OpenAI, sign in at platform.openai.com, create a project key on the API keys page and add billing in your account settings; eligible ChatGPT Pro subscribers can instead claim up to $500 a month in API credits. Either way, treat the key like a password: keep it in an environment variable, never in your code, in Git or in an app's front end, set a billing alert, and replace it at once if it leaks.

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