How to get a Gemini API key.

Head to aistudio.google.com and sign in with any Google account (personal, Workspace, whichever you already use).

• Open API Keys in Google AI Studio and confirm the Cloud project shown. Existing Cloud users may need to import the intended project first.
• Create a new auth key and copy it into a password manager or another secure credential store.
• Do not judge a current key by an old prefix. Google now creates auth keys by default, began rejecting unrestricted Standard keys on 19 June 2026, and plans to reject Standard keys in September 2026. Google's current API-key guide →
• If you lose or expose the key, create a replacement, test it, then revoke the old credential.

Google's current Nano Banana image models have no free API tier. In Google AI Studio, use Set up billing for the same project as the auth key and confirm that the project shows the intended paid plan before the first image request. Missing billing is one possible cause of a failed request, but model access, region, key type, project selection, rate limits, spend limits, and quota can also be responsible. Google's billing guide →

• In Photoshop, open the Creator MAX panel and click the gear icon (top-right of the plugin).
• Paste the key into Gemini API key and hit Save.
• The Remove key link replaces the input once a key is stored, so you can swap or wipe it anytime.

Google bills directly for every generation. We never touch the transaction, never mark it up, and never add a Bielfor rate limit. Current standard image-output examples for the models used by Creator MAX:

• Nano Banana (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image), up to 1024px: $0.039 per image
• Nano Banana 2, 1K / 2K / 4K: $0.067 / $0.101 / $0.151 per image
• Nano Banana Pro, 1K or 2K: $0.134 per image; 4K: $0.24 per image
• Prompt, reference-image, text or thinking output, and Google Search use can add charges

Exact current numbers on Google's Gemini API pricing page. Keeping the bill bounded is its own question, answered further down.

Creating the key is free. Generating an image with it is not, and the two get mixed up constantly.

Google does advertise a free tier for the Gemini API, and it is real, but it covers text models. Every image model prints Not available in the Free Tier column of Google's own pricing table: Nano Banana 2, the Lite and Pro variants, and the legacy Nano Banana. Checked 12 September 2026.

That single fact explains most keys that "do not work". A key created on a project with no billing account will save into Creator MAX without complaint and then fail on the first image request, because there is no free allowance for it to spend.

• Google applies limits per Cloud project, not per key. One key used in two apps shares one set of limits, and a second key inside the same project does not raise anything.
• The dimensions are requests per minute, input tokens per minute, and requests per day. Image-capable models add images per minute, which is the one that bites during a batch in Photoshop.
• Requests-per-day counters reset at midnight Pacific time.
• Google publishes no fixed per-model number and states outright that rate limits are not guaranteed. Your own current limits are the only ones worth quoting.

Read yours at the AI Studio rate-limit page, against Google's rate-limit guide. Checked 12 September 2026.

Four mechanisms, and they behave differently. Worth knowing which one you just hit.

• Billing plan. Prepay or Postpay, and new accounts start on Prepay, so the ceiling is whatever you have already put in.
• Project spend cap. You set it yourself. Google labels it experimental and warns that charges can still land for roughly ten minutes after the cap is reached, so treat it as a brake and not a wall.
• Account tier cap. Automatic, monthly, counted across every project on the billing account: $250 on Tier 1, $2,000 on Tier 2, higher above that. Reaching it pauses service on all of them until the next billing cycle.
• Separately from the monthly caps there is a spend rate limit on a rolling ten-minute window: $10 on Tier 1, $50 on Tier 2, $200 on Tier 3. A long batch can reach it in normal use.

Charges and cost graphs live on the AI Studio billing page. Details and the current figures in Google's billing guide. Checked 12 September 2026.

No. The key is stored in Photoshop's secure preferences on your machine and used only by your local plugin instance to call Google. No key, prompt, or image ever passes through a Bielfor server.

• If Creator MAX shows "Invalid API key", copy the current auth key again from Google AI Studio, remove any leading or trailing spaces, and confirm that it belongs to the intended project. Do not use a prefix as a validity test.
• A 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED error can mean an RPM, TPM, RPD, images-per-minute, quota, or spend limit was exceeded. On a paid project the spend rate limit is an easy one to miss: it is evaluated over a rolling ten minutes, and the Tier 1 ceiling is $10. Check the returned error, exact model, project plan, quota dashboard, region, and billing state instead of assuming one cause.
• A 403 permission error can mean the wrong key or insufficient access. Confirm the auth key, project, account eligibility, region, and model access.
• Use Google's current troubleshooting table → before replacing a working key.

Creator MAX runs eleven models across three providers, and one key is enough to start. The other two setups are the same shape: how to get an OpenAI API key for GPT Image 2, GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst, and GPT Image 2.5 Flare, and how to get an xAI API key for Grok Imagine Image.

Email support@bielfor.com with a screenshot of the error and we'll unblock you, usually same day.