How to Use Gemini with the Vercel AI SDK — Google Provider Guide

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use Gemini models with the Vercel AI SDK through Puter's OpenAI-compatible provider endpoint. No Google AI API key needed — just your Puter auth token.

About Gemini

Gemini is Google's flagship AI model family, designed for multimodal understanding across text, images, audio, and video. Gemini models are known for strong performance on knowledge tasks, long context windows, and competitive pricing. The lineup includes Flash Lite (fastest and cheapest), Flash (balanced), and Pro (most capable). Puter gives you access to Gemini models through the Vercel AI SDK with no Google AI API key required.

Prerequisites

• A Puter account
• Your Puter auth token, go to puter.com/dashboard and click Copy to get your auth token

• Node.js installed on your machine

Setup

Install the Vercel AI SDK and the OpenAI provider:

npm install ai @ai-sdk/openai

Puter works as an OpenAI-compatible provider, so you use @ai-sdk/openai to connect. Configure it with Puter's base URL and your auth token:

import { createOpenAI } from '@ai-sdk/openai';

const puter = createOpenAI({
  baseURL: 'https://api.puter.com/puterai/openai/v1/',
  apiKey: 'YOUR_PUTER_AUTH_TOKEN',
});

Replace YOUR_PUTER_AUTH_TOKEN with the auth token you copied from your Puter dashboard. That's all you need. No Google AI API key required.

Basic Text Generation

Here's a simple text generation call using Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite:

import { createOpenAI } from '@ai-sdk/openai';
import { generateText } from 'ai';

const puter = createOpenAI({
  baseURL: 'https://api.puter.com/puterai/openai/v1/',
  apiKey: 'YOUR_PUTER_AUTH_TOKEN',
});

const { text } = await generateText({
  model: puter.chat('gemini-2.5-flash-lite'),
  prompt: 'What is the capital of France?',
});

console.log(text);

The code is identical to what you'd write for any OpenAI provider. The only difference is the base URL and the model string.

Streaming

For longer responses, use streamText to get results in real-time:

import { createOpenAI } from '@ai-sdk/openai';
import { streamText } from 'ai';

const puter = createOpenAI({
  baseURL: 'https://api.puter.com/puterai/openai/v1/',
  apiKey: 'YOUR_PUTER_AUTH_TOKEN',
});

const result = streamText({
  model: puter.chat('gemini-2.5-flash-lite'),
  prompt: 'Write a short story about a robot learning to paint.',
});

for await (const chunk of result.textStream) {
  process.stdout.write(chunk);
}

Use streamText instead of generateText and iterate over result.textStream to get text chunks as they arrive.

Why Use Puter?

You could install @ai-sdk/google and use Google's API key directly. Here's why Puter is a simpler option:

• One API key for everything — no need to sign up for separate Google, Anthropic, or OpenAI accounts. Your Puter auth token covers all providers.
• One setup for all models — the same Puter config works for Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama, and 400+ other models. Just change the model string.
• No extra packages — without Puter, each AI provider needs its own SDK package and API key. With Puter, everything goes through a single @ai-sdk/openai setup.

Conclusion

You now have the Google provider set up through the Vercel AI SDK via Puter — no API key needed. Swap the model string to use any Gemini model, from the lightweight Flash Lite to the powerful Pro, or any of the hundreds of other AI models available through Puter.

Related

• How to Use Vercel AI SDK with Puter
• Free Gemini API
• Google Models on Puter
• Access Claude Using Vercel AI SDK
• Access Grok Using Vercel AI SDK
• Supported AI Models