Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration • Hacker News Board

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#11

Post by dannyobrien » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:10 PM UTC

The odd thing about all of this (well, I guess it's not odd, just ironic), is that when Google AdWords started, one of the notable things about it was that anyone could start serving or buying ads. You just needed a credit-card. I think that bought Google a lot of credibility (along with the ads being text-only) as they entered an already disreputable space: ordinary users and small businesses felt they were getting the same treatment as more faceless, distant big businesses.

I have a friend that says Google's decline came when they bought DoubleClick in 2008 and suffered a reverse-takeover: their customers shifted from being Internet users and became other, matchingly-sized corporations.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#12

Post by nl » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:13 PM UTC

You literally cannot buy Antigravity with a non-personal Google account.

I read someone on here who is using Gemini via OpenRouter because it was the only way they could pay for it.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#13

Post by marcuskaz » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

notepad0x90 wrote: post #6

I think they're just too focused on enterprise billing. Someone at google doesn't get that individuals trying it out is how they go their work and recommend this stuff. Googlers tend to exist in an isolated bubble. In the corporate world, Azure is the default and they have Azure OpenAI. Why would someone bother with Gemini? Unless the devs at companies have a good experience with it of course. Googlers are awesome/me…

Developer experience matters. This is what Vercel figured out and why their admin screens are sooooooo much better than anything AWS or Google creates.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#14

Post by axi0m » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:17 PM UTC

Gosh, this story resonates so much with me... I had the exact same experience few days ago, desperately trying to get a small agent prototype working for a quick demo. I spent an good hour dealing with that pile of nonsense. Online payments and accounts management have been mastered for 20 years now, why do we still have to endure such things? It just kills me. The same goes with Azure (and all MS online-related services), if not even worse.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#15

Post by modeless » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:18 PM UTC

Seems like the real problem is something about his account or credit card tripped some fraud detectors and he got stuck in a part of the system designed to prevent credit card fraud rather than facilitate legitimate use. I can certainly imagine that Google gets a lot of chargebacks from people who had their credit card numbers stolen to mine bitcoin or whatever on Google Cloud.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#16

Post by rtaylorgarlock » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:19 PM UTC

Interesting perspective. I've mainly felt like i have 'American privilege' regarding the ease with which i open accounts of basically any sort on a whim, usually with little friction.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#17

Post by Sevii » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:22 PM UTC

dannyobrien wrote: post #11

The odd thing about all of this (well, I guess it's not odd, just ironic), is that when Google AdWords started, one of the notable things about it was that anyone could start serving or buying ads. You just needed a credit-card. I think that bought Google a lot of credibility (along with the ads being text-only) as they entered an already disreputable space: ordinary users and small businesses felt they were getting…

That has definitely changed. Google AdWords today is one of the most unfriendly services to onboard I've ever encountered. Signing up is trivial, setting up your first ad is easy, then you instantly get banned. Appeals do nothing. You essentially have to hire a professional just to use it.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#18

Post by vessenes » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:23 PM UTC

kevindamm wrote: post #9

nikanj wrote: post #5

This reminds me of the ”I just want to serve 5 terabytes” thing Google does not want your money, they don’t know how to count so low

Broccoli Man! classic https://youtu.be/3t6L-FlfeaI (2010) To be fair, a lot of this changed after that video became a meme.. but I'd bet that the broccoli man template is still trending on memegen

And the remaster! https://mbleigh.dev/posts/broccoli-man-remastered/

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#19

Post by fersarr » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:26 PM UTC

Sevii wrote: post #17

dannyobrien wrote: post #11

The odd thing about all of this (well, I guess it's not odd, just ironic), is that when Google AdWords started, one of the notable things about it was that anyone could start serving or buying ads. You just needed a credit-card. I think that bought Google a lot of credibility (along with the ads being text-only) as they entered an already disreputable space: ordinary users and small businesses felt they were getting…

That has definitely changed. Google AdWords today is one of the most unfriendly services to onboard I've ever encountered. Signing up is trivial, setting up your first ad is easy, then you instantly get banned. Appeals do nothing. You essentially have to hire a professional just to use it.

My attempts always had validation issues that stopped the ads from running but I never figured it out and stopped trying

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#20

Post by 9rx » Wed, Dec 10, 2025, 10:26 PM UTC

marcuskaz wrote: post #13

notepad0x90 wrote: post #6

I think they're just too focused on enterprise billing. Someone at google doesn't get that individuals trying it out is how they go their work and recommend this stuff. Googlers tend to exist in an isolated bubble. In the corporate world, Azure is the default and they have Azure OpenAI. Why would someone bother with Gemini? Unless the devs at companies have a good experience with it of course. Googlers are awesome/me…

Developer experience matters. This is what Vercel figured out and why their admin screens are sooooooo much better than anything AWS or Google creates.

"Developer experience matters" and "Vercel" being the example is something I never thought I would see together.

I actually do agree that Vercel's admin screens are quite good compared to the other usual suspects. But I don't consider that to be on the development side of things. It's done decently well because it is geared towards the business folks who are paying the bills.

Developers writing code on top of the development solutions produced by Vercel have been completely forsaken.