Setup Google Cloud to Access AI Services

Getting an API key for Google Cloud to access AI services (like Vertex AI Gemini API) is a much more complicated than for other AI services. This is due to the fact that Google Cloud is not a pure AI service provider, but a full cloud provider with many different services and complex access management. Therefore, need to follow the steps below to create a Google Cloud project, enable the respective services, and get an API key.

Create Google Cloud Project

Follow the instructions at Get set up on Google Cloud:

• sign in to your Google Cloud account; if you're new to Google Cloud, create an account
  • as of this writing (2024-01-10), new customers also get free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads
• in the Google Cloud console, on the project selector page, select or create a Google Cloud project
  • note the project ID, you need it later when you access the AI service
• optionally with gcloud CLI:
  • install the gcloud CLI

    # Ubuntu with snap:
    sudo snap install google-cloud-cli --classic

  • initialize the gcloud CLI with:

    gcloud init
      # inclusive login at Google with Browser

Enable AI Services in the Google Cloud Project

Then:

• Enable the Vertex AI API
  • Google Cloud Console > Vertex AI > Enable all recommended APIs
    • most important: Enable Vertex AI API for your Google Cloud project
      • servicename is: aiplatform.googleapis.com

Get API Key to Access the AI Services in the Google Cloud Project

Then follow the instructions on page API Keys (Access Tokens) to Google Cloud Services.