Getting your API key

What is an API key?

It is a long password that lets one piece of software use another on your behalf. In this case it lets Opis send your work to Google's AI and get the answer back, using your account rather than ours.

You do not need to understand anything technical to get one. It is a matter of signing in with a Google account and pressing a button.

Why we ask you to bring your own

Your subscription pays for the software — the apps, the methodology, the way results are checked and presented. It does not include the AI usage itself.

That is deliberate. You pay Google directly at their prices, so you can see exactly what your usage costs and we are never quietly adding a margin to your compute. It also means a heavy month for you is not a reason for us to raise your subscription.

What does it cost?

Google provides a free allowance that most people never exceed while they are getting started. Beyond that you pay Google for what you use, billed by them, to you.

We never see your bill and we take no share of it. If you want to know current prices, they are published on Google's own pricing page — we would rather point you there than quote a figure here that goes out of date.

How to get one

1. Open Google AI Studio with the button below. Sign in with any Google account — a personal Gmail is fine.
2. Press "Create API key". If it asks which project to use, any project will do; if you have none, let it create one.
3. It will show you a long string beginning with "AIza". Copy the whole thing.
4. Paste it into Opis, in Settings. We check it against Google before saving, so you will know straight away whether it works.

If something goes wrong

"That looks like an OpenAI key." You have pasted a key beginning with "sk-" into the Google box. Those are different providers — a Google key begins with "AIza".

"Google did not recognise that key." Usually part of the key was missed when copying, or a space crept in at one end. Copy it again, all of it.

"That key does not have access to the Gemini API." The key is real but belongs to a project where the Generative Language API is not switched on. Creating a fresh key from AI Studio, rather than from the Google Cloud console, avoids this.

Still stuck? Email support@opis-app-hub.com and tell us what the message said. It is a common sticking point and we would rather sort it than have you give up.

What we do with your key

It is encrypted before it is stored, and only ever used to run the analyses you ask for. We keep a record of when it was used, so unexpected use would be visible.

You can change or remove it at any time in Settings, and removing it stops all use of it immediately.