Run Gemma with the Gemini API

The Gemini API provides hosted access to Gemma as a programming API you can use in application development or prototyping. This API is a convenient alternative to setting up your own local instance of Gemma and web service to handle generative AI tasks.

The following examples show how to use Gemma with the Gemini API:

Python

from google import genai

client = genai.Client(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

response = client.models.generate_content(
    model="gemma-3-27b-it",
    contents="Roses are red...",
)

print(response.text)

Node.js

import { GoogleGenAI } from "@google/genai";

const ai = new GoogleGenAI({ apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY"});

const response = await ai.models.generateContent({
  model: "gemma-3-27b-it",
  contents: "Roses are red...",
});
console.log(response.text);

REST

curl "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemma-3-27b-it:generateContent?key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-X POST \
-d '{
  "contents": [{
    "parts":[{"text": "Roses are red..."}]
    }]
   }'

Get API Key Try Gemma in AI Studio

You can access the Gemini API on many platforms, such as mobile, web, and cloud services, and with multiple programming languages. For more information on Gemini API SDK packages, see the Gemini API SDK downloads page. For a general introduction to the Gemini API, see the Gemini API quickstart.

Image Understanding

Gemma 3 models can process images, enabling many frontier developer use cases that would have historically required domain specific models.

The following examples show how to use Gemma Image inputs with the Gemini API:

Python

from google import genai

client = genai.Client(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")

my_file = client.files.upload(file="path/to/sample.jpg")

response = client.models.generate_content(
    model="gemma-3-27b-it",
    contents=[my_file, "Caption this image."],
)

print(response.text)

Node.js

import {
  GoogleGenAI,
  createUserContent,
  createPartFromUri,
} from "@google/genai";

const ai = new GoogleGenAI({ apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY" });

const myfile = await ai.files.upload({
  file: "path/to/sample.jpg",
  config: { mimeType: "image/jpeg" },
});

const response = await ai.models.generateContent({
  model: "gemma-3-27b-it",
  contents: createUserContent([
    createPartFromUri(myfile.uri, myfile.mimeType),
    "Caption this image.",
  ]),
});
console.log(response.text);
 ```

REST

IMAGE_PATH="cats-and-dogs.jpg"
MIME_TYPE=$(file -b --mime-type "${IMAGE_PATH}")
NUM_BYTES=$(wc -c < "${IMAGE_PATH}")
DISPLAY_NAME=IMAGE

tmp_header_file=upload-header.tmp

# Initial resumable request defining metadata.
# The upload url is in the response headers dump them to a file.
curl "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/upload/v1beta/files?key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -D upload-header.tmp \
  -H "X-Goog-Upload-Protocol: resumable" \
  -H "X-Goog-Upload-Command: start" \
  -H "X-Goog-Upload-Header-Content-Length: ${NUM_BYTES}" \
  -H "X-Goog-Upload-Header-Content-Type: ${MIME_TYPE}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{'file': {'display_name': '${DISPLAY_NAME}'}}" 2> /dev/null

upload_url=$(grep -i "x-goog-upload-url: " "${tmp_header_file}" | cut -d" " -f2 | tr -d "\r")
rm "${tmp_header_file}"

# Upload the actual bytes.
curl "${upload_url}" \
  -H "Content-Length: ${NUM_BYTES}" \
  -H "X-Goog-Upload-Offset: 0" \
  -H "X-Goog-Upload-Command: upload, finalize" \
  --data-binary "@${IMAGE_PATH}" 2> /dev/null > file_info.json

file_uri=$(jq -r ".file.uri" file_info.json)
echo file_uri=$file_uri

# Now generate content using that file
curl "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemma-3-27b-it:generateContent?key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -X POST \
    -d '{
      "contents": [{
        "parts":[
          {"file_data":{"mime_type": "'"${MIME_TYPE}"'", "file_uri": "'"${file_uri}"'"}},
          {"text": "Caption this image."}]
        }]
      }' 2> /dev/null > response.json

cat response.json
echo

jq -r ".candidates[].content.parts[].text" response.json

For a general introduction to the Gemini API Image Understanding capabilities, see the Image understanding guide.