Where Gemini is blocked, and how the gate works
Google AI Studio and the Gemini API check your origin at three points: account signup, key creation, and every API call. In unsupported regions — the familiar list: mainland China, Russia, Iran and a rotating set of others — the dashboard refuses to issue keys and the API returns location errors even with a valid key. The gate is IP-based, which is exactly why it's solvable with one clean IP.
The direct setup
- A static residential IP in a supported country (US default). Not a rotating pool and not a shared VPN — Google's risk systems score datacenter and known-VPN ranges aggressively.
- A Google account with consistent region signals — the same IP for signup, AI Studio visits and billing. Mixed origins are what kill accounts, not proxies as such.
- Optionally a gateway (One API, New API, LiteLLM): pin the proxy in the gateway config, and every OpenAI-format tool you own talks to Gemini through one endpoint.
Why the free tier changes the math
With OpenAI and Anthropic, developers in blocked regions often rationalise relays: someone else's account, tokens resold at a markup, but zero setup. Gemini removes that logic — the API key itself is free, with rate limits generous enough for real development. The only thing between you and it is the IP check. Paying a relay a monthly markup to bypass a free product is the worst deal in AI.
The relay risks are the same ones that killed AIProxy: logged prompts, missing beta features, and a balance that dies with the relay. The post-mortem covers how that ended.
Gemini access options, side by side
| Factor | Relay / reseller | Direct + static residential |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Markup on a free product | Free tier + a few $/mo for the IP |
| New models (Gemini releases) | When the relay adds them | Launch day |
| Prompt privacy | Relay logs everything | Only Google sees data |
| Account risk | Total — relay dies, access dies | Yours, on your keys |