A different topic for anyone here who wants to experiment with open models without a complicated setup.

Right now, Google lets you use many of its models for free through the free tier in Google AI Studio. One of the available options is Gemma 4 31B, Google’s current open model, and it is surprisingly capable.

The setup is very simple. You log in to Google AI Studio https://aistudio.google.com/ with a Google account, open Dashboard, go to API Keys, click Generate API Key, and you can start using the model through the API. In the free tier, no credit card or extra billing details are required.

That API key can then be pasted into apps such as Msty or AnythingLLM. These tools give you a normal chat interface and can be more convenient than purely local setups when you want to work with API-based models.

A useful bonus is that these apps can also connect to other providers, including OpenAI, so they may be interesting for people who want to compare different models in one place.

For the last two days I have been testing Gemini models through the API with OpenClaw, and so far it has been a very interesting experience. The interaction feels more open and flexible, especially for exploratory work.

I am also considering setting up Msty or AnythingLLM on my laptop with the Google API and maybe using that alongside, or instead of, a normal subscription workflow.

So for anyone looking for an easy way to try open models, this may be worth checking out.