Google's $300 trial credit fails in all ComfyUI Gemini nodes, so he built one that works
Cute-Appointment6874 · reddit · 2026-09-02
The author tried to use his $300 Google Cloud trial credit to run Nano Banana in ComfyUI, but every Gemini custom node failed with 429 prepayment credits depleted.
Cause: Google changed the terms in March — the credit no longer pays for the Gemini API in AI Studio (per Google's own docs), and community nodes all use AI Studio.
Fix: Vertex AI — same models, different endpoint where the credit works, but requiring gcloud login instead of a pasted key. He built an open-source node (comfyui-gemini-ownkey) with:
- Nano Banana Pro and 2.5 Flash Image support
- Text-to-image, up to 14 reference images, 1K/2K/4K, aspect ratio controls
- Three reference modes — by default Gemini copies the face from reference photos even when your prompt describes someone else; you can force it off or in-between
- AI Studio/Vertex switch inside the node
- Keys in a config file so they don't leak into shared workflows
- Two diagnostic scripts distinguishing login vs billing vs Google outage
Tested on Windows portable with ComfyUI 0.34.2; 2K output is clean. Available in ComfyUI Manager (search "gemini own key"). Author notes it's vibe coded — review before use.
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