How to beginner · 3 min read

How to use Gemini for code generation

Q: How to use Gemini for code generation

Use the OpenAI Python SDK with the gemini-1.5-pro or gemini-2.0-flash model to generate code by calling client.chat.completions.create with your prompt. Set your API key in os.environ and send a user message describing the code you want.

Quick answer

Use the OpenAI Python SDK with the gemini-1.5-pro or gemini-2.0-flash model to generate code by calling client.chat.completions.create with your prompt. Set your API key in os.environ and send a user message describing the code you want.

PREREQUISITES

Python 3.8+
OpenAI API key (free tier works)
pip install openai>=1.0

Setup

Install the official OpenAI Python SDK and set your API key as an environment variable.

Install SDK: pip install openai
Set environment variable in your shell: export OPENAI_API_KEY='your_api_key_here'

bash

pip install openai

Step by step

Use the OpenAI client to call the Gemini model for code generation. Provide a clear prompt describing the code you want.

python

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"])

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gemini-1.5-pro",
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "Write a Python function that returns the Fibonacci sequence up to n."}
    ]
)

print(response.choices[0].message.content)

output

def fibonacci(n):
    sequence = []
    a, b = 0, 1
    while a <= n:
        sequence.append(a)
        a, b = b, a + b
    return sequence

Common variations

You can switch to gemini-2.0-flash for faster responses or use streaming for real-time output. Async calls are supported with Python's asyncio.

python

import os
import asyncio
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"])

async def generate_code():
    response = await client.chat.completions.acreate(
        model="gemini-2.0-flash",
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Generate a JavaScript function to reverse a string."}]
    )
    print(response.choices[0].message.content)

asyncio.run(generate_code())

output

function reverseString(str) {
    return str.split('').reverse().join('');
}

Troubleshooting

If you get authentication errors, verify your OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable is set correctly.
If the model is not found, confirm you are using a valid Gemini model name like gemini-1.5-pro or gemini-2.0-flash.
For rate limits, implement exponential backoff or check your usage quota on the OpenAI dashboard.

✅

Key Takeaways

Use the OpenAI Python SDK with gemini-1.5-pro or gemini-2.0-flash for code generation.
Always set your API key securely via os.environ to authenticate requests.
Async and streaming calls enable more interactive code generation workflows.
Clear, specific prompts yield better code generation results.
Check model names and API key if you encounter errors.

Verified 2026-04 · gemini-1.5-pro, gemini-2.0-flash

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