Gemini search

OpenClaw supports Gemini models with built-in Google Search grounding, which returns AI-synthesized answers backed by live Google Search results with citations.

Get an API key

Create a key
Go to Google AI Studio and create an API key.
Store the key
Set GEMINI_API_KEY in the Gateway environment, reuse models.providers.google.apiKey, or configure a dedicated web-search key via:
```
openclaw configure --section web
```

Config

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      google: {
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: "AIza...", // optional if GEMINI_API_KEY or models.providers.google.apiKey is set
            baseUrl: "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta", // optional; falls back to models.providers.google.baseUrl
            model: "gemini-2.5-flash", // default
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "gemini",
      },
    },
  },
}

Credential precedence: Gemini web search uses plugins.entries.google.config.webSearch.apiKey first, then GEMINI_API_KEY, then models.providers.google.apiKey. For base URLs, the dedicated plugins.entries.google.config.webSearch.baseUrl wins before models.providers.google.baseUrl.

For a gateway install, put env keys in ~/.openclaw/.env.

How it works

Unlike traditional search providers that return a list of links and snippets, Gemini uses Google Search grounding to produce AI-synthesized answers with inline citations. The results include both the synthesized answer and the source URLs.

Citation URLs from Gemini grounding are automatically resolved from Google redirect URLs to direct URLs.
Redirect resolution uses the SSRF guard path (HEAD + redirect checks + http/https validation) before returning the final citation URL.
Redirect resolution uses strict SSRF defaults, so redirects to private/internal targets are blocked.

Supported parameters

Gemini search supports query, freshness, date_after, and date_before.

count is accepted for shared web_search compatibility, but Gemini grounding still returns one synthesized answer with citations rather than an N-result list.

freshness accepts day, week, month, year, and the shared shortcuts pd, pw, pm, and py. OpenClaw converts these values, or an explicit date_after/date_before range, into Gemini Google Search grounding's timeRangeFilter. country, language, and domain_filter are not supported.

Model selection

The default model is gemini-2.5-flash (fast and cost-effective). Any Gemini model that supports grounding can be used via plugins.entries.google.config.webSearch.model.

Base URL overrides

Set plugins.entries.google.config.webSearch.baseUrl when Gemini web search must route through an operator proxy or custom Gemini-compatible endpoint. If that is unset, Gemini web search reuses models.providers.google.baseUrl. A plain https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com value is normalized to https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta; custom proxy paths are kept as provided after trimming trailing slashes.

Web Search overview -- all providers and auto-detection
Brave Search -- structured results with snippets
Perplexity Search -- structured results + content extraction