Getting Started with Gemini 3: Unlocking the Cloud with the Free Trial

In the previous post, we dipped our toes into the AI waters. We grabbed a Gemini API key to build your first "Hello World" AI app and then used the magic of Vibe Coding in Google AI Studio to create and deploy a web app to Cloud Run.

But if you tried to hit that "Deploy" button in Part 2 without a Google Cloud Project set up, you might have hit a small speed bump. A Google Cloud Project unlocks the ability to host AI apps, store massive datasets, and yes, unleashes the full range of the Gemini Pro models such as Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image).

The good news? It’s free to start, and provides you a stash of credits to play with. In this post, we’ll walk through exactly how to sign up for the Google Cloud Free Trial and, more importantly, what you ...