Picture Forge

A Gemini API key is a password-like code from Google that lets this page ask Gemini for pictures on your own account. You need one to make pictures, because Google gives no free picture credit and MigaBuilder’s shared AI makes text only. It also works if you run MigaBuilder from a downloaded copy.

1. Open aistudio.google.com/apikey and sign in with any Google account (the same one you use for Gmail or YouTube works).
2. Accept Google’s terms if it asks.
3. Press Create API key. If it asks for a project, pick the one it suggests or press Create project.
4. Press Copy next to the new key. It is a long code that usually starts with AIza.
5. Back here, choose My own Gemini key in step 4, paste the key and press Test.
6. Turn on billing for pictures. Google gives free text answers, but its picture models have no free tier through a key. In AI Studio open Usage & billing (or follow Google’s billing guide) and link a billing account to the key’s project. New Google Cloud accounts often get free trial credit.
7. Optional but smart: in Google Cloud Billing set a budget alert (for example 5 USD), so you get an email before you spend more than you planned.

Is it safe? With your own key, this page sends your description straight from your browser to Google. The key is never sent to MigaBuilder. Unless you tick Remember, it is forgotten when you close the tab. Anyone who has your key can spend on your account, so don’t share it or paste it on websites you don’t trust. If it ever leaks, delete it on the same API keys page and make a new one.

1. When the picture appears, pick a file type next to Download: PNG keeps the best quality, JPG is smaller and works everywhere, WebP is smallest and good for websites.
2. Press ⬇ Download. On a computer the file goes to your Downloads folder. On an iPhone or iPad, tap Download in the pop-up, then find it in the Files app (or long-press the picture and choose Save to Photos). On Android it goes to Downloads and shows up in your gallery.
3. 📋 Copy puts the picture on your clipboard, so you can paste it straight into a chat, email or document.
4. Earlier pictures stay under Your recent pictures in this browser; click one to see and download it again.

Google adds an invisible SynthID watermark to every AI picture so it can be recognised as AI-made. It doesn’t change how the picture looks.

MigaBuilder is open source, so you can download the whole site and open it on your own computer or host it yourself.

1. Download it: on the GitHub page press Code → Download ZIP, then unzip it.
2. Open a terminal in that folder and run python3 -m http.server 8000, then visit http://localhost:8000/picture-forge.html. (Double-clicking the file is not enough: the pages load shared files from the site root.)
3. The shared AI only answers requests from migabuilder.com, so on your copy choose My own Gemini key and paste a key from the guide above. The other AI tools have a Gemini (your own key) option too.

Want your own shared AI for your visitors, so they don’t need a key? Follow the Gemini proxy guide: it keeps your key in a free Cloudflare Worker instead of the page.

• Say who or what, where, what is happening, and the mood: “a sleepy orange cat on a windowsill in the rain, cosy, soft light”.
• Short idea? Press ✨ Improve my words and the AI writes a fuller description you can edit.
• Not quite right? Use Change this picture with one change at a time, like “make the sky pink”.
• To keep the same person, pet or product in new scenes, add a clear photo of it under Your photos.
• For words on a poster, untick No words in the picture and put the exact text in quotes: a poster that says “Bake Sale Saturday”.

Google charges your own key’s account for each picture, roughly:

Prices are per picture and can change; see Google’s price list. Only make pictures you are allowed to make: no real people without their consent, nothing illegal or hurtful. Google may refuse some requests; the page then tells you why.