Video understanding

You can add videos to Gemini requests to perform tasks that involve understanding the contents of the included videos. This page shows you how to add videos to your requests to Gemini in Vertex AI by using the Google Cloud console and the Vertex AI API.

Supported models

The following table lists the models that support video understanding:

Model Video modality details

Gemini 1.5 Flash

Go to the Gemini 1.5 Flash model card

Maximum video length:

  • With audio: ~50 minutes
  • Without audio: 60 minutes

Maximum videos per prompt: 10

Gemini 1.5 Pro

Go to the Gemini 1.5 Pro model card

Maximum video length:

  • With audio: ~50 minutes
  • Without audio: 60 minutes

Maximum videos per prompt: 10

Gemini 1.0 Pro Vision

Go to the Gemini 1.0 Pro Vision model card

Maximum video length: 2 minutes

The maximum videos per prompt: 1

Audio in the video is ignored.

For a list of languages supported by Gemini models, see model information Google models. To learn more about how to design multimodal prompts, see Design multimodal prompts. If you're looking for a way to use Gemini directly from your mobile and web apps, see the Google AI SDKs for Android, Swift, and web.

Add videos to a request

You can add a single video or multiple videos in your request to Gemini and the video can include audio.

Single video

The sample code in each of the following tabs shows a different way to identify what's in a video. This sample works with all Gemini multimodal models.

Python

To learn how to install or update the Vertex AI SDK for Python, see Install the Vertex AI SDK for Python. For more information, see the Vertex AI SDK for Python API reference documentation.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the stream parameter in generate_content.

  response = model.generate_content(contents=[...], stream = True)

For a non-streaming response, remove the parameter, or set the parameter to False.

Sample code

import vertexai

from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel, Part

# TODO(developer): Update and un-comment below line
# project_id = "PROJECT_ID"

vertexai.init(project=project_id, location="us-central1")

vision_model = GenerativeModel(model_name="gemini-1.5-flash-001")

# Generate text
response = vision_model.generate_content(
    [
        Part.from_uri(
            "gs://cloud-samples-data/video/animals.mp4", mime_type="video/mp4"
        ),
        "What is in the video?",
    ]
)
print(response.text)

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart. For more information, see the Vertex AI Java SDK for Gemini reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the generateContentStream method.

  public ResponseStream generateContentStream(Content content)

For a non-streaming response, use the generateContent method.

  public GenerateContentResponse generateContent(Content content)

Sample code

import com.google.cloud.vertexai.VertexAI;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.api.GenerateContentResponse;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.generativeai.ContentMaker;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.generativeai.GenerativeModel;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.generativeai.PartMaker;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.generativeai.ResponseHandler;
import java.io.IOException;

public class MultimodalVideoInput {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "your-google-cloud-project-id";
    String location = "us-central1";
    String modelName = "gemini-1.5-flash-001";

    multimodalVideoInput(projectId, location, modelName);
  }

  // Analyzes the given video input.
  public static void multimodalVideoInput(String projectId, String location, String modelName)
      throws IOException {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests.
    // This client only needs to be created once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
    try (VertexAI vertexAI = new VertexAI(projectId, location)) {
      String videoUri = "gs://cloud-samples-data/video/animals.mp4";

      GenerativeModel model = new GenerativeModel(modelName, vertexAI);
      GenerateContentResponse response = model.generateContent(
          ContentMaker.fromMultiModalData(
              "What is in the video?",
              PartMaker.fromMimeTypeAndData("video/mp4", videoUri)
          ));

      String output = ResponseHandler.getText(response);
      System.out.println(output);
    }
  }
}

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Generative AI quickstart using the Node.js SDK. For more information, see the Node.js SDK for Gemini reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the generateContentStream method.

  const streamingResp = await generativeModel.generateContentStream(request);

For a non-streaming response, use the generateContent method.

  const streamingResp = await generativeModel.generateContent(request);

Sample code

const {VertexAI} = require('@google-cloud/vertexai');

/**
 * TODO(developer): Update these variables before running the sample.
 */
async function sendMultiModalPromptWithVideo(
  projectId = 'PROJECT_ID',
  location = 'us-central1',
  model = 'gemini-1.5-flash-001'
) {
  // Initialize Vertex with your Cloud project and location
  const vertexAI = new VertexAI({project: projectId, location: location});

  const generativeVisionModel = vertexAI.getGenerativeModel({
    model: model,
  });

  // Pass multimodal prompt
  const request = {
    contents: [
      {
        role: 'user',
        parts: [
          {
            fileData: {
              fileUri: 'gs://cloud-samples-data/video/animals.mp4',
              mimeType: 'video/mp4',
            },
          },
          {
            text: 'What is in the video?',
          },
        ],
      },
    ],
  };

  // Create the response
  const response = await generativeVisionModel.generateContent(request);
  // Wait for the response to complete
  const aggregatedResponse = await response.response;
  // Select the text from the response
  const fullTextResponse =
    aggregatedResponse.candidates[0].content.parts[0].text;

  console.log(fullTextResponse);
}

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart. For more information, see the Vertex AI Go SDK for Gemini reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the GenerateContentStream method.

  iter := model.GenerateContentStream(ctx, genai.Text("Tell me a story about a lumberjack and his giant ox. Keep it very short."))

For a non-streaming response, use the GenerateContent method.

  resp, err := model.GenerateContent(ctx, genai.Text("What is the average size of a swallow?"))

Sample code

import (
	"context"
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"mime"
	"path/filepath"

	"cloud.google.com/go/vertexai/genai"
)

// generateMultimodalContent generates a response into w, based upon the prompt
// and video provided.
// video is a Google Cloud Storage path starting with "gs://"
func generateMultimodalContent(w io.Writer, prompt, video, projectID, location, modelName string) error {
	// prompt := "What is in this video?"
	// video := "gs://cloud-samples-data/video/animals.mp4"
	// location := "us-central1"
	// modelName := "gemini-1.5-flash-001"
	ctx := context.Background()

	client, err := genai.NewClient(ctx, projectID, location)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to create client: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	model := client.GenerativeModel(modelName)
	model.SetTemperature(0.4)

	// Given a video file URL, prepare video file as genai.Part
	part := genai.FileData{
		MIMEType: mime.TypeByExtension(filepath.Ext(video)),
		FileURI:  video,
	}

	res, err := model.GenerateContent(ctx, part, genai.Text(prompt))
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to generate contents: %w", err)
	}

	if len(res.Candidates) == 0 ||
		len(res.Candidates[0].Content.Parts) == 0 {
		return errors.New("empty response from model")
	}

	fmt.Fprintf(w, "generated response: %s\n", res.Candidates[0].Content.Parts[0])
	return nil
}

C#

Before trying this sample, follow the C# setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart. For more information, see the Vertex AI C# reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the StreamGenerateContent method.

  public virtual PredictionServiceClient.StreamGenerateContentStream StreamGenerateContent(GenerateContentRequest request)

For a non-streaming response, use the GenerateContentAsync method.

  public virtual Task<GenerateContentResponse> GenerateContentAsync(GenerateContentRequest request)

For more information on how the server can stream responses, see Streaming RPCs.

Sample code


using Google.Api.Gax.Grpc;
using Google.Cloud.AIPlatform.V1;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public class MultimodalVideoInput
{
    public async Task<string> GenerateContent(
        string projectId = "your-project-id",
        string location = "us-central1",
        string publisher = "google",
        string model = "gemini-1.5-flash-001"
    )
    {
        var predictionServiceClient = new PredictionServiceClientBuilder
        {
            Endpoint = $"{location}-aiplatform.googleapis.com"
        }.Build();

        var generateContentRequest = new GenerateContentRequest
        {
            Model = $"projects/{projectId}/locations/{location}/publishers/{publisher}/models/{model}",
            Contents =
            {
                new Content
                {
                    Role = "USER",
                    Parts =
                    {
                        new Part { Text = "What's in the video?" },
                        new Part { FileData = new() { MimeType = "video/mp4", FileUri = "gs://cloud-samples-data/video/animals.mp4" }}
                    }
                }
            }
        };

        using PredictionServiceClient.StreamGenerateContentStream response = predictionServiceClient.StreamGenerateContent(generateContentRequest);

        StringBuilder fullText = new();

        AsyncResponseStream<GenerateContentResponse> responseStream = response.GetResponseStream();
        await foreach (GenerateContentResponse responseItem in responseStream)
        {
            fullText.Append(responseItem.Candidates[0].Content.Parts[0].Text);
        }
        return fullText.ToString();
    }
}

REST

After you set up your environment, you can use REST to test a text prompt. The following sample sends a request to the publisher model endpoint.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • LOCATION: The region to process the request. Enter a supported region. For the full list of supported regions, see Available locations.

    Click to expand a partial list of available regions

    • us-central1
    • us-west4
    • northamerica-northeast1
    • us-east4
    • us-west1
    • asia-northeast3
    • asia-southeast1
    • asia-northeast1
  • PROJECT_ID: Your project ID.
  • FILE_URI: The Cloud Storage URI of the file to include in the prompt. The bucket object must either be publicly readable or reside in the same Google Cloud project that's sending the request. You must also specify the media type (mimeType) of the file.

    If you don't have a video file in Cloud Storage, then you can use the following publicly available file: gs://cloud-samples-data/video/animals.mp4 with a mime type of video/mp4. To view this video, open the sample MP4 file.

  • MIME_TYPE: The media type of the file specified in the data or fileUri fields. Acceptable values include the following:

    Click to expand MIME types

    • application/pdf
    • audio/mpeg
    • audio/mp3
    • audio/wav
    • image/png
    • image/jpeg
    • text/plain
    • video/mov
    • video/mpeg
    • video/mp4
    • video/mpg
    • video/avi
    • video/wmv
    • video/mpegps
    • video/flv
  • TEXT: The text instructions to include in the prompt. For example, What is in the video?

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Save the request body in a file named request.json. Run the following command in the terminal to create or overwrite this file in the current directory: 

cat > request.json << 'EOF'
{
  "contents": {
    "role": "USER",
    "parts": [
      {
        "fileData": {
          "fileUri": "FILE_URI",
          "mimeType": "MIME_TYPE"
        }
      },
      {
        "text": "TEXT"
      }
    ]
  }
}
EOF

Then execute the following command to send your REST request: 

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://LOCATION-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/publishers/google/models/gemini-1.5-flash:generateContent"

PowerShell

Save the request body in a file named request.json. Run the following command in the terminal to create or overwrite this file in the current directory: 

@'
{
  "contents": {
    "role": "USER",
    "parts": [
      {
        "fileData": {
          "fileUri": "FILE_URI",
          "mimeType": "MIME_TYPE"
        }
      },
      {
        "text": "TEXT"
      }
    ]
  }
}
'@  | Out-File -FilePath request.json -Encoding utf8

Then execute the following command to send your REST request: 

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://LOCATION-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/publishers/google/models/gemini-1.5-flash:generateContent" | Select-Object -Expand Content

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following.

Note the following in the URL for this sample:
  • Use the generateContent method to request that the response is returned after it's fully generated. To reduce the perception of latency to a human audience, stream the response as it's being generated by using the streamGenerateContent method.
  • The multimodal model ID is located at the end of the URL before the method (for example, gemini-1.5-flash or gemini-1.0-pro-vision). This sample may support other models as well.

Console

To send a multimodal prompt by using the Google Cloud console, do the following:

  1. In the Vertex AI section of the Google Cloud console, go to the Vertex AI Studio page.

    Go to Vertex AI Studio

  2. Under Prompt design (single turn), click Open.

  3. Configure the model and parameters:

    • Model: Select a model.
    • Region: Select the region that you want to use.

    • Temperature: Use the slider or textbox to enter a value for temperature.

      The temperature is used for sampling during response generation, which occurs when topP and topK are applied. Temperature controls the degree of randomness in token selection. Lower temperatures are good for prompts that require a less open-ended or creative response, while higher temperatures can lead to more diverse or creative results. A temperature of 0 means that the highest probability tokens are always selected. In this case, responses for a given prompt are mostly deterministic, but a small amount of variation is still possible.

      If the model returns a response that's too generic, too short, or the model gives a fallback response, try increasing the temperature.

    • Token limit: Use the slider or textbox to enter a value for the max output limit.

      Maximum number of tokens that can be generated in the response. A token is approximately four characters. 100 tokens correspond to roughly 60-80 words.

      Specify a lower value for shorter responses and a higher value for potentially longer responses.

    • Add stop sequence (optional): Enter a stop sequence, which is a series of characters (including spaces) that stops response generation if the model encounters it. The sequence is not included as part of the response. You can add up to five stop sequences.
  4. Optional: To configure advanced parameters, click Advanced and configure as follows:

    5. Click to expand advanced configurations

    • Top-K: Use the slider or textbox to enter a value for top-K. (not supported for Gemini 1.5).

      Top-K changes how the model selects tokens for output. A top-K of 1 means the next selected token is the most probable among all tokens in the model's vocabulary (also called greedy decoding), while a top-K of 3 means that the next token is selected from among the three most probable tokens by using temperature.

      For each token selection step, the top-K tokens with the highest probabilities are sampled. Then tokens are further filtered based on top-P with the final token selected using temperature sampling.

      Specify a lower value for less random responses and a higher value for more random responses.

    • Top-P: Use the slider or textbox to enter a value for top-P. Tokens are selected from most probable to the least until the sum of their probabilities equals the value of top-P. For the least variable results, set top-P to 0.
    • Enable Grounding: Grounding isn't supported for multimodal prompts.
  5. To upload media, such as MP4 and WAV files, do the following:
    1. Click Insert Media, and select a source. If you choose Google Drive as your source, you must choose an account and give consent to Vertex AI Studio to access your account the first time you select this option. You can upload multiple images that have a total size of up to 10 MB. A single file can't exceed 7 MB.
    2. Click the file that you want to add.
    3. Click Select. The file thumbnail displays in the Prompt pane.
  6. Enter your text prompt in the Prompt pane. The model uses previous messages as context for new responses.
  7. Click Submit, and the response is generated.
  8. Optional: To save your prompt to My prompts, click Save.
  9. Optional: To get the Python code or a curl command for your prompt, click Get code.
  10. Optional: To clear all previous messages, click Clear conversation.

Video with audio

The following shows you how to summarize a video file with audio and return chapters with timestamps. This sample works with Gemini 1.5 Pro only.

Python

To learn how to install or update the Vertex AI SDK for Python, see Install the Vertex AI SDK for Python. For more information, see the Vertex AI SDK for Python API reference documentation.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the stream parameter in generate_content.

  response = model.generate_content(contents=[...], stream = True)

For a non-streaming response, remove the parameter, or set the parameter to False.

Sample code


import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel, Part

# TODO(developer): Update and un-comment below lines
# project_id = "PROJECT_ID"

vertexai.init(project=project_id, location="us-central1")

model = GenerativeModel(model_name="gemini-1.5-flash-001")

prompt = """
Provide a description of the video.
The description should also contain anything important which people say in the video.
"""

video_file_uri = "gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/video/pixel8.mp4"
video_file = Part.from_uri(video_file_uri, mime_type="video/mp4")

contents = [video_file, prompt]

response = model.generate_content(contents)
print(response.text)

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart. For more information, see the Vertex AI Java SDK for Gemini reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the generateContentStream method.

  public ResponseStream generateContentStream(Content content)

For a non-streaming response, use the generateContent method.

  public GenerateContentResponse generateContent(Content content)

Sample code


import com.google.cloud.vertexai.VertexAI;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.api.GenerateContentResponse;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.generativeai.ContentMaker;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.generativeai.GenerativeModel;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.generativeai.PartMaker;
import com.google.cloud.vertexai.generativeai.ResponseHandler;
import java.io.IOException;

public class VideoInputWithAudio {

  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    String projectId = "your-google-cloud-project-id";
    String location = "us-central1";
    String modelName = "gemini-1.5-flash-001";

    videoAudioInput(projectId, location, modelName);
  }

  // Analyzes the given video input, including its audio track.
  public static String videoAudioInput(String projectId, String location, String modelName)
      throws IOException {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs
    // to be created once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
    try (VertexAI vertexAI = new VertexAI(projectId, location)) {
      String videoUri = "gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/video/pixel8.mp4";

      GenerativeModel model = new GenerativeModel(modelName, vertexAI);
      GenerateContentResponse response = model.generateContent(
          ContentMaker.fromMultiModalData(
              "Provide a description of the video.\n The description should also "
                  + "contain anything important which people say in the video.",
              PartMaker.fromMimeTypeAndData("video/mp4", videoUri)
          ));

      String output = ResponseHandler.getText(response);
      System.out.println(output);

      return output;
    }
  }
}

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Generative AI quickstart using the Node.js SDK. For more information, see the Node.js SDK for Gemini reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the generateContentStream method.

  const streamingResp = await generativeModel.generateContentStream(request);

For a non-streaming response, use the generateContent method.

  const streamingResp = await generativeModel.generateContent(request);

Sample code

const {VertexAI} = require('@google-cloud/vertexai');

/**
 * TODO(developer): Update these variables before running the sample.
 */
async function analyze_video_with_audio(projectId = 'PROJECT_ID') {
  const vertexAI = new VertexAI({project: projectId, location: 'us-central1'});

  const generativeModel = vertexAI.getGenerativeModel({
    model: 'gemini-1.5-flash-001',
  });

  const filePart = {
    file_data: {
      file_uri: 'gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/video/pixel8.mp4',
      mime_type: 'video/mp4',
    },
  };
  const textPart = {
    text: `
    Provide a description of the video.
    The description should also contain anything important which people say in the video.`,
  };

  const request = {
    contents: [{role: 'user', parts: [filePart, textPart]}],
  };

  const resp = await generativeModel.generateContent(request);
  const contentResponse = await resp.response;
  console.log(JSON.stringify(contentResponse));
}

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart. For more information, see the Vertex AI Go SDK for Gemini reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the GenerateContentStream method.

  iter := model.GenerateContentStream(ctx, genai.Text("Tell me a story about a lumberjack and his giant ox. Keep it very short."))

For a non-streaming response, use the GenerateContent method.

  resp, err := model.GenerateContent(ctx, genai.Text("What is the average size of a swallow?"))

Sample code

import (
	"context"
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"mime"
	"path/filepath"

	"cloud.google.com/go/vertexai/genai"
)

// generateMultimodalContent shows how to send video and text prompts to a model, writing the response to
// the provided io.Writer.
// video is a Google Cloud Storage path starting with "gs://"
func generateMultimodalContent(w io.Writer, prompt, video, projectID, location, modelName string) error {
	// prompt := `
	// 		Provide a description of the video.
	// 		The description should also contain anything important which people say in the video.
	// `
	// video := "gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/video/pixel8.mp4"
	// location := "us-central1"
	// modelName := "gemini-1.5-flash-001"
	ctx := context.Background()

	client, err := genai.NewClient(ctx, projectID, location)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to create client: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	model := client.GenerativeModel(modelName)

	// Given a video file URL, prepare video file as genai.Part
	part := genai.FileData{
		MIMEType: mime.TypeByExtension(filepath.Ext(video)),
		FileURI:  video,
	}

	res, err := model.GenerateContent(ctx, part, genai.Text(prompt))
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to generate contents: %w", err)
	}

	if len(res.Candidates) == 0 ||
		len(res.Candidates[0].Content.Parts) == 0 {
		return errors.New("empty response from model")
	}

	fmt.Fprintf(w, "generated response: %s\n", res.Candidates[0].Content.Parts[0])
	return nil
}

C#

Before trying this sample, follow the C# setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart. For more information, see the Vertex AI C# reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

Streaming and non-streaming responses

You can choose whether the model generates streaming responses or non-streaming responses. For streaming responses, you receive each response as soon as its output token is generated. For non-streaming responses, you receive all responses after all of the output tokens are generated.

For a streaming response, use the StreamGenerateContent method.

  public virtual PredictionServiceClient.StreamGenerateContentStream StreamGenerateContent(GenerateContentRequest request)

For a non-streaming response, use the GenerateContentAsync method.

  public virtual Task<GenerateContentResponse> GenerateContentAsync(GenerateContentRequest request)

For more information on how the server can stream responses, see Streaming RPCs.

Sample code


using Google.Cloud.AIPlatform.V1;
using System;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public class VideoInputWithAudio
{
    public async Task<string> DescribeVideo(
        string projectId = "your-project-id",
        string location = "us-central1",
        string publisher = "google",
        string model = "gemini-1.5-flash-001")
    {

        var predictionServiceClient = new PredictionServiceClientBuilder
        {
            Endpoint = $"{location}-aiplatform.googleapis.com"
        }.Build();

        string prompt = @"Provide a description of the video.
The description should also contain anything important which people say in the video.";

        var generateContentRequest = new GenerateContentRequest
        {
            Model = $"projects/{projectId}/locations/{location}/publishers/{publisher}/models/{model}",
            Contents =
            {
                new Content
                {
                    Role = "USER",
                    Parts =
                    {
                        new Part { Text = prompt },
                        new Part { FileData = new() { MimeType = "video/mp4", FileUri = "gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/video/pixel8.mp4" }}
                    }
                }
            }
        };

        GenerateContentResponse response = await predictionServiceClient.GenerateContentAsync(generateContentRequest);

        string responseText = response.Candidates[0].Content.Parts[0].Text;
        Console.WriteLine(responseText);

        return responseText;
    }
}

REST

After you set up your environment, you can use REST to test a text prompt. The following sample sends a request to the publisher model endpoint.

Before using any of the request data, make the following replacements:

  • LOCATION: The region to process the request. Enter a supported region. For the full list of supported regions, see Available locations.

    Click to expand a partial list of available regions

    • us-central1
    • us-west4
    • northamerica-northeast1
    • us-east4
    • us-west1
    • asia-northeast3
    • asia-southeast1
    • asia-northeast1
  • PROJECT_ID: Your project ID.
  • FILE_URI: The Cloud Storage URI of the file to include in the prompt. The bucket object must either be publicly readable or reside in the same Google Cloud project that's sending the request. You must also specify the media type (mimeType) of the file.

    If you don't have a video file in Cloud Storage, then you can use the following publicly available file: gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/video/pixel8.mp4 with a mime type of video/mp4. To view this video, open the sample MP4 file.

  • MIME_TYPE: The media type of the file specified in the data or fileUri fields. Acceptable values include the following:

    Click to expand MIME types

    • application/pdf
    • audio/mpeg
    • audio/mp3
    • audio/wav
    • image/png
    • image/jpeg
    • text/plain
    • video/mov
    • video/mpeg
    • video/mp4
    • video/mpg
    • video/avi
    • video/wmv
    • video/mpegps
    • video/flv
     
  • TEXT
    The text instructions to include in the prompt. For example, Provide a description of the video. The description should also contain anything important which people say in the video.

To send your request, choose one of these options:

curl

Save the request body in a file named request.json. Run the following command in the terminal to create or overwrite this file in the current directory: 

cat > request.json << 'EOF'
{
  "contents": {
    "role": "USER",
    "parts": [
      {
        "fileData": {
          "fileUri": "FILE_URI",
          "mimeType": "MIME_TYPE"
        }
      },
      {
        "text": "TEXT"
      }
    ]
  }
}
EOF

Then execute the following command to send your REST request: 

curl -X POST \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8" \
     -d @request.json \
     "https://LOCATION-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/publishers/google/models/gemini-1.5-flash:generateContent"

PowerShell

Save the request body in a file named request.json. Run the following command in the terminal to create or overwrite this file in the current directory: 

@'
{
  "contents": {
    "role": "USER",
    "parts": [
      {
        "fileData": {
          "fileUri": "FILE_URI",
          "mimeType": "MIME_TYPE"
        }
      },
      {
        "text": "TEXT"
      }
    ]
  }
}
'@  | Out-File -FilePath request.json -Encoding utf8

Then execute the following command to send your REST request: 

$cred = gcloud auth print-access-token
$headers = @{ "Authorization" = "Bearer $cred" }

Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Method POST `
    -Headers $headers `
    -ContentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8" `
    -InFile request.json `
    -Uri "https://LOCATION-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/publishers/google/models/gemini-1.5-flash:generateContent" | Select-Object -Expand Content

You should receive a JSON response similar to the following.

Note the following in the URL for this sample:
  • Use the generateContent method to request that the response is returned after it's fully generated. To reduce the perception of latency to a human audience, stream the response as it's being generated by using the streamGenerateContent method.
  • The multimodal model ID is located at the end of the URL before the method (for example, gemini-1.5-flash or gemini-1.0-pro-vision). This sample may support other models as well.

Console

To send a multimodal prompt by using the Google Cloud console, do the following:

  1. In the Vertex AI section of the Google Cloud console, go to the Vertex AI Studio page.

    Go to Vertex AI Studio

  2. Under Prompt design (single turn), click Open.

  3. Configure the model and parameters:

    • Model: Select a model.
    • Region: Select the region that you want to use.

    • Temperature: Use the slider or textbox to enter a value for temperature.

      The temperature is used for sampling during response generation, which occurs when topP and topK are applied. Temperature controls the degree of randomness in token selection. Lower temperatures are good for prompts that require a less open-ended or creative response, while higher temperatures can lead to more diverse or creative results. A temperature of 0 means that the highest probability tokens are always selected. In this case, responses for a given prompt are mostly deterministic, but a small amount of variation is still possible.

      If the model returns a response that's too generic, too short, or the model gives a fallback response, try increasing the temperature.

    • Token limit: Use the slider or textbox to enter a value for the max output limit.

      Maximum number of tokens that can be generated in the response. A token is approximately four characters. 100 tokens correspond to roughly 60-80 words.

      Specify a lower value for shorter responses and a higher value for potentially longer responses.

    • Add stop sequence (optional): Enter a stop sequence, which is a series of characters (including spaces) that stops response generation if the model encounters it. The sequence is not included as part of the response. You can add up to five stop sequences.
  4. Optional: To configure advanced parameters, click Advanced and configure as follows:

    5. Click to expand advanced configurations

    • Top-K: Use the slider or textbox to enter a value for top-K. (not supported for Gemini 1.5).

      Top-K changes how the model selects tokens for output. A top-K of 1 means the next selected token is the most probable among all tokens in the model's vocabulary (also called greedy decoding), while a top-K of 3 means that the next token is selected from among the three most probable tokens by using temperature.

      For each token selection step, the top-K tokens with the highest probabilities are sampled. Then tokens are further filtered based on top-P with the final token selected using temperature sampling.

      Specify a lower value for less random responses and a higher value for more random responses.

    • Top-P: Use the slider or textbox to enter a value for top-P. Tokens are selected from most probable to the least until the sum of their probabilities equals the value of top-P. For the least variable results, set top-P to 0.
    • Enable Grounding: Grounding isn't supported for multimodal prompts.
  5. To upload media, such as MP4 and WAV files, do the following:
    1. Click Insert Media, and select a source. If you choose Google Drive as your source, you must choose an account and give consent to Vertex AI Studio to access your account the first time you select this option. You can upload multiple images that have a total size of up to 10 MB. A single file can't exceed 7 MB.
    2. Click the file that you want to add.
    3. Click Select. The file thumbnail displays in the Prompt pane.
  6. Enter your text prompt in the Prompt pane. The model uses previous messages as context for new responses.
  7. Click Submit, and the response is generated.
  8. Optional: To save your prompt to My prompts, click Save.
  9. Optional: To get the Python code or a curl command for your prompt, click Get code.
  10. Optional: To clear all previous messages, click Clear conversation.

Set model parameters

The following model parameters can be set on multimodal models:

Top-P

Top-P changes how the model selects tokens for output. Tokens are selected from the most (see top-K) to least probable until the sum of their probabilities equals the top-P value. For example, if tokens A, B, and C have a probability of 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1 and the top-P value is 0.5, then the model will select either A or B as the next token by using temperature and excludes C as a candidate.

Specify a lower value for less random responses and a higher value for more random responses.

Top-K

Top-K changes how the model selects tokens for output. A top-K of 1 means the next selected token is the most probable among all tokens in the model's vocabulary (also called greedy decoding), while a top-K of 3 means that the next token is selected from among the three most probable tokens by using temperature.

For each token selection step, the top-K tokens with the highest probabilities are sampled. Then tokens are further filtered based on top-P with the final token selected using temperature sampling.

Specify a lower value for less random responses and a higher value for more random responses.

Temperature

The temperature is used for sampling during response generation, which occurs when topP and topK are applied. Temperature controls the degree of randomness in token selection. Lower temperatures are good for prompts that require a less open-ended or creative response, while higher temperatures can lead to more diverse or creative results. A temperature of 0 means that the highest probability tokens are always selected. In this case, responses for a given prompt are mostly deterministic, but a small amount of variation is still possible.

If the model returns a response that's too generic, too short, or the model gives a fallback response, try increasing the temperature.

Valid parameter values

Parameter Gemini 1.0 Pro Vision Gemini 1.5 Pro Gemini 1.5 Flash
Top-K 1 - 40 (default 32) Not supported Not supported
Top-P 0 - 1.0 (default 1.0) 0 - 1.0 (default 0.95) 0 - 1.0 (default 0.95)
Temperature 0 - 1.0 (default 0.4) 0 - 2.0 (default 1.0) 0 - 2.0 (default 1.0)

Video requirements

Videos are sampled at 1fps. Each video frame accounts for 258 tokens.

For Gemini 1.5 Flash and Gemini 1.5 Pro, the audio track is encoded with video frames. The audio track is also broken down into 1-second trunks that each accounts for 32 tokens. The video frame and audio tokens are interleaved together with their timestamps. The timestamps are represented as 7 tokens.

Gemini multimodal models support the following video MIME types:

Video MIME type Gemini 1.5 Flash Gemini 1.5 Pro Gemini 1.0 Pro Vision
FLV - video/x-flv
MOV - video/mov
MPEG - video/mpeg
MPEGPS - video/mpegps
MPG - video/mpg
MP4 - video/mp4
WEBM - video/webm
WMV - video/wmv
3GPP - video/3gpp

Best practices

When using video, use the following best practices and information for the best results:

  • Use no more than one video per prompt.
  • If your prompt contains a single video, place the video before the text prompt.
  • If you're using Gemini 1.0 Pro Vision, then the model processes videos as non-contiguous image frames from the video. Audio isn't included. If you notice the model missing some content from the video, try making the video shorter so that the model captures a greater portion of the video content.
  • If you're using Gemini 1.0 Pro Vision, only information in the first two minutes is processed.
  • If you're using Gemini 1.0 Pro Vision, no audio information or timestamp metadata is analyzed. Because of this, the model might not perform well in use cases that require audio input, such as captioning audio, or time-related information, such as speed or rhythm.
  • When timestamp localization in a video with audio is needed, ask the model to generate timestamps in the MM:SS format where the first two digits represent minutes and the last two digits represent seconds. Use the same format for questions that ask about a timestamp.

Limitations

While Gemini multimodal models are powerful in many multimodal user cases, it's important to understand the limitations of the models:

  • Content moderation: The models refuse to provide answers on videos that violate our safety policies.
  • Non-speech sound recognition: The models that support audio might make mistakes recognizing sound that's not speech.
  • High-speed motion: Because of the fixed 1 frame per second (fps) sampling rate, the models might make mistakes understanding high-speed motion in video.
  • Transcription punctuation: Transcriptions returned by Gemini 1.5 Flash might not include punctuation.

What's next