diff --git a/examples/providers/gemini_ex.py b/examples/providers/gemini_ex.py
index fdd13871c..0e962921a 100644
--- a/examples/providers/gemini_ex.py
+++ b/examples/providers/gemini_ex.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 ell.init(verbose=True)
 
 # custom client
-client = genai.Client()
 
 from PIL import Image, ImageDraw
 
@@ -25,7 +24,7 @@
               fill='red')
 
 
-@ell.simple(model='gemini-2.0-flash', client=client, max_tokens=10000)
+@ell.simple(model='gemini-2.0-flash', max_tokens=10000)
 def chat(prompt: str):
     return [ell.user([prompt + " what is in this image", img])]
 
diff --git a/src/ell/models/google.py b/src/ell/models/google.py
index 0aac84d2d..a2a5b5e2d 100644
--- a/src/ell/models/google.py
+++ b/src/ell/models/google.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 """
 
 import os
+from typing import Optional
 from ell.configurator import config
 import openai
 
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
-def register(client: openai.Client):
+def register(client: Optional[openai.Client] = None):
     """
     Register OpenAI models with the provided client.
 
@@ -46,7 +47,8 @@ def register(client: openai.Client):
         configuration with the registered models.
     """
     standard_models = [
-    'gemini-2.0-flash-exp'
+    'gemini-2.0-flash-exp',
+    'gemini-2.0-flash',
     'gemini-1.5-flash',
     'gemini-1.5-flash-8b',
     'gemini-1.5-pro',
@@ -58,10 +60,16 @@ def register(client: openai.Client):
 
 default_client = None
 try:
-    gemini_api_key = os.environ.get("GEMINI_API_KEY")
+    gemini_api_key = os.environ.get("GEMINI_API_KEY") or os.environ.get("GOOGLE_API_KEY")
     if not gemini_api_key:
-        raise openai.OpenAIError("GEMINI_API_KEY not found in environment variables")
-    default_client = openai.Client(base_url="https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/", api_key=gemini_api_key)
+        raise openai.OpenAIError("Neither GEMINI_API_KEY nor GOOGLE_API_KEY found in environment variables")
+    try:
+        from google import genai
+        default_client = genai.Client()
+    except ImportError:
+        logger.debug(f"{colorama.Fore.YELLOW}google.genai not found - using openai proxy for google models {colorama.Style.RESET_ALL}")
+        default_client = openai.Client(base_url="https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai/", api_key=gemini_api_key)
+
 except openai.OpenAIError as e:
     pass
 
diff --git a/src/ell/util/_warnings.py b/src/ell/util/_warnings.py
index bd933a146..16db92cbf 100644
--- a/src/ell/util/_warnings.py
+++ b/src/ell/util/_warnings.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ def {fn.__name__}(...):
 ell.simple(model, client=my_client)(...)
 ```
 {Style.RESET_ALL}""")
-            elif (client_to_use := config.registry[model].default_client) is None or not client_to_use.api_key:
+            elif (client_to_use := config.registry[model].default_client) is None or (hasattr(client_to_use, "api_key") and not client_to_use.api_key):
                 logger.warning(_no_api_key_warning(model, fn.__name__, client_to_use, long=False))