You Can Run AI Inside PHR Without Spending a Cent
PHR has had an Ask AI button on every Question screen for a while. What's new: Google's free tier on its Gemini API is a great fit for personal use — sign in to AI Studio with any Google account, grab an API key, and you're answering questions in minutes.
Three steps to set it up
- Head to aistudio.google.com and sign in with any Google account.
- Follow the prompts to generate an API key.
- In PHR, open Settings → Owner → AI Service Setup, paste the key into the Google (API) section, and tap Save Key.
That's it. Pick Google (API) in the Service menu (you'll see a small gift icon next to it), and Ask AI now goes straight to Gemini and saves the answer back into the question.
What "free" actually means
Google's free tier covers every Gemini Flash model — fast, capable, and plenty for personal health questions. There's a daily limit, but it's generous; you'd have to be asking dozens of questions a day to bump into it.
When the active service and model are eligible, a blue "Free up to limits" pill shows next to the Service menu and on the AI Service Setup screen. Answered questions show "Free" in the Cost column on the Questions list instead of a dollar amount. If you ever hit the daily cap, Ask AI politely tells you to try again later.
When you might outgrow the free tier
For most users, free Gemini is the right answer indefinitely. But if you want:
- The strongest models (Claude Opus, GPT-4-class, Gemini Pro) for nuanced questions, or
- Healthcare Mode with PubMed citations (Claude only), or
- Higher throughput than Google's daily cap allows,
…paste a key from Anthropic, OpenAI, or xAI in the same setup screen. Those bill per token, but the cost per question is usually pennies.
For now though — sign in, paste a key, ask a question.