Context ReaderSetting up your key
You need a free Gemini API key before the first lookup. It takes about a minute and asks for no card.
- Create the key
Open aistudio.google.com/apikey, sign in with a Google account, and choose Create API key. Copy it.
- Paste it into Settings
Right-click the Context Reader icon and choose Options, or open the extension and use the settings link. Paste the key and press Save.
- Wait for it to be checked
Settings asks Google whether the key works before storing it, and then says Saved and verified. If it says something else, the key was not accepted and nothing was stored.
- Pick your language, then read something
Select any word on any page and click the amber mark beside it. The key stays on that device: nothing about your account is sent anywhere.
What the bubble is telling you
Four messages can appear in place of an answer. Each one means something specific.
API key needed 🔑
No key is stored yet. Open Settings and paste one — the card links to Google AI Studio, where you make it.
Key locked 🔒
You encrypted the key with a passphrase, and this browser session has not been unlocked. Open Settings and enter the passphrase; it stays unlocked until the browser restarts.
If the passphrase is lost there is no recovery, by design. Use Revoke in Settings and paste the key again.
Rate limit ⏳
Google’s free tier allows about 20 requests a minute, and a daily cap as well. Wait a moment and try the word again.
When a model is rate-limited the extension automatically tries another free model rather than failing, and the bubble notes which one answered. It never falls back to a paid model on its own.
Gemini error ⚠️
Google returned an error. UNAVAILABLE means their service is busy and the same word usually works a minute later. Anything mentioning the key means Settings should be checked.
When the answer itself looks wrong
Your language may be one the model saw less of. English and Sinhala ship worked examples checked by a speaker, which teach the model to pick the sense a field uses. The other 108 languages work without them, so a specialist term can come back with its everyday meaning instead. The EN button in the bubble shows that same answer in English, which is often the quickest way to tell whether the model understood the sentence or the language let it down.
Try a fuller sentence. The extension sends the paragraph around the word, so a word standing alone in a heading or a table cell has less to work with than one inside prose.
A wrong answer is worth reporting. If a word in your language comes back with the wrong sense, that is exactly the case worked examples fix, and adding them is a small edit: see contributing a language.
Things worth knowing
- It is free, permanently
- There is no plan, no quota of ours and no account. The only limits are Google’s, on your own key.
- Changing language
- Settings, or the popup on the toolbar. The bubble’s EN button is a one-off and does not change what you chose.
- Removing your key
- Revoke in Settings deletes it. Uninstalling the extension deletes everything it stored.
- Some pages resist selection
- A few sites block text selection or run inside their own frame. Selecting a word inside a PDF viewer or a subtitle track may not offer the mark.
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean
- Those three fetch one font file when a bubble first opens; every other language uses typefaces bundled in the extension. On sites with a strict content policy that font request is refused and the bubble falls back to a system face — the answer is unaffected.
Reporting a problem
Bugs and wrong answers are useful. Please say which word, the sentence it was in, and the language you had chosen. Screenshots help.
Questions about how Google handles the lookups themselves go to Google: the project never receives them, and there is no server here to receive them with.