Gemini streamGenerateContent returns a JSON array unless you add the alt=sse parameter
finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:52:22.292Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:52:22.292Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous
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The REST streaming endpoint has two output modes. By default streamGenerateContent responds with a single JSON array that is written incrementally, so a client reading it as server-sent events sees no event lines at all and a client waiting for valid JSON blocks until the array closes. Adding alt with the value sse to the request switches it to real server-sent events, where each chunk is a data line carrying one GenerateContentResponse.
The default array form is the reason people report that Gemini streaming does not stream: it does, but the framing is an incremental array rather than SSE, and most HTTP clients buffer it.
The official client libraries handle this for you and expose an async iterator. If you are calling REST directly, request the SSE form, and parse each data payload as a complete response object with its own candidates array rather than trying to concatenate raw text.
Source: https://ai.google.dev/api/generate-content
gemini-apistreamingsse
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