diff --git a/src/khoj/processor/conversation/google/gemini_chat.py b/src/khoj/processor/conversation/google/gemini_chat.py
index 4dc62d6c..619ab5b6 100644
--- a/src/khoj/processor/conversation/google/gemini_chat.py
+++ b/src/khoj/processor/conversation/google/gemini_chat.py
@@ -143,7 +143,8 @@ def gemini_send_message_to_model(
     # This caused unwanted behavior and terminates response early for gemini 1.5 series. Monitor for flakiness with 2.0 series.
     if response_type == "json_object" and model in ["gemini-2.0-flash"]:
         model_kwargs["response_mime_type"] = "application/json"
-        model_kwargs["response_schema"] = response_schema
+        if response_schema:
+            model_kwargs["response_schema"] = response_schema
 
     # Get Response from Gemini
     return gemini_completion_with_backoff(
diff --git a/src/khoj/processor/conversation/google/utils.py b/src/khoj/processor/conversation/google/utils.py
index 19823d5e..b4f613d5 100644
--- a/src/khoj/processor/conversation/google/utils.py
+++ b/src/khoj/processor/conversation/google/utils.py
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ def gemini_completion_with_backoff(
 
     # format model response schema
     response_schema = None
-    if model_kwargs and "response_schema" in model_kwargs:
+    if model_kwargs and not is_none_or_empty(model_kwargs.get("response_schema")):
         response_schema = clean_response_schema(model_kwargs["response_schema"])
 
     seed = int(os.getenv("KHOJ_LLM_SEED")) if os.getenv("KHOJ_LLM_SEED") else None