diff --git a/daras_ai_v2/settings.py b/daras_ai_v2/settings.py
index 5e93349c2..d7408d062 100644
--- a/daras_ai_v2/settings.py
+++ b/daras_ai_v2/settings.py
@@ -240,11 +240,18 @@
 # django-storages settings for google-cloud
 from google.oauth2 import service_account
 
-GCS_CONFIG = config("GCS_CONFIG", default="")
 GCS_PRIVATE_KEY = config("GCS_PRIVATE_KEY", default="")
-GCS_CREDENTIALS = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_info(
-    info={**json.loads(GCS_CONFIG), "private_key": GCS_PRIVATE_KEY}
-)
+
+GCS_CREDENTIALS = ""
+# create credentials from env vars
+try:
+    GCS_CONFIG = config("GCS_CONFIG")
+except UndefinedValueError:
+    pass
+else:
+    GCS_CREDENTIALS = service_account.Credentials.from_service_account_info(
+        info={**json.loads(GCS_CONFIG), "private_key": GCS_PRIVATE_KEY}
+    )
 
 STORAGES["default"] = {
     "BACKEND": "storages.backends.gcloud.GoogleCloudStorage",
diff --git a/daras_ai_v2/static_pages.py b/daras_ai_v2/static_pages.py
index 9f93d754a..6cb5e7401 100644
--- a/daras_ai_v2/static_pages.py
+++ b/daras_ai_v2/static_pages.py
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 import io
-import gooey_ui as st
 from static_pages.models import StaticPage
 from google.cloud import storage
 
@@ -7,11 +6,13 @@
 from daras_ai_v2.settings import GCP_PROJECT, GCS_CREDENTIALS, GS_BUCKET_NAME
 
 
-client = storage.Client(
-    GCP_PROJECT,
-    GCS_CREDENTIALS,
-)
-bucket = client.get_bucket(GS_BUCKET_NAME)
+def gcs_bucket() -> "storage.storage.Bucket":
+    client = storage.Client(
+        GCP_PROJECT,
+        GCS_CREDENTIALS,
+    )
+    bucket = client.get_bucket(GS_BUCKET_NAME)
+    return bucket
 
 
 def populate_imported_css(html: str, uid: str):
@@ -41,7 +42,7 @@ def get_all_styles(links: list, uid: str):
     for link in links:
         if not link.endswith(".css"):  # ignore for css files
             continue
-        blob = bucket.get_blob(f"{uid}/{link}")
+        blob = gcs_bucket().get_blob(f"{uid}/{link}")
         blob = blob.download_as_string()
         blob = blob.decode("utf-8")
         blob = io.StringIO(blob).read()
@@ -57,6 +58,7 @@ def serve(page_slug: str, file_path: str = None):
         return None
 
     uid = static_page.uid
+    bucket = gcs_bucket()
 
     def render_page():
         if file_path: