Google Gemini API
Google's Gemini Developer API (AI Studio) serving Gemini Pro, Flash and Flash-Lite models, with a free tier and a paid pay-as-you-go tier.
A free tier with lower rate limits makes this an easy place to prototype, with the caveat that free-tier content may be used to improve Google products. On the paid tier every model has a 1048K context, but two prices can move: Gemini 3.1 Pro (preview) rises to $4 / $18 for prompts above 200K tokens, and Gemini 3.8 Flash is on promotional pricing that doubles from 2027-01-01. EU data residency is not available on this API and requires Vertex AI at separate pricing.
- Headquarters
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Parent jurisdiction
- 🇺🇸 United States (parent: Alphabet)
- EU self-serve plan
- No / not documented
- GDPR DPA
- Yes
- Billing
- payg
- Free tier
- Free tier with lower rate limits on selected models; free-tier content may be used to improve Google products.
- Open source
- No
- Website
- ai.google.dev
- Source last checked
- 2026-10-06
- Pricing evidence
- Published rates
Pricing
Calculated from the listed vendor rates; exclusions still apply. How to read these estimates.
| Model | Input / 1M tokens | Output / 1M tokens | Cached / 1M tokens | Context | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.1 Pro (preview) | $2 | $12 | — | 1048k | frontier |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $0.75 | $3.75 | $0.075 | 1048k | mid |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | $0.3 | $2.5 | $0.03 | 1048k | small |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | $0.25 | $1.5 | $0.025 | 1048k | small |
Paid-tier standard prices. Gemini 3.1 Pro is still a preview model; its price shown is the <=200K-token prompt tier ($4 / $18 above 200K). Gemini 3.8 Flash prices are promotional through 2026-12-31 and double from 2027-01-01 ($1.50 in / $7.50 out / $0.15 cached). The Gemini Developer API does not offer EU data residency; regional processing requires Vertex AI (separate pricing).
Managed alternatives
At 500M input tokens / month, 50M output tokens / month. Adjust usage and requirements.
Google Gemini API · Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: $2,400/yr estimated.
- Groq · gpt-oss-20b: $630/yr estimated · $1,770/yr bill differencePublished rates
- OpenAI · GPT-6 Luna: $900/yr estimated · $1,500/yr bill differencePublished rates
- Mistral AI · Ministral 3 8B: $990/yr estimated · $1,410/yr bill differencePublished rates
- Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (Qwen) · Qwen3.8-Flash: $1,182/yr estimated · $1,218/yr bill differencePublished rates
- Fireworks AI · GLM 5.3 Flash: $1,200/yr estimated · $1,200/yr bill differencePublished rates
No cheaper managed estimate matches your filters. Adjust your usage or compare with your actual contract bill.
The price difference leaves out migration costs, operating costs and any features you’d need to replace. We compare the selected model or the cheapest listed model in the chosen capability tier. Sharing a tier does not mean equal quality.
Self-hosted options
Operating cost is not estimated. These options are not counted as savings against managed services.
Want a European-owned provider? See European alternatives to Google Gemini API among european LLM APIs.
Found a wrong rate or plan restriction? Report a correction with a current source.