Google Gemini API free tier includes Free tier: Gemini 4 Hydrogen, Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.1 Flash-Lite, Gemini… Verified November 2026. Compare with 32 alternatives in AI / ML.

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Google Gemini API Free Tier 2026

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Subtypes in AI / ML: llm_api — the vendor runs language or multimodal models on its own infrastructure and sells calls to them by model name; you send a prompt and receive a completion; embeddings_api — returns a vector for text or media so it can be compared to other vectors; the vector is the output, not a completion; speech_api — converts recorded or streamed speech to text, or text to speech. We read that on 2026-09-01 from https://ai.google.dev/pricing, where it says: “Our 3.1 Flash Text-to-Speech audio model optimized for price-performant, low-latency, controllable speech generation.” How we use this.

Limits, pricing history, and 32 alternatives. Verified November 2026. Last updated 2026-11-14.

Google Gemini API's free tier offers Free tier: Gemini 4 Hydrogen, Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.1 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3 Flash Preview… We rate it stable. None of the 21 recorded changes narrowed the terms. Best for ai / ml workloads — 32 alternatives available.

One of 89 AI / ML services we track. See our full AI / ML Free Tier Comparison →
⚠️ Pricing change: The Gemini API keeps running. The embedding model gemini-embedding-001 can be called until May 14, 2028, when Google shuts it down. Google names gemini-embedding-2 as the replacement. Source ↗ (effective 2028-05-14) View in changelog →
Tier
Free (Reduced)
Category
AI / ML
Pricing Page
https://ai.google.dev/pricing
Verified
2026-11-09
Last read
2026-11-09
The day we last read the vendor's page, and the day we last confirmed the terms we publish.

Free Tier Details

Free tier: Gemini 4 Hydrogen, Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.1 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3 Flash Preview, Gemini Embedding 2 and Gemma 4 are free of charge. Also free of charge are Gemini 3.8 Live (real-time voice), Gemini 3.5 Live Translate (translation), Gemini 3.5 Transcribe (speech-to-text), Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS (text-to-speech). Gemini Decision (gemini-decision-1), released 2026-11-11, is a multimodal decision model available through the Decisions API. It answers yes/no, choice and rubric questions with probabilities and generates zero output tokens, so it has no output price; input is free of charge on the free tier with 10,000 requests per day, and $0.10 per million input tokens on the paid tier. Gemini 4 Hydrogen (gemini-4-hydrogen), released 2026-11-12, is free of charge on the Gemini API free tier for input, output and context caching. On the paid tier, Gemini 4 Hydrogen costs $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens (output includes thinking tokens), with context caching at $0.075 (implicit caching only); on the Batch API, Gemini 4 Hydrogen is $0.75 input and $3.75 output. The other Gemini 4 models, Gemini 4 Carbon (gemini-4-carbon) and Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon), are paid only, as are Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash (gemini-omni-1.2-flash). Gemini 4 Carbon, which Google calls its most capable reasoning model, has been generally available since 2026-11-10 and is not available on the Gemini API free tier. Gemini 4 Argon, generally available since 2026-10-13, is not available on the Gemini API free tier. According to ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/google-ai-plans, "Gemini 4 Argon is not available on the Free plan." Gemini 4 Argon is available through the Gemini API on the paid tier. "Direct use of the Gemini API (such as using API keys or external applications) is billed and managed separately," per ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/google-ai-plans. Google AI Pro and Ultra provide access to Gemini 4 Argon in Google AI Studio, per ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/google-ai-plans. Gemini 4 Argon is in Antigravity on Google AI Ultra and paid Google AI Pro. In Google AI Studio, Gemini 4 Carbon requires a Google AI Ultra plan and is not available on the Free or Google AI Pro plans (aistudio.google.com/docs/google-ai-plans). In Antigravity, Gemini 4 Carbon is available on Google AI Ultra and Enterprise only (antigravity.google/docs/models). On a Google AI Pro trial, Argon is only available "on trial with eligible premium devices" (antigravity.google/docs/models). Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 are not included on Google AI Pro trials; trial users and those with memberships through third-party partners, Pixel Pass or Google Fi manage subscriptions through Google One. Google AI Pro via partner offers like Jio's does not include Gemini 4 Argon, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Claude Opus 5.5 in Antigravity. Per a Google staff member on discuss.ai.google.dev (2026-10-21), "Those frontier models are restricted to directly billed (non-trial/non-promotional) Google AI Pro, Google AI Ultra and Enterprise plans." No Gemini image model has a free tier in the API. Nano Banana 2.1 (gemini-nano-banana-2.1) became generally available on 2026-10-06. It costs $0.0336 per 1K image, $0.0504 per 2K image and $0.113 per 4K image. The Batch API halves those prices. Nano Banana Pro costs $0.134 per 1K or 2K image and $0.24 per 4K image. Except for Gemini Decision, Google publishes no free-tier rate limits; each project's limits are shown in Google AI Studio. Developers report 429 errors showing 20 requests per day for Gemini 3.x Flash models and 500 requests per day for 3.x Flash-Lite models as of September 2026. Rate limits apply per project, not per API key. Daily request quotas reset at midnight Pacific time, per Google's rate-limits page. Since 2026-09-18 Google serves the Gemini 2.5 models only to users who have used them before, and points new projects to 3.5 Flash-Lite or 3.8 Flash. If your app calls gemini-3.7-flash, Google deprecated it on 2026-10-08. Requests to gemini-3.7-flash are routed automatically to gemini-3.8-flash. Google says to update the model string to gemini-3.8-flash. Google deprecated gemini-2.5-pro and gemini-2.5-flash on 2026-11-02. Both models shut down on 2026-12-01. Use them until that date. From that date, requests to gemini-2.5-pro route to gemini-3.8-flash and are billed at its rates. Requests to gemini-2.5-flash route to gemini-3.5-flash-lite and are billed at its rates. Update your model string before 2026-12-01 and review Google’s migration guides for breaking API changes. gemini-2.5-flash-lite is not deprecated. If your app calls Gemini 3.5 Flash (gemini-3.5-flash), Google deprecated it on 2026-10-08. Requests to gemini-3.5-flash are routed automatically to gemini-3.6-flash. Google says to update the model string to gemini-3.6-flash or gemini-3.8-flash. Google shut down Gemini Omni Flash Preview (gemini-omni-flash-preview) on 2026-10-22. Google's replacement is gemini-omni-1.2-flash. Google shuts down Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash (gemini-omni-1.1-flash) on December 3, 2026; after that, requests that name gemini-omni-1.1-flash are answered by gemini-omni-1.2-flash at Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash rates. Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite (gemini-3.1-flash-lite) can be called until 2027-05-07, when Google shuts it down. Google's replacement is gemini-3.5-flash-lite. Paid, per million tokens (input/output; output prices include thinking tokens): Gemini 4 Carbon $2/$10 through 2026-11-30 (context caching $0.10, then $0.20, implicit caching only); Gemini 4 Argon $2/$10 through 2026-11-30 (context caching $0.10, then $0.20, implicit caching only); Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.75/$3.75 until 2026-12-31, then $1.50 input and $7.50 output from 2027-01-01 (3.6 Flash: the same prices and dates); Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite $0.30/$2.50; Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite $0.25/$1.50; Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview $2/$12 (prompts up to 200K tokens; prompts over 200K tokens cost $4 input and $18 output). Through 2026-11-30, Gemini 4 Argon's Standard output price is below Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's for prompts up to 200K tokens, with the same input price; from 2026-12-01 Argon's is higher. From December 1, 2026, Gemini 4 Argon will cost $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens for Standard, $2 input and $10 output for Batch API, $2 input and $10 output for Flex, and $7.20 input and $36 output for Priority. From December 1, 2026, Gemini 4 Carbon will also cost $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens for Standard, $2 input and $10 output for Batch API and Flex, and $7.20 input and $36 output for Priority. The Batch API costs half the standard price; Gemini 3.8 Flash is $0.375 input and $1.875 output per million tokens through 2026-12-31. Gemini 4 Carbon and Gemini 4 Argon on the Batch API are $1 input and $5 output through 2026-11-30. Google also sells two tiers, Flex and Priority, both in Preview. A request picks one with the service_tier field ("flex" or "priority"); without it the request is Standard. Gemini 4 Carbon and Gemini 4 Argon on Flex are $1 input and $5 output through 2026-11-30; on Priority they are $3.60 input and $18 output through 2026-11-30. "The Gemini Flex API is an inference tier that offers a 50% cost reduction compared to standard rates, in exchange for variable latency and best-effort availability" (ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/flex-inference). "Priority inference is priced at 75-100% more than the standard API and billed per token" (ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/priority-inference). The Gemini API Contributor Tier is an invite-only private preview. Eligible users will be invited by email. It offers half the Standard price for Gemini 4 Carbon, Gemini 4 Argon, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, Gemini 3.8 Flash, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. Google uses the data from those models to improve its products. "Please don't submit sensitive or personal information" (ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/logs-policy). Grounding with Google Search is supported on the free tier for Gemini 3.8 Live, Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking and Gemini 3.1 Flash Live Preview. It is not available on the free tier for Gemini 4 Hydrogen, Gemini 4 Argon or the Gemini 3.x Flash, Flash-Lite and Pro models. On the paid tier, 5,000 search requests a month are free, shared across Gemini 3 and newer models, then $14 per 1,000. Accounts opened after 2026-03-02 cannot spend the $300 Google Cloud welcome credit on the Gemini API.

We read that on 2026-11-09 from https://ai.google.dev/pricing, and our check recorded: the page names Google Gemini API as "gemini api" and states "$2.00" and "$4.00" and "$10.00" and "$20.00".

When You'll Outgrow Google Gemini API's Free Tier

Pricing Change History (24 recorded)

deprecated effective 2028-05-14 low impact
The Gemini API keeps running. The embedding model gemini-embedding-001 can be called until May 14, 2028, when Google shuts it down. Google names gemini-embedding-2 as the replacement. Source ↗
Before: gemini-embedding-001 could be called on the Gemini API.
After: Google's deprecations page (last updated 2026-10-09) lists May 14, 2028 as the shutdown date for gemini-embedding-001, with gemini-embedding-2 as the replacement.
deprecated effective 2027-05-07 low impact
The Gemini API keeps running. Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite (gemini-3.1-flash-lite) can be called until May 7, 2027, when Google shuts it down. Google names gemini-3.5-flash-lite as the replacement. Source ↗
Before: gemini-3.1-flash-lite could be called on the Gemini API.
After: Google's deprecations page (last updated 2026-10-09) lists May 7, 2027 as the shutdown date for gemini-3.1-flash-lite, with gemini-3.5-flash-lite as the replacement.
deprecated effective 2027-04-01 medium impact
text-embedding-005, text-embedding-004, text-multilingual-embedding-002 and multimodalembedding@001 can be called on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) until April 1, 2027, when Google retires them. Google’s table names no replacement for them. Source ↗
Before: text-embedding-005, text-embedding-004, text-multilingual-embedding-002 and multimodalembedding@001 could be called on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI).
After: Google's Agent Platform model versions page (read 2026-11-12) lists April 1, 2027 as the retirement date for text-embedding-005, text-embedding-004, text-multilingual-embedding-002 and multimodalembedding@001, with no replacement model ID.
deprecated effective 2027-03-31 low impact
The Gemini API keeps running. Live API preview model gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-12-2025 can be called until March 31, 2027, when Google shuts it down. Google names gemini-3.8-live as the replacement. The other Live API preview, gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview, has no shutdown date. Google had dated both in November and moved the dates. Source ↗
Before: gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-12-2025 could be called through the Gemini Live API.
After: Google's deprecations page lists March 31, 2027 as the shutdown date for gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-12-2025 (replacement gemini-3.8-live) and gives gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview no shutdown date.
deprecated effective 2027-03-15 low impact
The Gemini API keeps running. Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (gemini-2.5-flash-image) can be called until March 15, 2027, when Google shuts it down. Google names gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image as the replacement. Source ↗
Before: gemini-2.5-flash-image could be called on the Gemini API.
After: Google's deprecations page (last updated 2026-10-09) lists March 15, 2027 as the shutdown date for gemini-2.5-flash-image, with gemini-3.1-flash-lite-image as the replacement.
deprecated effective 2027-01-28 low impact
gemini-3.7-flash can be called on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) until January 28, 2027, when Google retires it. Google names gemini-3.8-flash as the replacement. On the Gemini API it is not shutting down and Google routes its requests to gemini-3.8-flash. Source ↗
Before: gemini-3.7-flash could be called on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI).
After: Google's Agent Platform model versions page (read 2026-11-12) lists January 28, 2027 as the retirement date for gemini-3.7-flash, released August 13, 2026, with gemini-3.8-flash as the replacement. Google's Gemini API deprecations page (read 2026-11-12) says the gemini-3.7-flash endpoint is not shutting down and routes API requests to gemini-3.8-flash.
restructured effective 2027-01-01 medium impact
Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash on the Gemini API have introductory pricing through December 31, 2026 on Google AI Studio and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. Standard input is $0.75 per million tokens through December 31, 2026, then $1.50 from January 1, 2027. Output is $3.75 then $7.50. Batch and Flex input is $0.375 then $0.75, output $1.875 then $3.75. Priority input is $1.35 then $2.70, output $6.75 then $13.50. The Free tier stays free of charge. Source ↗
Before: Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash, paid tier, per 1M tokens, through December 31, 2026 (introductory pricing): Standard $0.75 input, $3.75 output, $0.075 context caching; Batch and Flex $0.375 input, $1.875 output; Priority $1.35 input, $6.75 output.
After: From January 1, 2027: Standard $1.50 input, $7.50 output, $0.15 context caching; Batch and Flex $0.75 input, $3.75 output; Priority $2.70 input, $13.50 output. On the Free tier, input and output stay free of charge.
deprecated effective 2026-12-18 low impact
The Gemini API keeps running. The text-to-speech preview models gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts, gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts and gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview can be called until December 18, 2026, when Google shuts them down. Google names gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts as the replacement. Google moved this shutdown from an earlier date in November. Source ↗
Before: gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts, gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts and gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview could be called on the Gemini API.
After: Google's deprecations page lists December 18, 2026 as the shutdown date for gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts, gemini-2.5-pro-preview-tts and gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview (replacement gemini-3.8-flash-tts or gemini-3.8-flash-lite-tts).
deprecated effective 2026-12-13 low impact
gemini-live-2.5-flash-native-audio can be called on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) until December 13, 2026, when Google retires it. Google names gemini-3.8-live as the replacement. Source ↗
Before: gemini-live-2.5-flash-native-audio could be called on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI).
After: Google's Agent Platform model versions page (read 2026-11-12) lists December 13, 2026 as the retirement date for gemini-live-2.5-flash-native-audio, released December 12, 2025, with gemini-3.8-live as the replacement.
deprecated effective 2026-12-03 low impact
Google shuts down Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash (gemini-omni-1.1-flash) on the Gemini API on December 3, 2026. It can be used until that date. After the shutdown, requests that still name gemini-omni-1.1-flash are answered by a different model, gemini-omni-1.2-flash, billed at Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash rates. Google released Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash on 2026-11-05. The Gemini API keeps running. Source ↗
Before: gemini-omni-1.1-flash could be called on the Gemini API's paid tier, with no shutdown date.
After: Google's deprecations page lists December 3, 2026 as the shutdown date for gemini-omni-1.1-flash, with gemini-omni-1.2-flash as the replacement. Google's release notes of November 5, 2026: "Effective December 3, 2026, API requests to gemini-omni-1.1-flash will automatically route to gemini-omni-1.2-flash at Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash rates."
deprecated effective 2026-12-01 medium impact
Google shuts down Gemini 2.5 Pro (gemini-2.5-pro) and Gemini 2.5 Flash (gemini-2.5-flash) on the Gemini API on December 1, 2026. Both can be used until that date. After the shutdown, requests that still name gemini-2.5-pro are answered by a different model, gemini-3.8-flash, billed at Gemini 3.8 Flash rates, and requests that still name gemini-2.5-flash are answered by gemini-3.5-flash-lite, billed at Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite rates. Google deprecated both on 2026-11-02 and lists breaking API changes in a migration guide for each replacement. Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (gemini-2.5-flash-lite) is not deprecated. The Gemini API keeps running. Source ↗
Before: gemini-2.5-pro and gemini-2.5-flash could be called on the Gemini API by users who had used them before, with no shutdown date.
After: Google's deprecations page lists December 1, 2026 as the shutdown date for gemini-2.5-pro, with gemini-3.8-flash as the replacement, and for gemini-2.5-flash, with gemini-3.5-flash-lite as the replacement. Google's release notes of November 2, 2026: "Effective December 1, 2026, all API requests to gemini-2.5-pro will automatically route to gemini-3.8-flash and be billed at Gemini 3.8 Flash rates"; requests to gemini-2.5-flash "will automatically route to gemini-3.5-flash-lite and be billed at Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite rates". gemini-2.5-flash-lite "is not deprecated and remains available through the API until further notice".
restructured effective 2026-12-01 medium impact
Gemini 4 Argon on the Gemini API has introductory pricing through November 30, 2026. Standard input is $2.00 per million tokens through November 30, 2026, then $4.00 from December 1, 2026. Output is $10.00 then $20.00. Batch and Flex input is $1.00 then $2.00, output $5.00 then $10.00. Priority input is $3.60 then $7.20, output $18.00 then $36.00. It is not available on the Free tier. Source ↗
Before: Gemini 4 Argon, paid tier, per 1M tokens, through November 30, 2026 (introductory pricing): Standard $2.00 input, $10.00 output, $0.10 context caching; Batch and Flex $1.00 input, $5.00 output; Priority $3.60 input, $18.00 output.
After: From December 1, 2026: Standard $4.00 input, $20.00 output, $0.20 context caching; Batch and Flex $2.00 input, $10.00 output; Priority $7.20 input, $36.00 output. Gemini 4 Argon is not available on the Free tier.
restructured effective 2026-12-01 medium impact
Gemini 4 Carbon (gemini-4-carbon), generally available on the Gemini API since November 10, 2026, has introductory pricing through November 30, 2026. Standard input is $2.00 per million tokens through November 30, 2026, then $4.00 from December 1, 2026. Output is $10.00 then $20.00. Batch and Flex input is $1.00 then $2.00, output $5.00 then $10.00. Priority input is $3.60 then $7.20, output $18.00 then $36.00. It is not available on the Free tier. Source ↗
Before: Gemini 4 Carbon, paid tier, per 1M tokens, through November 30, 2026 (introductory pricing): Standard $2.00 input, $10.00 output, $0.10 context caching; Batch and Flex $1.00 input, $5.00 output; Priority $3.60 input, $18.00 output.
After: From December 1, 2026: Standard $4.00 input, $20.00 output, $0.20 context caching; Batch and Flex $2.00 input, $10.00 output; Priority $7.20 input, $36.00 output. Gemini 4 Carbon is not available on the Free tier.
deprecated effective 2026-11-19 low impact
The Gemini API keeps serving gemini-3.6-flash with no shutdown date. On Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI), gemini-3.6-flash can be called until November 19, 2026, when Google retires it. Google names gemini-3.8-flash as the replacement. Source ↗
Before: gemini-3.6-flash could be called on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI).
After: Google's Agent Platform model versions page (last updated 2026-10-15) lists November 19, 2026 as the retirement date for gemini-3.6-flash, with gemini-3.8-flash as the replacement. Google's Gemini API deprecations page (last updated 2026-10-12) gives gemini-3.6-flash no shutdown date.
corrected effective 2026-11-14 low impact
Data correction - our record of five Gemini API preview models carried the November 17, 2026 date that Google's deprecations page gave until at least 2026-11-13. Read on 2026-11-14, Google's page dates the three text-to-speech previews December 18, 2026 and gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-12-2025 March 31, 2027, and gives gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview no date, so that record now covers the text-to-speech previews and a second record covers the native audio preview. Source ↗
Before: One record for five text-to-speech and Live API previews, dated 2026-11-17
After: Text-to-speech previews dated 2026-12-18 and the native audio preview dated 2027-03-31, from Google's deprecations page
deprecated effective 2026-10-23 low impact
The Gemini API keeps running. The Deep Research agent preview deep-research-pro-preview-12-2025 can be called until October 23, 2026, when Google shuts it down. Google names deep-research-preview-04-2026 as the replacement. Source ↗
Before: deep-research-pro-preview-12-2025 could be called on the Gemini API.
After: Google's deprecations page (last updated 2026-10-09) lists October 23, 2026 as the shutdown date for deep-research-pro-preview-12-2025, with deep-research-preview-04-2026 as the replacement.
deprecated effective 2026-10-22 low impact
The Gemini API keeps running. Gemini Omni Flash Preview (gemini-omni-flash-preview) and the Veo 3.1 preview models (veo-3.1-generate-preview, veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview and veo-3.1-lite-generate-preview) can be called until October 22, 2026, when Google shuts them down. Google names gemini-omni-1.1-flash as the replacement for all four. Source ↗
Before: gemini-omni-flash-preview, veo-3.1-generate-preview, veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview and veo-3.1-lite-generate-preview could be called on the Gemini API.
After: Google's deprecations page (last updated 2026-10-09) lists October 22, 2026 as the shutdown date for gemini-omni-flash-preview, veo-3.1-generate-preview, veo-3.1-fast-generate-preview and veo-3.1-lite-generate-preview, each with gemini-omni-1.1-flash as the replacement.
deprecated effective 2026-10-20 medium impact
On Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI), Google retired gemini-2.5-pro, gemini-2.5-flash and gemini-2.5-flash-lite on October 20, 2026. Google names gemini-3.8-flash as a replacement for all three. On the Gemini API, Google shuts down gemini-2.5-pro and gemini-2.5-flash on December 1, 2026. gemini-2.5-flash-lite has no shutdown date on the Gemini API. Source ↗
Before: gemini-2.5-pro, gemini-2.5-flash and gemini-2.5-flash-lite could be called on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI).
After: Google's Agent Platform model versions page (last updated 2026-10-15) lists October 20, 2026 as the retirement date for gemini-2.5-pro, gemini-2.5-flash and gemini-2.5-flash-lite, with gemini-3.8-flash first among the replacements for each. Google's Gemini API deprecations page (last updated 2026-10-12) gave the three models no shutdown date; on 2026-11-02 Google set December 1, 2026 for gemini-2.5-pro and gemini-2.5-flash.
restricted effective 2026-09-18 medium impact
Since 2026-09-18 Google serves the Gemini 2.5 models only to users who have used them before, and points new projects to 3.5 Flash-Lite or 3.8 Flash. Source ↗
Before: Access to the Gemini 2.5 models was not limited to users who had used them before.
After: "we are limiting access to the 2.5 models to users who have actively used them in the past. These models are not deprecated and will continue to be served until further notice through the API. For any new projects, use our latest models: 3.5 Flash-Lite or 3.8 Flash." (Gemini API changelog, September 18, 2026, "Gemini 2.5 models access update")
restructured discovered 2026-09-03 · effective date unknown high impact
Retracted — this record was our error (2026-09-27). Retracted 2026-09-27: Google's pricing did not change near 2026-09-03. The Internet Archive's capture of ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing on 2026-08-20 already lists Gemini 3.7 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite; Google's changelog made 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite generally available on 2026-07-21. The reading compared the page with our own description, and its figures were wrong: Gemini 3.6 Flash is free of charge on the free tier and $0.75/$3.75 per million tokens paid until 2026-12-31. Source ↗
deprecated effective 2026-06-01 high impact
Gemini 2.0 Flash and 2.0 Flash-Lite were shut down on 2026-06-01, as Google announced on 2026-02-18. Google names gemini-3.6-flash as the replacement for 2.0 Flash and gemini-3.1-flash-lite for 2.0 Flash-Lite. Source ↗
Before: Gemini 2.0 Flash and 2.0 Flash-Lite available on free and paid tiers
After: Gemini 2.0 Flash and 2.0 Flash-Lite shut down on 2026-06-01.
restricted discovered 2026-04-08 · effective date unknown high impact
Retracted — this record was our error (2026-09-27). Retracted 2026-09-27: nothing changed on 2026-04-08. Google's changelog has no entry between 2026-04-02 and 2026-04-14 about the free tier, and Gemini 2.5 Pro's free requests had gone to zero on 2025-12-06, which the Google Gemini record of that date covers. On 2026-05-29 a Google staff member wrote that "2.5 Flash and Pro are still available on the free tier in the API". Google's pricing page labelled 2.5 Pro "Free of charge" in every capture from 2025-09 to 2026-09, so it dates neither change. Source ↗
restricted effective 2026-04-01 medium impact
Google began enforcing billing-account-level spend caps on April 1, 2026. When a tier's spend cap is reached, API requests pause until the next billing month. Affects pay-as-you-go developers who may see unexpected request pausing. Source ↗
Before: No hard spend caps — usage billed without automatic pausing
After: Tier-level spend caps enforced at billing account level. Requests pause when cap is hit until next month
restricted effective 2026-03-02 medium impact
Accounts opened after 2026-03-02 cannot spend the $300 Google Cloud welcome credit on the Gemini API or AI Studio. Source ↗
Before: New Google Cloud accounts could spend the $300 Welcome credit on Gemini API and AI Studio usage.
After: "New users might be granted a $300 Welcome credit in their new Google Cloud Billing accounts. If you opened your account after March 2, 2026, you can't use these credits to pay for Gemini API and AI Studio usage, but you can use them on other Google Cloud products in the Google Cloud console." (ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing)

View all 513 pricing changes across all vendors →

Recommended Migration Targets

These alternatives were identified from Google Gemini API’s pricing changes as recommended replacements.

Groq Free OpenRouter Free Together AI Pay-as-you-go
Recompute today's order yourself. The order above is a permutation seeded only on the UTC date and the query key — no vendor name, slug, id or offer field is an input. The list above is every one of the 3 entries in that order, not a prefix of it. The algorithm is published, so anyone can reproduce this page's order without asking us.
date
2026-11-14
query_key
curated-alternatives:Google Gemini API
seed
524bebc6aefd728bac510ccbf80d9008eb85a257ce0596f2ee052fd674d914c9
tie_count
2

Alternatives in AI / ML

How Google Gemini API compares against every one of the 32 we list, not against a selection of them. A surface with room for every member of a tied set may rotate their order. A surface with room for only some of them names none of them, because which ones it named would be the claim, and a claim seeded on the date is not the one we serve tomorrow. How we decide this.

Service Free Tier Stability
Google Gemini API Free (Reduced) stable
Cloudflare Workers AI Free
Workers AI runs AI models on Cloudflare's global network. Every account gets 10,000 Neurons per day at no charge, reset daily at 00:00 UTC; on the Workers Free plan, requests beyond that fail until the reset.
 caution
Maxim AI Free
Simulate, evaluate, and observe your AI agents — The 'OSS' tier is free forever for developers, small teams, and self-managed deployments. It includes features like a drop-in replacement, OTel compatibility, metrics & traces, built-in observability, budget management, and more.
 stable
Lumenfall.ai Free
AI media gateway: one OpenAI-compatible API to image and video generation models from several providers, billed at each provider's price with no markup, platform fee or subscription. One model, FLUX.1 [schnell] FP8, is listed free per image ("Free to try", served through Fireworks AI).
 stable
LLM7.io Free
LLM inference gateway. With a free token from dash.llm7.io: 1 request a second, 60 a minute, 250 an hour and 100,000 tokens per 24 hours, counting input and output tokens; LLM7 says free quotas may be reduced without notice.
 caution
OpenRouter Free
AI model router. Free plan: 50 requests a day, no BYOK.
 stable
Hugging Face Free
ML model hub. Since 2026-10-07, free accounts get no included Inference Providers credits: free users buy credits or upgrade to PRO to call Inference Providers, which serves 200+ models.
 caution
Keywords AI Free
Rebranded to Respan; keywordsai.co redirects to respan.ai. Free plan: full platform, 100k logs, 1k scores, 5 datasets, 2 evaluators, 5 prompts.
 source unconfirmed
Hetzner Inference API Free
Hetzner's experimental Inference API: an OpenAI-compatible API for open-weight models, free while it stays experimental. Base URL: https://inference.hetzner.com/api/v1.
 stable
Cohere Free
AI model API for Command chat models, Embed, Rerank, Transcribe and Parse. Every account starts with a Trial API key: calls made with it are free and limited to 1,000 API calls a month.
 stable
Google Gemini Embedding 2 Free
Free of charge text, image, audio, and video input on the Gemini API free tier, with Google using the content to improve its products. Batch is not available on the free tier.
 stable
Pollinations.AI Free
Keyless Classic API: one image model and GPT-OSS 20B text, free, no sign-up, rate-limited per IP. Every other model needs an API key and Pollen, and free Pollen comes only from quests.
 caution
Groq Free
Fast LLM inference on Groq's LPU hardware. Free plan: gpt-oss-20b, gpt-oss-120b and Qwen3.8 27B, each at 30 requests a minute, 1,000 requests and 200,000 tokens a day, plus Whisper speech-to-text at 2,000 requests a day.
 caution
NVIDIA NIM Free
Free inference endpoints on build.nvidia.com: models marked Free Endpoint, including DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash, gpt-oss-20b, Gemma 4 31B and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra, can be called at no cost. Their model IDs are deepseek-ai/deepseek-v4.1-flash, z-ai/glm-5.3-flash, openai/gpt-oss-20b,…
 stable
Pinecone Free
Vector database. The Starter plan is free: up to 2 GB storage, 2M write units and 1M read units a month, 1 GB of egress a month (reads that return data stop at the cap until the next billing period), 5 indexes, 1 project and 2 users, on AWS us-east-1 only.
 stable
SiliconFlow Free
Pay-as-you-go model inference. siliconflow.cn, run by a Beijing company, lists these models at no charge: the chat models Qwen3-8B, Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct (Free), Qwen3.5-4B, GLM-4-9B-0414, GLM-Z1-9B-0414, DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B (Free) and Xing4.0-29B; the translation model Hunyuan-MT-7B; the OCR…
 unrated
Zhipu AI Free
China-based GLM model API. The price list marks these models free: GLM-4.7-Flash, GLM-4-Flash-250414 and GLM-Z1-Flash (text); GLM-4.6V-Flash, GLM-4V-Flash and GLM-4.1V-Thinking-Flash (vision); CogView-3-Flash (image); CogVideoX-Flash (video).
 source unconfirmed
Portkey Free
Control panel for Gen AI apps featuring an observability suite & an AI gateway. Send & log up to 10,000 requests for free every month.
 unrated
Jina AI Free Credits
Search, Reader, embeddings and reranker APIs. Each new API key comes with 10M free tokens, shared across these APIs; no page says they renew.
 stable
AssemblyAI Free Credits
Speech-to-text and Speech Understanding API. New accounts get $50 in free credits with no credit card required; the credits do not expire and cover pre-recorded and streaming speech-to-text, the Voice Agent API, Speech Understanding and Guardrails, but not LLM Gateway.
 stable
Fireworks AI Free Credits
Inference platform for open models, with serverless per-token pricing and on-demand GPU deployments billed per GPU second. Fireworks offers $1 in free credits to get started.
 unrated
Deepgram Free Credits
Speech-to-text and text-to-speech API — $200 free credits on signup (no credit card required), ~43K minutes transcription with Nova model, credits never expire. Access to all model endpoints
  • Deepgram's docs say only data included through its Model Improvement Partnership Program is stored and used for future model training. Adding mip_opt_out=true to a request excludes it, and opted-out request data is kept only while the request is processed. (From developers.deepgram.com/docs/the-deepgram-model-improvement-partnership-program, read 2026-10-23.)
  • Nova-3 speech-to-text allows up to 50 concurrent pre-recorded requests and up to 150 concurrent streaming requests. (From developers.deepgram.com/reference/api-rate-limits, read 2026-10-23.)
  • A transcription request without enough credits fails with HTTP 402 Payment Required, with the message "Project does not have enough credits for an ASR request and does not have an overage agreement." (From developers.deepgram.com/docs/errors, read 2026-10-23.)
  • Rate limits apply per project, not per account or API key. Creating additional projects under the same account does not grant additional concurrency. Secondary projects on a self-serve account are limited to a single concurrent stream. Using additional projects or accounts to work around the limits is detected and violates Deepgram's Terms of Service. (From developers.deepgram.com/reference/api-rate-limits, read 2026-11-07.)
  • Deepgram's terms, section 2.4, forbid use of the Services or any Output "for competitive purposes, including model training, benchmarking and other competitive analysis, or developing competing models, products or services". (From deepgram.com/terms, read 2026-11-07.)
  • Deepgram's terms, section 2.4, prohibit resale or redistribution of the Services on a stand-alone basis. Integration into the user's own Application is allowed when the Application contributes material independent functionality beyond Deepgram's Services. (From deepgram.com/terms, read 2026-11-07.)
 stable
Baseten Basic (Free Credits)
ML model deployment platform. New workspaces receive credits for testing and deployment; Baseten does not state the amount.
 unrated
Cerebras Trial
Ultra-fast LLM inference API — no permanent free tier. New accounts get $5 in free credits after adding a verified payment method, expiring 30 days after they are granted.
 risky
Mistral AI Pay-as-you-go
Since about 2026-11-05, Mistral's Free plan covers Vibe and Studio and does not include API access. Creating API keys and calling the API require billing activation and pay-as-you-go with prepaid credits.
 unrated
Anthropic API Pay-as-you-go
Claude API with usage-based pricing per million tokens (input/output). Claude Fable 5.2 $8/$40.
 unrated
Together AI Pay-as-you-go
Inference API for open-source models, billed per token. Together AI does not currently offer free trials; access requires a minimum $15 credit purchase for an organization's first purchase ($5 for later purchases), and the platform is fully prepaid.
 unrated
DeepSeek API Pay-as-you-go
Pay-as-you-go LLM API with no free tier, billed from a prepaid balance. DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash (deepseek-flash): $0.30/M input, $1.20/M output at peak.
 unrated
xAI Pay-as-you-go
Grok API, pay as you go: sign up at console.x.ai, then load it with credits. grok-4.7 $2.00/$6.00 (per 1M tokens, under 200k prompt tokens).
 unrated
GitHub Models Retired
GitHub retired GitHub Models on 2026-07-30, so there is no free tier. GitHub's own documentation states "GitHub Models has been retired."
 source unconfirmed
Ollama Cloud Pay-as-you-go
Cloud-hosted Ollama for running open-source LLMs. Between October 26 and 27, 2026, Ollama replaced its Free plan, which included starter usage credits, with a $0 Pay as you go plan.
 unrated
MiniMax Pay-as-you-go
MiniMax sells API access pay-as-you-go on platform.minimax.io. Its pricing pages list no free API allowance; one docs page mentions a free quota for new pay-as-you-go users but gives no amount.
 unrated
OpenAI Pay-as-you-go
AI API platform. One model is priced Free in OpenAI's own table: the moderation model omni-moderation-latest.
 unrated

Left out of this list: Brave Search API (shares no subtype with this product), Qdrant (shares no subtype with this product), Kaggle (shares no subtype with this product), Roboflow (shares no subtype with this product), Scale AI (shares no subtype with this product), Replicate (shares no subtype with this product), Weights & Biases (shares no subtype with this product), Comet ML (shares no subtype with this product), Clarifai (we have not classified this record), Neptune.ai (we have not classified this record), Labelbox (shares no subtype with this product), Google Colab (shares no subtype with this product), Composio (shares no subtype with this product), DeepAR (none of this category's subtypes apply), OCR.Space (shares no subtype with this product), Parseur (shares no subtype with this product), Reducto (shares no subtype with this product), SerpApi (shares no subtype with this product), Tavily AI (shares no subtype with this product), paperspace (shares no subtype with this product), Arize AX (shares no subtype with this product), Audio Enhancer (none of this category's subtypes apply), Braintrust (shares no subtype with this product), Clair (none of this category's subtypes apply), Langfuse (shares no subtype with this product), LangSmith (shares no subtype with this product), Langtrace (we have not classified this record), LangWatch (shares no subtype with this product), Mediaworkbench.ai (none of this category's subtypes apply), Othor AI (none of this category's subtypes apply), ReportGPT (none of this category's subtypes apply), Zenable (none of this category's subtypes apply), Exa (shares no subtype with this product), GPU-Bridge (we have not classified this record), Google Vertex AI Agent Engine (we have not classified this record), Google Vector Search 2.0 (shares no subtype with this product), Alibaba Cloud Qwen Code (none of this category's subtypes apply), E2B (shares no subtype with this product), Modal (shares no subtype with this product), ElevenLabs (we have not classified this record), Stability AI (we have not classified this record), Daytona (shares no subtype with this product), Blaxel (shares no subtype with this product), Novita Sandbox (shares no subtype with this product), Runloop (shares no subtype with this product), Mem0 (shares no subtype with this product), Zep (shares no subtype with this product), Letta (we have not classified this record), Supermemory (shares no subtype with this product), Cognee (shares no subtype with this product), Serper (shares no subtype with this product), Linkup (shares no subtype with this product), Parallel (shares no subtype with this product), You.com (shares no subtype with this product), Cloudflare AI Search (we have not classified this record), Valyu (shares no subtype with this product). Each is still listed in AI / ML, with the vendor's own words we read that from on its page. How we decide this.

See full comparison →

Recompute today's order yourself. The order above is a permutation seeded only on the UTC date and the query key — no vendor name, slug, id or offer field is an input. The list above is every one of the 32 entries in that order, not a prefix of it. The algorithm is published, so anyone can reproduce this page's order without asking us.
date
2026-11-14
query_key
alternatives:AI / ML:Google Gemini API
seed
6a28d89d0f2bdadf8577cc620049b9d3211fd7b0091e55c6fd3a8f0b81488725
tie_count
14

Alternatives Guides Featuring Google Gemini API

Gemini API Pricing 2026

Featured in Monthly Reports

May 2028 Report May 2027 Report April 2027 Report March 2027 Report January 2027 Report December 2026 Report November 2026 Report October 2026 Report September 2026 Report June 2026 Report April 2026 Report March 2026 Report

Watch Google Gemini API for Pricing Changes

We do not push notifications. Every change we record is readable the moment it lands, and the JSON answer carries an ETag — send it back as If-None-Match and an unchanged answer costs one 304.

curl https://agentdeals.dev/api/changes?vendor=Google%20Gemini%20API curl https://agentdeals.dev/pricing-changes/feed.xml?vendor=Google%20Gemini%20API

API docs →

Related Guides

AI / ML Free Tier Comparison AI / ML Alternatives Guide Setup Guide Stability Dashboard

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Google Gemini API free?
Yes, Google Gemini API offers a free tier: Free (Reduced). Free tier: Gemini 4 Hydrogen, Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.1 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3 Flash Preview, Gemini Embedding 2 and Gemma 4 are free of charge. Also free of charge are Gemini 3.8...
What is Google Gemini API's free tier?
Google Gemini API's free tier is called "Free (Reduced)". Free tier: Gemini 4 Hydrogen, Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.1 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3 Flash Preview, Gemini Embedding 2 and Gemma 4 are free of charge. Also free of charge are Gemini 3.8 Live (real-time voice), Gemini 3.5 Live Translate (translation), Gemini 3.5 Transcribe (speech-to-text), Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS (text-to-speech). Gemini Decision (gemini-decision-1), released 2026-11-11, is a multimodal decision model available through the Decisions API. It answers yes/no, choice and rubric questions with probabilities and generates zero output tokens, so it has no output price; input is free of charge on the free tier with 10,000 requests per day, and $0.10 per million input tokens on the paid tier. Gemini 4 Hydrogen (gemini-4-hydrogen), released 2026-11-12, is free of charge on the Gemini API free tier for input, output and context caching. On the paid tier, Gemini 4 Hydrogen costs $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens (output includes thinking tokens), with context caching at $0.075 (implicit caching only); on the Batch API, Gemini 4 Hydrogen is $0.75 input and $3.75 output. The other Gemini 4 models, Gemini 4 Carbon (gemini-4-carbon) and Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon), are paid only, as are Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash (gemini-omni-1.2-flash). Gemini 4 Carbon, which Google calls its most capable reasoning model, has been generally available since 2026-11-10 and is not available on the Gemini API free tier. Gemini 4 Argon, generally available since 2026-10-13, is not available on the Gemini API free tier. According to ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/google-ai-plans, "Gemini 4 Argon is not available on the Free plan." Gemini 4 Argon is available through the Gemini API on the paid tier. "Direct use of the Gemini API (such as using API keys or external applications) is billed and managed separately," per ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/google-ai-plans. Google AI Pro and Ultra provide access to Gemini 4 Argon in Google AI Studio, per ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/google-ai-plans. Gemini 4 Argon is in Antigravity on Google AI Ultra and paid Google AI Pro. In Google AI Studio, Gemini 4 Carbon requires a Google AI Ultra plan and is not available on the Free or Google AI Pro plans (aistudio.google.com/docs/google-ai-plans). In Antigravity, Gemini 4 Carbon is available on Google AI Ultra and Enterprise only (antigravity.google/docs/models). On a Google AI Pro trial, Argon is only available "on trial with eligible premium devices" (antigravity.google/docs/models). Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5.5 are not included on Google AI Pro trials; trial users and those with memberships through third-party partners, Pixel Pass or Google Fi manage subscriptions through Google One. Google AI Pro via partner offers like Jio's does not include Gemini 4 Argon, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Claude Opus 5.5 in Antigravity. Per a Google staff member on discuss.ai.google.dev (2026-10-21), "Those frontier models are restricted to directly billed (non-trial/non-promotional) Google AI Pro, Google AI Ultra and Enterprise plans." No Gemini image model has a free tier in the API. Nano Banana 2.1 (gemini-nano-banana-2.1) became generally available on 2026-10-06. It costs $0.0336 per 1K image, $0.0504 per 2K image and $0.113 per 4K image. The Batch API halves those prices. Nano Banana Pro costs $0.134 per 1K or 2K image and $0.24 per 4K image. Except for Gemini Decision, Google publishes no free-tier rate limits; each project's limits are shown in Google AI Studio. Developers report 429 errors showing 20 requests per day for Gemini 3.x Flash models and 500 requests per day for 3.x Flash-Lite models as of September 2026. Rate limits apply per project, not per API key. Daily request quotas reset at midnight Pacific time, per Google's rate-limits page. Since 2026-09-18 Google serves the Gemini 2.5 models only to users who have used them before, and points new projects to 3.5 Flash-Lite or 3.8 Flash. If your app calls gemini-3.7-flash, Google deprecated it on 2026-10-08. Requests to gemini-3.7-flash are routed automatically to gemini-3.8-flash. Google says to update the model string to gemini-3.8-flash. Google deprecated gemini-2.5-pro and gemini-2.5-flash on 2026-11-02. Both models shut down on 2026-12-01. Use them until that date. From that date, requests to gemini-2.5-pro route to gemini-3.8-flash and are billed at its rates. Requests to gemini-2.5-flash route to gemini-3.5-flash-lite and are billed at its rates. Update your model string before 2026-12-01 and review Google’s migration guides for breaking API changes. gemini-2.5-flash-lite is not deprecated. If your app calls Gemini 3.5 Flash (gemini-3.5-flash), Google deprecated it on 2026-10-08. Requests to gemini-3.5-flash are routed automatically to gemini-3.6-flash. Google says to update the model string to gemini-3.6-flash or gemini-3.8-flash. Google shut down Gemini Omni Flash Preview (gemini-omni-flash-preview) on 2026-10-22. Google's replacement is gemini-omni-1.2-flash. Google shuts down Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash (gemini-omni-1.1-flash) on December 3, 2026; after that, requests that name gemini-omni-1.1-flash are answered by gemini-omni-1.2-flash at Gemini Omni 1.2 Flash rates. Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite (gemini-3.1-flash-lite) can be called until 2027-05-07, when Google shuts it down. Google's replacement is gemini-3.5-flash-lite. Paid, per million tokens (input/output; output prices include thinking tokens): Gemini 4 Carbon $2/$10 through 2026-11-30 (context caching $0.10, then $0.20, implicit caching only); Gemini 4 Argon $2/$10 through 2026-11-30 (context caching $0.10, then $0.20, implicit caching only); Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.75/$3.75 until 2026-12-31, then $1.50 input and $7.50 output from 2027-01-01 (3.6 Flash: the same prices and dates); Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite $0.30/$2.50; Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite $0.25/$1.50; Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview $2/$12 (prompts up to 200K tokens; prompts over 200K tokens cost $4 input and $18 output). Through 2026-11-30, Gemini 4 Argon's Standard output price is below Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview's for prompts up to 200K tokens, with the same input price; from 2026-12-01 Argon's is higher. From December 1, 2026, Gemini 4 Argon will cost $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens for Standard, $2 input and $10 output for Batch API, $2 input and $10 output for Flex, and $7.20 input and $36 output for Priority. From December 1, 2026, Gemini 4 Carbon will also cost $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens for Standard, $2 input and $10 output for Batch API and Flex, and $7.20 input and $36 output for Priority. The Batch API costs half the standard price; Gemini 3.8 Flash is $0.375 input and $1.875 output per million tokens through 2026-12-31. Gemini 4 Carbon and Gemini 4 Argon on the Batch API are $1 input and $5 output through 2026-11-30. Google also sells two tiers, Flex and Priority, both in Preview. A request picks one with the service_tier field ("flex" or "priority"); without it the request is Standard. Gemini 4 Carbon and Gemini 4 Argon on Flex are $1 input and $5 output through 2026-11-30; on Priority they are $3.60 input and $18 output through 2026-11-30. "The Gemini Flex API is an inference tier that offers a 50% cost reduction compared to standard rates, in exchange for variable latency and best-effort availability" (ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/flex-inference). "Priority inference is priced at 75-100% more than the standard API and billed per token" (ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/priority-inference). The Gemini API Contributor Tier is an invite-only private preview. Eligible users will be invited by email. It offers half the Standard price for Gemini 4 Carbon, Gemini 4 Argon, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview, Gemini 3.8 Flash, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. Google uses the data from those models to improve its products. "Please don't submit sensitive or personal information" (ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/logs-policy). Grounding with Google Search is supported on the free tier for Gemini 3.8 Live, Gemini 3.8 Live Extended Thinking and Gemini 3.1 Flash Live Preview. It is not available on the free tier for Gemini 4 Hydrogen, Gemini 4 Argon or the Gemini 3.x Flash, Flash-Lite and Pro models. On the paid tier, 5,000 search requests a month are free, shared across Gemini 3 and newer models, then $14 per 1,000. Accounts opened after 2026-03-02 cannot spend the $300 Google Cloud welcome credit on the Gemini API. The Gemini API Free Tier needs no credit card or billing account; linking a billing account and prepaying moves you to the Paid Tier. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing, read 2026-10-22.) Google's pricing page says free-tier content is used to improve Google's products. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing, read 2026-10-04.) For developers outside the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, Google's terms say human reviewers may read free-tier prompts and responses, and Google says not to send sensitive, confidential or personal information on the free tier. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms, read 2026-10-04.) Paid-tier projects created on or after October 26, 2026, store Generate Content API requests and responses by default. Projects created before that date keep their existing Generate Content API storage setting, which is off unless it was turned on in AI Studio. The Interactions API stores requests by default in all projects, including projects created before October 26, 2026. The Paid Tier keeps stored interactions for 55 days and the Free Tier for 1 day. Logging also covers calls made through OpenAI compatibility endpoints. Logs are retained for up to 55 days, configurable to 7, 14 or 28 days. Logs are not used to improve Google's products unless shared. Logging can be toggled independently for each API in AI Studio, and store=false on a request turns it off for that request. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/logs-policy, read 2026-11-06.) Setting store=false on the Interactions API prevents storage and is incompatible with background execution and using previous_interaction_id. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/interactions, read 2026-11-06.) Apps that serve users in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the United Kingdom may use only the paid tier. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms, read 2026-10-04.) Google's terms require users to be 18 years of age or older to use the Gemini API and Google AI Studio. The API may not be used in a website, app, or other service directed towards or likely to be accessed by individuals under 18. These rules apply to both the free and paid tiers. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms, read 2026-10-17.) Google offers the Gemini API and Google AI Studio, free and paid, in 230 countries and territories, including Taiwan, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. China, Hong Kong, Macao, Russia, Belarus, and Iran are not among them. Google says to developers outside the list: "try the Gemini API in Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform". (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/available-regions, read 2026-10-17.) Google's terms say changes to Gemini API paid prices take effect 30 days after Google posts them unless Google specifies otherwise. Pricing for a new paid service takes effect immediately unless Google specifies otherwise. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms, read 2026-10-17.) Google is moving existing Postpay accounts to Prepay for Gemini API usage. An account that has not switched and added credits by the cutover date in its account notice has its paid service interrupted; other Google Cloud services on the billing account stay on Postpay. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing, read 2026-10-07.) Google's billing FAQ says switching from Prepay to Postpay is not supported. The same doc's refunds section says an account that meets Google's criteria can manually upgrade from Prepay to Postpay, which closes the Prepay account and refunds unused prepaid credits; eligible new projects can choose Postpay at setup. Google publishes no criteria. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing, read 2026-11-01.) Impress Watch reported the cutover date as 2026-10-12. (From https://www.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/2132505.html, read 2026-10-07.) When the Prepay balance reaches $0, every API key in every project on the billing account stops working until credits are added; requests then fail with an HTTP 402 Payment Required error. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing, read 2026-10-07.) Google's steps for switching to Prepay tell you to set up auto-reload on the AI Studio Billing page to top up your credit balance when it runs low. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing, read 2026-10-07.) The monthly Google Cloud credits from Google AI Pro or Ultra are eligible Google Cloud credits. On the Prepay billing plan, these credits pay for Gemini API usage only after you buy Prepay credits in AI Studio. With a $0 Prepay balance, requests fail even with unused Google Cloud credits, according to a Google staff member on discuss.ai.google.dev. (From https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/error-code-402-message-your-prepayment-credits-are-depleted/185524, read 2026-10-10.) A paid project does not automatically revert to the free tier, even when its Prepay balance reaches $0. To use the free tier, disable billing on the project, which unlinks it from its billing account. (From https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing, read 2026-10-10.) Disabling billing on a Google Cloud project stops all other paid Google Cloud services in it. Some resources may be deleted and become non-recoverable. Outstanding charges are still due. (From https://cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/modify-project, read 2026-10-10.) Developers on Google's AI developer forum report projects dropping to Tier 1 after switching to Prepay or after a Prepay payment. Tier 1's $250 monthly cap includes prior spend, so projects can pause with a 429 error despite available credits. Google staff ask users to report this with the Gemini API Tier Downgrade Report Form. (From https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/prepay-migration-demoted-tier-3-tier-1-and-the-tier-1-cap-was-applied-retroactively-to-pre-migration-spend/179550, read 2026-10-10.)
Is Google Gemini API's free tier reliable?
Google Gemini API's free tier is considered stable. None of the 21 recorded changes narrowed the terms. See the pricing history below.
Is Google Gemini API's free tier good for production?
Google Gemini API's free tier can be suitable for small production workloads and side projects. We rate it stable and it offers Free tier: Gemini 4 Hydrogen, Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.1 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3 Flash Preview…, so it's a reasonable starting point. None of the 21 recorded changes narrowed the terms. Monitor your usage against the limits and have an upgrade plan ready.
What changed in Google Gemini API's pricing?
Google Gemini API has had 21 recorded pricing changes. Most recently: The Gemini API keeps running. The Deep Research agent preview deep-research-pro-preview-12-2025 can be called until October 23, 2026, when Google shuts it down. Google names deep-research-preview-04-2026 as the replacement. Source: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations (2026-10-23).
What are the best free alternatives to Google Gemini API?
We publish no ranking of these. Nothing we record measures popularity or generosity, so naming a best or a top few would be our preference rather than our data. We hold 32 free alternatives to Google Gemini API in AI / ML, each listed above with its tier. Of those, 14 carry no recorded demerit and are indistinguishable under every signal we hold, so they are listed in an order that rotates daily, 9 are demoted with the reason named, 9 are listed last behind a stated gate. Our ranking rule is published at /criteria.
When will I outgrow Google Gemini API's free tier?
At 10,000 requests/day, you'll need to upgrade. When you outgrow the free tier, evaluate paid plans against alternatives — sometimes a competitor's free tier covers what you need.
What category is Google Gemini API in?
Google Gemini API is categorized under AI / ML on AgentDeals. We list 32 other AI / ML services alongside it, every one of them on this page with its free tier and the stability we publish for it.