Google Gemini API API pricing: plans, free tier and what to watch for

Google Gemini API API pricing at a glance: Free tier (AI Studio) $0, Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite $0.10 / $1.50 in/out per 1M, Gemini 2.5 Flash $0.30 / $2.50 in/out per 1M, Gemini 2.5 Pro $1.25 / $10.00 in/out per 1M

The short answer

Google Gemini API is billed per token. It has a free tier: Free tier on Flash models: ~1,500 req/day, 250k TPM (Pro models paid-only since Apr 2026). The paid plans we list start at $1.25 / $10.00 in/out per 1M (Gemini 2.5 Pro).

Plans and prices

Plan	Price	What it covers
Free tier (AI Studio)	$0	Free access to Gemini models via Google AI Studio with rate/quota limits; data may be used to improve products.
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite	$0.10 / $1.50 in/out per 1M	Lowest-cost tier; output $0.40 on the Developer API. Batch halves it to $0.05/$0.20.
Gemini 2.5 Flash	$0.30 / $2.50 in/out per 1M	Cost-efficient workhorse with 1M context; Batch $0.15/$1.25; caching $0.03 per 1M + $1.00/hr storage.
Gemini 2.5 Pro	$1.25 / $10.00 in/out per 1M	High-reasoning tier; rises to $2.50/$15.00 for prompts over 200K tokens. Batch $0.625/$5.00.
Grounding / tools add-on	$35 per 1,000 prompts	Google Search grounding after free tier; Maps grounding $25 per 1,000 prompts.

How Google Gemini API bills you

The pricing model is per token. Long-context multimodal models with the most usable real free tier via AI Studio, backed by Google Cloud scale. Best suited to: multimodal, long-context, gcp-backed.

What to watch for on the bill

Restrictive quotas/rate limits on free and lower paid tiers cause friction
Intelligence Index sits mid-pack rather than top-of-class vs. similarly-priced reasoning models
Free-tier inputs may be used to improve Google products, a data-privacy concern for some teams

The pricing page we read

Google Gemini API pricing page, captured for reference — Capture of ai.google.dev. Captured from Germany, so some vendors show local prices or currency. Listed prices are verified Jun 27, 2026. The live page may differ.

Source: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing. Prices change, so confirm there before you commit.

Compare Google Gemini API with alternatives

Other llm apis: OpenAI API, Anthropic Claude API, Mistral La Plateforme, xAI Grok API, Groq.

Looking at quality rather than price? See the Google Gemini API score on APIbenchmarks. Full entry: Google Gemini API pricing.