Gemini API pricing
Gemini API pricing per 1M tokens
Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $10.00 per 1M output tokens through November 30, 2026, then $4.00 and $20.00. Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 and $3.75 through December 31, 2026, then $1.50 and $7.50. Batch and Flex cost 50% less.
- Gemini 4 Argon
- $2 in, $10 out per 1M
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
- $0.75 in, $3.75 out per 1M
- Batch and Flex
- 50% below Standard
- Argon price change
- Doubles on Dec 1, 2026
Updated
Gemini API prices per 1M tokens
These are paid-tier Standard prices in USD per 1M tokens from Google's pricing page, and the output rates include thinking tokens. The table below covers the main Gemini 3 and newer text models and their scheduled price increases.
Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon) has no free tier and bills every token it processes, including thinking tokens.
| Model | Input | Output | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon | $2.00 ($4.00 from Dec 1, 2026) | $10.00 ($20.00 from Dec 1, 2026) | No |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $0.75 ($1.50 from Jan 1, 2027) | $3.75 ($7.50 from Jan 1, 2027) | Yes |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | $0.75 ($1.50 from Jan 1, 2027) | $3.75 ($7.50 from Jan 1, 2027) | Yes |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | $0.30 | $2.50 | Yes |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | $0.25 ($0.50 audio) | $1.50 | Yes |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | $2.00 ($4.00 over 200k) | $12.00 ($18.00 over 200k) | No |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | $0.50 ($1.00 audio) | $3.00 | Yes |
Batch, Flex and Priority prices
Batch and Flex requests cost 50% of the Standard rate, while Priority costs 1.8x the Standard price for the models shown. The Gemini 3.8 Flash (gemini-3.8-flash) and Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon) rates below also double: Argon on December 1, 2026 and 3.8 Flash on January 1, 2027.
Here are the Batch, Flex and Priority rates per 1M tokens across the lineup.
| Model | Batch and Flex | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon | $1.00 in, $5.00 out | $3.60 in, $18.00 out |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $0.375 in, $1.875 out | $1.35 in, $6.75 out |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | $0.15 in, $1.25 out | $0.54 in, $4.50 out |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | $0.125 in, $0.75 out | $0.45 in, $2.70 out |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | $1.00 in, $6.00 out (prompts up to 200k) | $3.60 in, $21.60 out (prompts up to 200k) |
Context caching costs
- Implicit caching is turned on by default for Gemini 2.5 and newer models.
- Gemini 4 Argon (
gemini-4-argon) supports implicit caching only, at $0.10 per 1M cached tokens through November 30, 2026, then $0.20 starting December 1, 2026. - Gemini 3.8 Flash (
gemini-3.8-flash) and Gemini 3.6 Flash charge $0.075 per 1M cached tokens through December 31, 2026 and $0.15 starting January 1, 2027, plus $0.50, then $1.00, per 1M tokens per hour of storage. - Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite charges $0.03 per 1M cached tokens.
- Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview costs $0.20 per 1M cached tokens for prompts up to 200k tokens, or $0.40 over 200k tokens.
- The minimum cacheable prompt is 4,096 tokens on Gemini 4 Argon, Gemini 3.8 Flash, Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview.
Grounding and tool fees
- Grounding with Google Search includes 5,000 free search requests per month shared across all Gemini 3 and newer models, then costs $14 per 1,000 requests with a daily cap.
- Grounding with Google Maps also includes 5,000 free requests per month shared across Gemini 3 and newer models, and then bills $14 per 1,000 requests.
- On the free tier, Search and Maps grounding aren't available for the Gemini 3 and newer text models above (Google notes they can be tested in Google AI Studio); the Gemini 3.8 Live models support free Search grounding, and Gemini 2.5 Flash and Flash-Lite include up to 500 free grounded requests per day for Search and for Maps.
- On Gemini 4 Argon (
gemini-4-argon), the internal tool system instructions and function declarations used for grounding are billed as tokens too.
How Gemini API billing works
- A project with no linked billing account is on the free tier, which charges nothing for input and output tokens on models that offer one.
- Moving to the paid tier requires a linked Cloud Billing account. New users default to Prepay, where credit purchases run from a $5 minimum to a $5,000 maximum, while some eligible accounts can choose or are assigned Postpay instead.
- Prepaid credits expire after 12 months and are non-refundable, except that switching an eligible Prepay account to Postpay refunds the remaining balance.
- When a Prepay balance hits $0, every API key on that billing account stops working and returns HTTP
402. - Billing data can lag by about 10 minutes.
- Google uses free-tier prompts and responses to improve its products (users in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK get the paid data terms), while paid-tier content isn't used to improve Google products outside the invite-only Contributor tier.
A flat subscription instead of per-token billing
Plan2API never bills per token. Instead, it turns a Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription you already pay for into an OpenAI-compatible Gemini subscription API key at https://api.plan2api.com/v1 with models such as gemini/gemini-4-argon-high, gemini/gemini-3.8-flash-high, gemini/gemini-3-flash, gemini/gemini-3.5-flash-lite and gemini/gemini-3.1-flash-lite, and your requests count against the subscription's own usage limits.
When your connected subscription runs out of quota, requests return HTTP 429 with the code subscription_quota_exhausted and a Retry-After header instead of running up a per-token bill. If you connect more than one Google account, a request that hits a limit moves to the next account before any output is sent. Plan2API itself has a Free plan at $0 with no card required and 50 chat requests a day, plus a Pro plan at $12 a month (or $99 a year) with 3 connected subscriptions and no daily request cap.
Use the AI subscriptions you already pay for as one OpenAI-compatible API key.
- Free: 1 subscription, 50 requests a day, no card
- Pro: $12 a month
FAQ
How much does the Gemini API cost per 1M tokens?
On the paid Standard tier, Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon) costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $10.00 per 1M output tokens through November 30, 2026, while Gemini 3.8 Flash (gemini-3.8-flash) costs $0.75 input and $3.75 output through December 31, 2026. At the lower end, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite costs $0.25 per 1M input tokens for text, image and video ($0.50 for audio) and $1.50 per 1M output tokens, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite costs $0.30 input and $2.50 output.
Is the Gemini API free?
Partly, depending on which model you call. Gemini 3.8 Flash (gemini-3.8-flash), Gemini 3.6 Flash, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and the legacy Gemini 3 Flash Preview all have a free tier where input and output tokens aren't charged, though Google uses free-tier prompts and responses to improve its products. Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon) and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview don't have a free tier at all.
When does Gemini 4 Argon pricing go up?
The Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon) price increases on December 1, 2026, rising from $2.00 to $4.00 per 1M input tokens and from $10.00 to $20.00 per 1M output tokens on the Standard tier. On the same date, Batch and Flex rates for Argon go from $1.00 and $5.00 to $2.00 and $10.00, Priority goes from $3.60 and $18.00 to $7.20 and $36.00, and implicit context caching goes from $0.10 to $0.20 per 1M tokens.
Do Gemini thinking tokens cost extra?
Thinking tokens are billed at the model's normal output token price, because Google's output rates include thinking tokens. On Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon), for example, every token the model processes is billed, so thinking tokens cost $10.00 per 1M tokens through November 30, 2026 and $20.00 starting December 1, 2026.
How much cheaper is the Gemini Batch API?
Batch and Flex prices are 50% of Standard prices across the lineup. That brings Gemini 4 Argon (gemini-4-argon) down to $1.00 input and $5.00 output per 1M tokens through November 30, 2026 ($2.00 and $10.00 from December 1, 2026), and Gemini 3.8 Flash (gemini-3.8-flash) down to $0.375 input and $1.875 output through December 31, 2026 ($0.75 and $3.75 from January 1, 2027).
Sources
- Google: Gemini API pricingai.google.dev
- Google: Gemini API billingai.google.dev
- Google: Context cachingai.google.dev
- Google: Gemini 4 Argon developer guideai.google.dev
- Google: What's new in Gemini 3.8ai.google.dev