# Gemini API pricing in 2026: Flash, Pro, Argon and the free tier

URL: https://infro.io/blog/gemini-api-pricing-2026
Author: INFRO Editorial (https://infro.io/blog/editorial)
Publisher: INFRO
Published: 2026-10-20
Last modified: 2026-10-20
Last reviewed: 2026-10-20 (next review due 2026-11-19)
Topic: Cost and FinOps
Format: Guide

> In October 2026 the Gemini API charges per million tokens: Gemini 4 Argon $2 input and $10 output until 30 November 2026, then $4 and $20; Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview $2 and $12 up to 200K tokens; Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.75 and $3.75 until 31 December 2026, then $1.50 and $7.50; Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite $0.30 and $2.50. Output prices include thinking tokens, Batch is half the standard rate, and free-tier content is used to improve Google's products while paid-tier content is not.

Key takeaways:
- Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.6 Flash double from $0.75 and $3.75 to $1.50 and $7.50 on 1 January 2027; Gemini 4 Argon doubles on 1 December 2026. Budget for the new rates now.
- Gemini output prices include thinking tokens, so a short answer on a thinking model can cost more than its length suggests.
- The free tier is free of money, not of terms: Google states free-tier content is used to improve its products, and paid-tier content is not.
- Batch is half the standard rate; explicit context caching adds a storage charge per million tokens per hour.
- Grounding with Google Search on Gemini 3 models is free for 5,000 a month, then $14 per 1,000.

**How much does the Gemini API cost?** In October 2026, per million tokens: Gemini 4 Argon is $2 input and $10 output, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is $2 and $12 for prompts up to 200K tokens, Gemini 3.8 Flash is $0.75 and $3.75, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is $0.30 and $2.50[1]. Unlike most rate cards, Google's already shows the next prices: Argon doubles on 1 December 2026, and 3.8 Flash and 3.6 Flash double on 1 January 2027.

If you are planning a 2027 budget on Gemini, those dates matter more than any other line on the page.

## Current text model rates

| Model | Free tier | Input | Output (incl. thinking) | Scheduled change |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gemini 4 Argon | No | $2.00 | $10.00 | $4.00 / $20.00 from 1 Dec 2026 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (≤200K) | No | $2.00 | $12.00 | — |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (>200K) | No | $4.00 | $18.00 | — |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | Yes | $0.75 | $3.75 | $1.50 / $7.50 from 1 Jan 2027 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | Yes | $0.75 | $3.75 | $1.50 / $7.50 from 1 Jan 2027 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Yes | $0.30 | $2.50 | — |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Yes | $0.25 | $1.50 | — |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro (≤200K) | Yes | $1.25 | $10.00 | — |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | Yes | $0.30 | $2.50 | — |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | Yes | $0.10 | $0.40 | — |

Table: Standard paid tier per 1M tokens, text, image and video input, from Google's Gemini API pricing page on 2026-10-20. Audio input is priced higher on several models.

Google describes Gemini 4 Argon as its flagship reasoning model for complex software engineering and long multi-step agents, and it is not available on the free tier[1]. Gemini 3.1 Pro is still labelled Preview, with the model id `gemini-3.1-pro-preview`. For where Flash and Flash-Lite sit against GPT-6 Luna and Claude Haiku, see [fast, low-cost models compared](https://infro.io/blog/small-fast-models-compared-2026).

### Plan for the price changes now

The changes are not promotions that might be extended; they are dated prices on the same page[1]:

- **Gemini 4 Argon** goes from $2 and $10 to $4 and $20 on **1 December 2026**. Its implicit cache rate goes from $0.10 to $0.20.
- **Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.6 Flash** go from $0.75 and $3.75 to $1.50 and $7.50 on **1 January 2027**, and their cache, storage, Batch and Priority rates double too.

A workload that is cost-justified at today's Flash rate should be checked against the 2027 rate before it ships. If it only works at the introductory price, decide now whether the fallback is a smaller model, Batch, or a different provider, and put that decision in your [2027 budget](https://infro.io/blog/ai-budget-planning-2027).

## The modifiers

| Modifier | Effect | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Batch | Half the standard rate | Gemini 3.8 Flash Batch is $0.375 and $1.875 until 31 Dec 2026 |
| Flex | Half the standard rate on the models that list it | Gemini 3.8 Flash Flex matches its Batch rate |
| Priority | Above the standard rate | Gemini 3.8 Flash Priority is $1.35 and $6.75 until 31 Dec 2026 |
| Long context | Higher rates above 200K tokens | Only on Gemini 3.1 Pro and 2.5 Pro |

Table: Rate modifiers on Google's Gemini API pricing page, 2026-10-20.

**Context caching has two charges.** Reading cached tokens is billed per million tokens (Gemini 3.8 Flash: $0.075), and explicit caches also carry a storage charge per million tokens per hour ($0.50 on 3.8 Flash until the end of 2026, then $1.00)[1]. A large cache kept warm all night for a handful of morning requests can cost more in storage than it saves in reads. Gemini 4 Argon lists implicit caching only.

**Grounding with Google Search** on Gemini 3 and later is free for 5,000 a month, shared across those models, then "$14 per 1,000 requests", and Google adds in a footnote that each individual search query performed is charged[1]. Gemini 2.5 models are priced differently: a daily free allowance, then $35 per 1,000 grounded prompts.

## The free tier: what it costs that is not money

Google's pricing page says it plainly: on the free tier, content is used to improve Google's products; on the paid tier it is not[1]. That makes the free tier fine for prototypes with synthetic data and wrong for anything carrying customer data, contracts or source code you would not publish.

Rate limits also differ by tier, and they are applied **per project, not per API key**[2]. Tier 1 requires a linked billing account; Tier 2 requires $100 paid and three days since the first payment; Tier 3 requires $1,000 and 30 days. Each paid tier also has a spend rate limit per ten minutes ($10, $50 and $200)[2]. Creating more keys in the same project does not raise any limit; separating workloads into projects does, and it also separates their usage reports.

## Counting Gemini tokens

Google's guide gives the rules of thumb: about 4 characters per token for text, 258 tokens for an image up to 384 pixels on each side, larger images split into 768 by 768 tiles of 258 tokens each, and 32 tokens per second of audio. System instructions and tool definitions count as input[3]. For an exact figure before you send, call `count_tokens` (Python) or `countTokens` (JavaScript) with the same contents. [Count tokens before you call the API](https://infro.io/blog/count-tokens-before-api-call) compares this with OpenAI's and Anthropic's counting endpoints.

## Three requests, worked through

> **Example: A chat request on Gemini 3.8 Flash, now and in January**
> 3,000 input tokens and 600 output tokens, thinking included.
> 
> - Until 31 Dec 2026: 0.003M × $0.75 + 0.0006M × $3.75 = $0.0045
> - From 1 Jan 2027: 0.003M × $1.50 + 0.0006M × $7.50 = $0.0090
> - At a million requests a month: about $4,500 now, about $9,000 in January.

> **Example: Ten minutes of audio on Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite**
> 600 seconds × 32 tokens = 19,200 audio tokens at the $0.50 audio input rate, plus 1,000 output tokens at $1.50.
> 
> - 0.0192M × $0.50 + 0.001M × $1.50 = about $0.011

> **Example: Grounded answers on a Gemini 3 model**
> 100,000 prompts in a month, each running one Google Search query.
> 
> - The first 5,000 are free; the remaining 95,000 cost 95 × $14 = $1,330, before tokens.
> - A prompt that runs three queries counts three times.

## Choosing a Gemini model by workload

The rate card is easier to use once each model has a job:

- **High-volume extraction, tagging and routing.** Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or 2.5 Flash-Lite. Both have free tiers for development, low output rates, and no scheduled increase on the pricing page. Test them first; a task that passes on Flash-Lite never needed Flash.
- **Interactive chat and agents with tools.** Gemini 3.8 Flash. Its current rate is attractive, but model the workload at $1.50 and $7.50 before you commit a product margin to it, and keep a second candidate evaluated.
- **Long documents and hard reasoning.** Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview below 200K tokens, or Gemini 4 Argon for multi-step engineering work. Check the Preview label against your own change-management rules: a preview model can change or be withdrawn on shorter notice than a stable one.
- **Anything nobody waits for.** The same models on Batch, at half the standard rate.

Whichever you pick, measure cost per successful task rather than cost per token. A model that costs twice as much per token but finishes the job in one attempt instead of three is the less expensive model. [Cost per successful task](https://infro.io/blog/cost-per-successful-task) sets out the measurement.

## Pricing Gemini requests with INFRO

You connect your own Google AI Studio or Vertex AI account, and Google bills you directly; INFRO takes no share of it. INFRO estimates each Gemini request at Google's list rate or your negotiated rate, records thinking tokens as output, and can refuse a request before Google is called if a budget for the organization, project, member or key has no room. If you hold a negotiated Gemini rate, enter it once in the console (Team plan and above) and it prices every matching request from then on, whichever service sent it.

## Summary

Read Gemini's page for two things beyond the rates: the dates and the terms. Price your 2027 workloads at the 2027 rates, keep customer data off the free tier, budget explicit-cache storage by the hour, and remember that rate limits follow projects, not keys.

## Questions

### Is the Gemini API free?

Several Gemini models have a free tier with lower rate limits, including Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash and the Flash-Lite models. Gemini 4 Argon and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview have none. Google's pricing page states that content sent on the free tier is used to improve its products, while paid-tier content is not.

### When does Gemini 3.8 Flash pricing change?

On 1 January 2027. Google's pricing page lists $0.75 input and $3.75 output per million tokens through 31 December 2026, and $1.50 and $7.50 from 1 January 2027. Context caching and Batch rates double on the same date.

### Are Gemini thinking tokens billed?

Yes. Google labels the output column 'Output price (including thinking tokens)', so thinking tokens are billed at the output rate.

### How many tokens is an image in Gemini?

Google's token guide says an image up to 384 pixels in both dimensions counts as 258 tokens, and larger images are split into 768 by 768 tiles of 258 tokens each. Audio counts as 32 tokens per second.

## Sources

1. Gemini Developer API pricing — Google. https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing (accessed 2026-10-20)
2. Rate limits — Google. https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits (accessed 2026-10-20)
3. Understand and count tokens — Google. https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/tokens (accessed 2026-10-20)