—
paid tier / month
—per day
—per 1k requests
—vs GPT-4o / mo

Gemini vs the field — same workload

Identical tokens and volume, priced on each model.

ModelInput $/1MOutput $/1MCost / month
⚠️ Gemini reference pricing (July 2026): 2.5 Pro $1.25/$10, 2.5 Flash $0.30/$2.50, 2.0 Flash $0.10/$0.40 per 1M tokens. The free tier (AI Studio) has rate limits, not token charges. Confirm on Google's pricing page. See every provider on the full AI API cost calculator. · Report outdated price →
✓ Last verified: 2026-07-15· Source: official provider pricing page· Auto-monitored — report change →

The free tier comes first

Gemini is unusual among the big models: it has a genuine free tier through Google AI Studio, with no credit card to start. It's capped by requests-per-minute and requests-per-day rather than tokens, so for prototypes and many low-traffic apps the honest answer is you may pay nothing. This calculator shows the paid-tier bill — what you'd owe once you exceed the free limits and switch to pay-as-you-go.

When you do pay, Gemini is one of the cheapest capable options. 2.0 Flash ($0.10 / $0.40) is astonishingly cheap for high-volume work, 2.5 Flash ($0.30 / $2.50) adds capability, and 2.5 Pro ($1.25 / $10) competes with frontier models at a lower input price. As always, output is the costly side — cap answer length first. Comparing providers? Put Gemini against GPT-4o and Claude on the AI API cost calculator, price a feature with the AI app cost estimator, and get your key via the Gemini guide.

FAQ

Is Gemini really free? The free tier is real but rate-limited; high volume needs the paid tier shown above.

Which Gemini is cheapest? Gemini 2.0 Flash, at about $0.10 input / $0.40 output per 1M tokens.