Locus product guide · Updated November 10, 2026

Gemini API pricing in 2026: rates, free tier and changes

Gemini API prices per million tokens run from $0.10 input and $0.40 output on Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite to $2 input and $12 output on Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview. Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 and $3.75 through December 31, 2026, then doubles. Gemini 4 Argon costs $2 and $10 through November 30, then $4 and $20. Batch and Flex cut rates by 50%, and most Flash models have a free tier. Prices checked November 10, 2026.

How much does each Gemini model cost per million tokens?

Google lists paid-tier prices per million tokens for each model. Output prices include thinking tokens. The table shows text models from the Gemini Developer API pricing page. Prices checked November 10, 2026.

Context caching also charges for storage by the hour: $0.50 per million tokens per hour on 3.8 Flash and 3.6 Flash through December 31, $1.00 on the Flash-Lite models and $4.50 on 3.1 Pro Preview.

How much does each Gemini model cost per million tokens?
Model	Input	Output	Cached input	Free tier
Gemini 4 Argon	$2.00 to Nov 30, 2026, then $4.00	$10.00, then $20.00	$0.10, then $0.20 (implicit caching only)	Not available
Gemini 3.8 Flash	$0.75 to Dec 31, 2026, then $1.50	$3.75, then $7.50	$0.075, then $0.15	Free of charge
Gemini 3.6 Flash	$0.75 to Dec 31, 2026, then $1.50	$3.75, then $7.50	$0.075, then $0.15	Free of charge
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite	$0.30	$2.50	$0.03	Free of charge
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite	$0.25, or $0.50 for audio	$1.50	$0.025	Free of charge
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview	$2.00, or $4.00 over 200k prompt tokens	$12.00, or $18.00 over 200k	$0.20, or $0.40 over 200k	Not available
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite	$0.10	$0.40	$0.01	Free of charge

Which Gemini prices change in the next few months?

Several prices on the page carry end dates, and two older models are being redirected. Budget for these now, because the API keeps accepting the same model IDs.

December 1, 2026: Gemini 4 Argon doubles to $4 input and $20 output.
December 1, 2026: requests to gemini-2.5-pro route to Gemini 3.8 Flash and bill at 3.8 Flash rates. Requests to gemini-2.5-flash route to Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.
December 3, 2026: gemini-omni-1.1-flash video requests route to gemini-omni-1.2-flash and its rates.
January 1, 2027: Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.6 Flash double to $1.50 input and $7.50 output, with caching at $0.15.
March 15, 2027: Gemini 2.5 Flash Image shuts down.

How much do Batch, Flex and Priority change the price?

Google sells the same models at four service levels. Batch and Flex both halve the price. Flex stays synchronous, so it suits agent chains that can wait a few minutes but need each answer before the next step. Flex has no automatic fallback, so your code must retry.

Grounding with Google Search is billed on top of tokens. Gemini 3 and newer models share 5,000 free search requests a month, then pay $14 per 1,000, with a default cap of 1,500 requests a day per project.

How much do Batch, Flex and Priority change the price?
Service level	Price	Latency target	Good for
Standard	Full price	Seconds to minutes	Interactive apps
Flex	50% discount	1 to 15 minutes	Background agents and evals
Batch API	50% of standard	Up to 24 hours	Bulk jobs
Priority	75% to 100% more than Standard	Seconds	Latency-critical traffic

What does a real Gemini workload cost?

Take 10,000 calls, each with a 2,000-token prompt and a 500-token answer: 20 million input tokens and 5 million output tokens. The middle column shows the same job after the scheduled price change.

Thinking tokens bill as output. If Gemini 3.8 Flash also thinks for 1,000 tokens per call, the job adds 10 million output tokens, or $37.50 at today’s rate. Cap thinking where the task allows it.

What does a real Gemini workload cost?
Model	Standard today	After the scheduled change	Batch or Flex today
Gemini 4 Argon	$90	$180 from December 1	$45
Gemini 3.8 Flash	$33.75	$67.50 from January 1	$16.88
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview	$100	No change listed	$50
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite	$18.50	No change listed	$9.25
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite	$12.50	No change listed	$6.25
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite	$4	No change listed	$2

What does the Gemini API free tier include?

The free tier covers 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, both 3.x Flash-Lite models, 2.5 Flash-Lite, the embedding models and Gemma 4. Gemini 4 Argon and 3.1 Pro Preview are paid only. Google uses free-tier content to improve its products. Paid-tier content is not used.

Rate limits apply per project, and daily quotas reset at midnight Pacific time. Linking a billing account moves a project to Tier 1. Paid tiers also have spend-based limits per 10 minutes: $10 on Tier 1 and $200 on Tiers 2 and 3.

What does the Gemini API free tier include?
Usage tier	How to qualify	Billing cap
Free	An active project or free trial	Not applicable
Tier 1	Link an active billing account	$250
Tier 2	$100 paid and 3 days since first payment	$2,000
Tier 3	$1,000 paid and 30 days since first payment	$20,000 to $100,000+

How does Gemini work through Locus Pro?

Locus Pro offers Gemini as the gemini/chat endpoint, plus gemini/embed for embeddings, paid from one prepaid credit balance. You need no Google Cloud project or billing account. Catalog checked November 10, 2026.

gemini/chat accepts model IDs such as gemini-4-argon, gemini-3.8-flash, gemini-3.6-flash, gemini-3.5-flash-lite, gemini-3.1-flash-lite, gemini-3.1-pro-preview and gemini-2.5-pro. Each call holds an amount sized from the prompt and output budget, then settles to reported usage.

The agent sees the price before each call and can set a ceiling on it, and a monthly limit stops new calls when you reach it.

How does Gemini work through Locus Pro?
Locus endpoint	What it does	Billing basis
gemini/chat	Text and chat across the Gemini models above	Reported token usage
gemini/embed	Embeddings for search and retrieval	Priced by request

Which Gemini setup should you choose?

For prototypes, start with Google’s free tier. In production, move anything that can wait to Batch or Flex. At steady volume, Gemini can cost less per call with your own Google account and API key, which also brings the free tier and both discounts.

Locus Pro fits when an agent mixes Gemini with Claude, DeepSeek or paid data APIs and you want one prepaid balance for every provider, with no separate Google billing setup. Platforms can also bill their own customers for the calls their agents make.

High-volume extraction or translation: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite or 3.5 Flash-Lite.
General agent work: Gemini 3.8 Flash, but budget for the January 1 price change.
Hard reasoning and long outputs: Gemini 4 Argon, priced at $4 and $20 from December 1.
Code that still calls gemini-2.5-pro: test it on 3.8 Flash before December 1.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Gemini API free?

Partly. Gemini 3.8 Flash, 3.6 Flash, the Flash-Lite models and the embedding models have a free tier with lower rate limits. Google uses free-tier content to improve its products. Gemini 4 Argon and 3.1 Pro Preview are paid only.

Do Gemini thinking tokens cost extra?

They bill at the output price. Google lists output prices as including thinking tokens, so a model that reasons at length can cost much more than the visible answer suggests.

What happens to gemini-2.5-pro after December 1, 2026?

Google routes those requests to Gemini 3.8 Flash and bills them at 3.8 Flash rates. Test your prompts on 3.8 Flash before the switch.

Is Flex or Batch better for saving money on Gemini?

Both cost 50% of standard. Flex answers synchronously within a 1 to 15 minute target, which suits chained agent steps. Batch targets 24 hours and suits large offline jobs.

Implementation references

Use these first-party references for current request contracts and account requirements. Tool availability, prices, and negotiated terms can change.

Sources

Third-party details were checked on November 10, 2026. Vendors change pricing and features often, so confirm on their site before you decide.