Gemini API free tier: what Google's pricing table says about your data and the Argon price
Google's Gemini API pricing page, read on 26 October 2026, lists 8 of its 10 text models on a free tier and carries a table row "Used to improve our products" that reads Yes for the free tier and No for the paid tier. The same page lists Gemini 4 Argon at $2.00 input and $10.00 output through 30 November, then $4.00 and $20.00.
What Google's pricing page says
Every figure here is a statement on Google's Gemini API pricing page, read on 26 October 2026. The page is large, so we saved a copy with a hash and parsed the text models by pattern.
Paid tier: $2.00 input and $10.00 output through 30 November, then $4.00 and $20.00. Not available on the free tier.
Paid tier: $0.75 input and $3.75 output through 31 December, then $1.50 and $7.50 from 1 January 2027.
For 8 of the 10 text models, Google's table lists "Used to improve our products" as Yes in the free column and No in the paid column. We read the two values by column order.
Gemini 3 and newer: $14 per 1,000 requests after 5,000 free a month. The 2.5 Pro row lists $35 per 1,000 grounded prompts after 1,500 free a day.
Text models: free tier, paid price, and data use
8 of the 10 text models below are on the free tier. Where a model lists a dated step, the first price is the current one; the later one is in the calendar section.
| Model | Free tier? | Paid input, per million tokens | Paid output | Used to improve products (free / paid) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gemini-4-argon | Not on the free tier | $2.00 through November 30, 2026. $4.00 starting December 1, 2026. | $10.00 through November 30, 2026. $20.00 starting December 1, 2026. | n/a |
| gemini-3.8-flash | Free tier | $0.75 through December 31, 2026. $1.50 starting January 1, 2027. | $3.75 through December 31, 2026. $7.50 starting January 1, 2027. | Yes / No |
| gemini-3.6-flash | Free tier | $0.75 through December 31, 2026. $1.50 starting January 1, 2027. | $3.75 through December 31, 2026. $7.50 starting January 1, 2027. | Yes / No |
| gemini-3.5-flash-lite | Free tier | $0.30 (text / image / video / audio) | $2.50 | Yes / No |
| gemini-3.1-flash-lite | Free tier | $0.25 (text / image / video) $0.50 (audio) | $1.50 | Yes / No |
| gemini-3-flash-preview | Free tier | $0.50 (text / image / video) $1.00 (audio) | $3.00 | Yes / No |
| gemini-3.1-pro-preview-customtools | Not on the free tier | $2.00, prompts $4.00, prompts > 200k tokens | $12.00, prompts $18.00, prompts > 200k | n/a |
| gemini-2.5-pro | Free tier | $1.25, prompts $2.50, prompts > 200k tokens | $10.00, prompts $15.00, prompts > 200k | Yes / No |
| gemini-2.5-flash | Free tier | $0.30 (text / image / video) $1.00 (audio) | $2.50 | Yes / No |
| gemini-2.5-flash-lite | Free tier | $0.10 (text / image / video) $0.30 (audio) | $0.40 | Yes / No |
Some rows list prices by prompt length or by input type; the wording is Google's. The "used to improve products" column is read by column order (free, then paid) from a table row of that name.
The dated price changes
Gemini 4 Argon, the top-ranked model on the LMArena text leaderboard when we checked, doubles in price on 1 December. Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash double on 1 January 2027. Our price calendar lists these with the other dated changes we found.
Worked example, our assumption and not a measurement: 1 million input and 250,000 output tokens a month on Gemini 4 Argon costs $4.50 now and $9.00 from 1 December.
How we know, and what we did not verify
Parsed from a saved copy of ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing (SHA-256 a252aac2059e41da), read on 26 October 2026. The build stops if a model block stops matching.
- Text models only. Image, audio, video, live and robotics models are not covered.
- We did not read Google's terms, and we did not test billing.
- We have not asked Google to comment before publication. A provider or reader who finds a wrong figure can tell us; we correct it and date the correction.
Part of the series: price calendar, plan tiers, search tool prices.
FAQ
Does Google use free-tier Gemini API content to improve its products?
Google's pricing table has a row "Used to improve our products". For the 8 text models on the free tier it reads Yes in the free column and No in the paid column. We read the two values by their column order. Read Google's terms for what that means for your data; we have not.
Which Gemini API text models are not on the free tier?
gemini-4-argon and gemini-3.1-pro-preview-customtools. Both are listed as not available on the free tier on the page we read.
When does Gemini 4 Argon get more expensive?
Google's page lists the paid tier at $2.00 input and $10.00 output per million tokens through 30 November, then $4.00 and $20.00 starting 1 December. As a worked example with our own assumption of 1 million input and 250,000 output tokens a month, that is $4.50 now and $9.00 after.
What does Google charge for search grounding?
For Gemini 3 and newer models the page lists 5,000 free search requests a month shared across those models, then $14 per 1,000 requests. The Gemini 2.5 Pro row lists 1,500 requests a day free, then $35 per 1,000 grounded prompts.
Are these the prices for the Gemini app subscriptions?
No. These are Gemini API prices per million tokens. The consumer plans (AI Plus, Pro and Ultra) are covered in our plan comparison.