Gemini API cost per request, October 2026: a chat turn and a long document
Input, cached and output prices for every Gemini model, Google's list price next to ours, and what a chat turn and a long-document request cost on Gemini 4 Argon, 3.1 Pro and 3.8 Flash.
How a Gemini API request is billed
Google bills Gemini API calls per token, at three rates per million tokens: input, cached input and output. Output costs several times input on every Gemini model, and cached input costs a tenth of input or less. A request costs its tokens times the rates of the model it named; there is no seat or plan price.
Gemini per-token rates
11 Gemini models. Each row shows our price and Google's list price.
| Model | Input | Cached | Output | List input | List cached | List output |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon | $0.60 | $0.06 | $3.00 | $2.00 | $0.10 | $10.00 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $0.45 | $0.045 | $2.25 | $0.75 | $0.075 | $3.75 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | $0.90 | $0.09 | $5.40 | $1.50 | $0.15 | $9.00 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | $1.20 | $0.12 | $7.20 | $2.00 | $0.20 | $12.00 |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | $0.45 | $0.045 | $2.25 | $0.75 | $0.075 | $3.75 |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | $0.45 | $0.045 | $2.25 | $0.75 | $0.075 | $3.75 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | $0.18 | $0.018 | $1.50 | $0.30 | $0.03 | $2.50 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | $0.15 | $0.015 | $0.90 | $0.25 | $0.025 | $1.50 |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | $0.30 | $0.03 | $1.80 | $0.50 | $0.05 | $3.00 |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | $0.18 | $0.018 | $1.50 | $0.30 | $0.03 | $2.50 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | $0.75 | $0.075 | $6.00 | $1.25 | $0.125 | $10.00 |
USD per million tokens. Ours from the live catalog; list is the price on Google's pricing page, the read date on each model page.
The lowest price here is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview: $0.15 in and $0.90 out.
Gemini API cost per request, worked
A chat turn of 2,000 input and 500 output tokens, and a long-document request of 50,000 input and 2,000 output. Both sizes are assumptions; nothing is counted at the cached rate.
| Model | Chat turn, list | Chat turn, here | Long document, list | Long document, here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon | $0.009 | $0.0027 | $0.12 | $0.036 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | $0.01 | $0.006 | $0.124 | $0.0744 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $0.0034 | $0.002 | $0.045 | $0.027 |
Input tokens times the input rate plus output tokens times the output rate, per million.
Gemini 4 Argon: $0.60 in and $3.00 out here, against $2.00 and $10.00 at list, 70% under on input and 70% on output.
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: $1.20 in and $7.20 out here, against $2.00 and $12.00 at list, 40% under on input and 40% on output.
Gemini 3.8 Flash: $0.45 in and $2.25 out here, against $0.75 and $3.75 at list, 40% under on input and 40% on output.
Gemini API cost per month, worked
Two monthly workloads on the same models: 1,000 chat turns a day and 100 long documents a day, each for 30 days. Every request is the size above, so a month of chat is 60 million input and 15 million output tokens, and a month of documents is 150 million input and 6 million output. The volumes are assumptions; nothing is counted at the cached rate.
| Model | Chat month, list | Chat month, here | Document month, list | Document month, here |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon | $270.00 | $81.00 | $360.00 | $108.00 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | $300.00 | $180.00 | $372.00 | $223.20 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $101.25 | $60.75 | $135.00 | $81.00 |
USD for 30 days: the per-request cost above times 30,000 chat turns or 3,000 documents.
Gemini 4 Argon: $189.00 a month here for both workloads, against $630.00 at list, $441.00 less.
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: $403.20 a month here for both workloads, against $672.00 at list, $268.80 less.
Gemini 3.8 Flash: $141.75 a month here for both workloads, against $236.25 at list, $94.50 less.
Cost scales with volume, so 10,000 chat turns a day is ten times the chat column.
What cached input does to the cost
When a request repeats a prefix the API has seen, such as a long system prompt or a document, the response reports those tokens as cached and they bill at the cached rate in the first table. A model with no cached rate bills them at its input rate.
Calling it
Point the SDK at our base URL with your key. Every Gemini id in the table works with the same two values.
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.uplinkswitch.com/v1",
api_key="sk-uplink-live-...",
)
completion = client.chat.completions.create(
model="gemini-4-argon",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize this in one line."}],
)
print(completion.choices[0].message.content)More in the SDK guide.
Questions
Is there a subscription? No. Credit is prepaid from $10, and each top-up locks your prices for 30 days.
Which Gemini model should I use? The cheapest one that does the task. Flash Lite for short high-volume work, Flash for most chat and coding, Pro or Gemini 4 Argon where the harder answer is worth the price. Run the same prompt on each and compare.
Where is the full price list? On the Gemini API pricing page, and every other model on the Models page. To see what your own usage would cost, re-price an export on the savings page.