Gemini API Pricing: 3.6 Flash & Flash-Lite Rates per 1M Tokens
Short answer: Google's paid-tier Gemini models cost $0.30–$0.75 per 1M input tokens and $2.50–$3.75 per 1M output tokens — the lowest rates of any provider tracked on this site after GPT-5.6 Luna. Gemini 3.6 Flash's promotional pricing doubles on January 1, 2027.
Gemini pricing table
Standard paid-tier text rates per 1,000,000 tokens, verified against Google's official Gemini API pricing page on 2026-08-16.
| Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context window | Max output | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gemini 3.6 Flash Balanced · promo pricing | $0.75 * | $3.75 * | 1,048,576 | 65,536 | |
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteLowest Budget / high-volume | $0.30 | $2.50 | 1,048,576 | 65,536 |
* Promotional standard rates through Dec 31, 2026; Gemini 3.6 Flash bills $1.50/$7.50 from Jan 1, 2027. Prices are informational estimates in USD per Google-published token rates and may exclude caching, batch discounts, tools or taxes. The Google invoice is the source of truth.
The 3.6 Flash promo window ends Dec 31, 2026.
Gemini 3.6 Flash currently bills at $0.75 / $3.75 per 1M input/output tokens — half its standard rate. On January 1, 2027 the price doubles to $1.50 / $7.50. A workload costing $506/month today costs $1,013/month next year at identical volumes. If you are annual-planning on Gemini, model the post-promo rate, not the current one.
Two structural advantages hold regardless of the promo: both Gemini models accept 1,048,576 input tokens with no long-context surcharge (OpenAI's GPT-5.6 family reprices 2x/1.5x above 272K input), and max output is a generous 65,536 tokens. For very long documents, Gemini is often the cheapest way to stay inside a single request.
Your workload on Gemini, priced monthly
Pick a preset or enter per-request token volumes and daily requests. Rates shown are current promotional/standard paid-tier prices.
| Model | Per request | Per day | 30-day estimate |
|---|
Which Gemini model fits which workload?
Purely on arithmetic: at chatbot volumes (2K in / 500 out per request, 5K requests a day) Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite runs about $277.50/month where 3.6 Flash costs $506.25 at promotional rates — and $1,012.50 once standard pricing resumes in 2027. Flash-Lite handles classification, extraction, short answers and high-volume chat at the lowest Gemini rates; 3.6 Flash is the stronger general-purpose model for mixed workloads where quality headroom matters.
"Best fit" here is a cost result, not a quality ranking — benchmark quality on your own prompts before routing production traffic. Compare Gemini against the other providers on the LLM API Pricing Comparison page.
Recent Gemini pricing changes
Gemini API pricing questions
How much does the Gemini API cost?
Google's Gemini paid-tier models cost $0.30–$0.75 per 1M input tokens and $2.50–$3.75 per 1M output tokens at current rates: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite at $0.30/$2.50, and Gemini 3.6 Flash at a promotional $0.75/$3.75 through December 31, 2026.
What is the cheapest Gemini API model?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the cheapest Gemini model at $0.30 per 1M input and $2.50 per 1M output tokens — 60% cheaper on input than Gemini 3.6 Flash — while keeping the same 1,048,576-token context window.
When does Gemini 3.6 Flash promotional pricing end?
Gemini 3.6 Flash is billed at promotional rates of $0.75 per 1M input and $3.75 per 1M output tokens through December 31, 2026. From January 1, 2027 the standard rates of $1.50/$7.50 apply — double the promotional price — so budgets for 2027 should use the higher number.
What is the Gemini API context window?
Both tracked Gemini models accept up to 1,048,576 input tokens (1M tokens) with a maximum output of 65,536 tokens. Unlike OpenAI's GPT-5.6 family, Gemini does not apply a long-context surcharge at these rates.
How does Gemini pricing compare to OpenAI and Claude?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite ($0.30/$2.50) is the second-cheapest model tracked on this site after GPT-5.6 Luna ($0.20/$1.20). Gemini 3.6 Flash at promotional $0.75/$3.75 undercuts every mid-tier model from OpenAI and Anthropic. See the LLM API Pricing Comparison page for the full table, or the OpenAI and Claude deep dives.
Where these numbers come from.
All rates are taken from Google's official Gemini API pricing page and re-verified weekly. The calculator multiplies your token volumes by published per-million-token rates at current (promotional) pricing; it does not estimate tokenization and does not apply caching or batch discounts.
Official source: Google Gemini API pricing. Always confirm the Google invoice before making purchasing decisions.