Google Gemini API

The Gemini API is Google's developer platform for building applications powered by the Gemini family of AI models, covering everything from text generation and reasoning to image, video, and audio creation and understanding. Developers can get started for free through Google AI Studio, a browser-based workspace launched in December 2023 as the successor to Google MakerSuite, where they can select a model, write and tune a prompt, adjust generation parameters, and export working code or grab an API key without configuring a local development environment or adding a billing account.

The platform's core strength is native multimodality: a single Gemini model can process and generate text, images, video (including direct YouTube URLs), audio, and documents, rather than requiring separate specialized APIs stitched together. Beyond the core models, the Gemini API includes dedicated capabilities like Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) for image generation and editing, Veo 3.1 for video generation, Lyria 3 for music generation, and a Live API for low-latency, real-time voice conversations supporting 70+ languages. An Agents framework adds managed agents, function calling, code execution, Google Search and Google Maps grounding, and a Computer Use model for building browser automation agents, giving developers the building blocks for more autonomous applications on top of Gemini.

Pricing follows a three-tier structure: a Free tier with generous limits on select models (where content may be used to improve Google's products), a Paid tier with higher rate limits, context caching, a Batch API offering roughly 50% cost savings, and a guarantee that content is not used for training, and an Enterprise tier delivered through the separate Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (formerly Vertex AI) for large-scale deployments needing fine-tuning, VPC Service Controls, customer-managed encryption keys, and compliance certifications like HIPAA, SOC 2, and FedRAMP. Individual model pricing is billed per million tokens and varies significantly by model tier, from cost-efficient Flash-Lite variants to the flagship Gemini 3.1 Pro.

Built and maintained by Google DeepMind and Google, the Gemini API and AI Studio are the first-party front door to Google's generative AI models, with new capabilities like Live streaming, media generation, and the Batch API typically landing there before anywhere else. Google reported more than 8.5 million monthly developers building on its models as of its I/O 2026 keynote, spanning individual developers, students, and enterprise teams building everything from quick prototypes in AI Studio's Build mode to production-scale applications running on the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.

The Gemini API uses a three-tier structure. Free is for developers and small projects, offering limited access to select models with free input and output tokens, Google AI Studio access, and no billing account required, though content is used to improve Google's products. Paid unlocks higher rate limits for production, context caching, the Batch API (roughly 50% cost reduction), access to Google's most advanced models, and a guarantee that content is not used to improve Google's products. Pricing is billed per million tokens and varies by model: for example, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview costs $2.00 input and $12.00 output per million tokens for prompts under 200K tokens, while cost-efficient options like Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite start as low as $0.30 input and $2.50 output per million tokens, with additional Flex and Priority billing modes available for different latency and cost tradeoffs. Enterprise is for large-scale deployments through the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, adding dedicated support channels, advanced security and compliance certifications (HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP), provisioned throughput, volume-based discounts, and MLOps tooling, available by contacting Google's sales team.