Google Gemini

Cheap Gemini API

Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemini 1.5 Flash at up to 65% below Google's official API pricing. Access via our OpenAI-compatible proxy — works with any tool that supports a custom base URL.

View Gemini Pricing API Docs
Fact-Checked & Verified

Answer-First Summary: CheapAI is a high-availability infrastructure routing layer giving developers volume-discounted proxy access to official API models. Last Updated: March 2026. Maintained by the CheapAI team. All pricing claims and capabilities are evidence-backed using live provider data as the ultimate source of truth.

How It Works & Proof → Pricing Trackers → Live Routing Status →

Short answer: CheapAI gives you OpenAI-compatible access to Gemini 1.5 Pro and Gemini 1.5 Flash at up to 65% below Google's official per-token pricing. One base URL change in any OpenAI SDK — no Google Cloud account, no API key setup. Native multimodal, 2M token context, delivered within 24 hours, paid with crypto.

Gemini API pricing — CheapAI vs Google official

Official Google AI Studio prices sourced from ai.google.dev/pricing. Checked March 2026. CheapAI prices are fixed per the universal token pack — see pricing page for exact figures.

Model Official Input / 1M Official Output / 1M Checked Verified Source CheapAI
Gemini 3 Pro Preview
Official: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
 $1.25/1M $10.00/1M 2026-03-31 ✓ Verified Source ↗ Up to 65% off
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Official: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Preview
 $0.100/1M $0.400/1M 2026-03-31 ✓ Verified Source ↗ Up to 65% off

Official pricing sourced from provider pages on 2026-03-31 · Maintained by the CheapAI team · View raw data · ✓ Verified = confirmed directly from provider page · ~ Partial = model family confirmed, exact pricing may vary · ? Unverified = no official pricing page entry found for this model ID

Who is this for?

Multimodal app builders

Gemini 1.5 Pro handles text, images, audio, and video natively — no separate vision model needed. Cheaper at scale than o1-preview for image-heavy workloads.

Long-document processing

2M token context on Gemini 1.5 Pro — sufficient to process an entire codebase, a full research paper library, or a large customer support knowledge base in one call.

High-volume / low-cost tasks

Gemini 1.5 Flash + CheapAI's discount makes classification, summarisation, and extraction tasks viable at a per-token cost lower than almost any other frontier model.

No Google Cloud account

Native Gemini API billing requires a Google Cloud project. With CheapAI you get Gemini access with no GCP setup, no credit card, paid with crypto.

Gemini 1.5 Pro vs Gemini 1.5 Flash — which to use?

Gemini 1.5 Pro — use when:

  • Your input requires visual reasoning
  • You need 2M+ token context
  • Task quality is the primary concern
  • You send complex or multi-part instructions
  • You need audio/video understanding

Gemini 1.5 Flash — use when:

  • Volume is high (>1M calls/day)
  • Tasks are simple: classify, summarise, extract
  • Latency is more important than depth
  • You want the absolute lowest cost per call
  • Chatbot or autocomplete-style workloads

For a full comparison with Claude and GPT costs, see the models directory.

When to choose Gemini — and when not to

✓ Choose Gemini when…

  • You need multimodal (image/audio/video)
  • You need 1M–2M token context
  • Flash gives better price/quality for bulk tasks
  • You already use OpenAI SDK—just swap URL

✗ Consider Claude or GPT instead when…

  • You need Cursor AI or Claude Code integration
  • You need best-in-class code generation
  • Your task needs Anthropic’s safety tuning
  • You rely on function-calling-heavy agentic flows

→ Cheap Claude API  |  Cheap GPT API

Quick setup

Python (OpenAI SDK)

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your-cheapai-key",
    base_url="https://cheapai-netifly-app.up.railway.app"
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="google/gemini-3-pro-preview",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Analyze this document..."}]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

cURL

curl https://cheapai-netifly-app.up.railway.app/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer your-cheapai-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "google/gemini-3-pro-preview", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]}'

Open WebUI

In Open WebUI Settings → Connections → OpenAI-Compatible, set the API Base URL to https://cheapai-netifly-app.up.railway.app and paste your CheapAI key. Select google/gemini-3-pro-preview or google/gemini-3-flash from the model dropdown. See the OpenAI-compatible API guide for full tool setup instructions.

Compatible tools

Open WebUI LangChain LlamaIndex n8n Cursor AI OpenAI Python SDK Roo Code Any OpenAI-compatible client

Limitations & tradeoffs

  • Token-pack billing, not per-call: Gemini access is available through universal token packs. Large multimodal inputs (images, audio) consume tokens faster — plan accordingly.
  • Not Google Cloud native: This is a proxy endpoint. You do not get Google Cloud SLAs, Data Loss Prevention, or VPC Service Controls.
  • Crypto payment only: Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, USDC, and others — no credit card or PayPal.
  • Not for regulated use cases: Not HIPAA- or SOC 2-certified. Avoid sensitive personal data.
  • Delivery within 24 hours: Usually faster, but not instant. SLA activates after blockchain payment confirmation.

Gemini API FAQ

Is this the real Gemini 1.5 Pro? +

Yes. CheapAI proxies your request to the real Google Gemini models. There is no custom or modified version — you get identical outputs to calling the Google AI API directly.

Do I need a Google Cloud account? +

No. CheapAI provides an API key and base URL. No Google account, no GCP project, no billing setup required.

Can I send images to Gemini 1.5 Pro through CheapAI? +

Yes. Gemini 1.5 Pro's multimodal capability is available. Send images as base64 or image URLs using the standard OpenAI vision message format — the proxy passes them through unchanged.

Does streaming work with Gemini? +

Yes. Set stream: true in your request and you will receive server-sent events in real time, identical to the OpenAI streaming format.

How does billing work for Gemini? Per token or flat plan? +

Gemini access through CheapAI uses the universal token pack model. You buy a credit pack and use it across any supported model — including Gemini 1.5 Pro, Gemini 1.5 Flash, Claude, and GPT-4o. See the token pack pricing.

What if my key stops working? +

Every plan is covered by a full service guarantee. If your key stops working during your plan period, contact @cheapai1sell on Telegram and we will replace it immediately or issue a full refund.

What model ID should I use in my code? +

Use google/gemini-3-pro-preview for Gemini 1.5 Pro or google/gemini-3-flash for Gemini 1.5 Flash. See the full list of model IDs in the models directory.

Pricing data sourced from ai.google.dev/pricing. Official rates checked March 2026. Page maintained by the CheapAI team. About CheapAI →

Access Gemini at up to 65% off

Choose a universal token pack. Pay with crypto. Get your key within 24 hours. Full service guarantee.

Get Cheap Gemini API Access