--- title: "Google AI Studio / Gemini Developer API free inference" description: "A recurring no-cost API allowance covering 22 cataloged models." canonical_url: "https://freeinferencing.com/provider/google_gemini_api/" md_url: "https://freeinferencing.com/provider/google_gemini_api.md" last_updated: "2026-09-19" --- # Google AI Studio / Gemini Developer API > A recurring no-cost API allowance covering 22 cataloged models. ## Classification - **Directory:** Current - **Free access:** Always-free quota - **Status:** Available now - **Confidence:** High - **Payment card:** No - **Account:** Required - **Equivalent paid value:** Up to $1,235.17/mo - **API endpoint:** `https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com` ## Models mentioned - `gemini-3.8-flash` - `gemini-3.7-flash` - `gemini-3.6-flash` - `gemini-3.5-flash` - `gemini-3.5-flash-lite` - `gemini-3.1-flash-lite` - `gemini-2.5-flash` - `gemini-2.5-flash-lite` - `gemini-3.5-live-translate-preview` - `gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview` - `gemini-3.1-flash-tts-preview` - `gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-12-2025` - `gemini-3.5-transcribe-live` - `gemini-3.5-transcribe` - `gemini-3-flash-preview` - `gemini-2.5-pro` - `gemini-2.5-flash-preview-tts` - `gemini-embedding-2` - `gemini-embedding-001` - `gemini-robotics-er-2-preview` - `gemini-robotics-er-2-streaming-preview` - `gemini-robotics-er-1.6-preview` ## Limits and terms ```yaml dimensions: - requests_per_minute - tokens_per_minute - requests_per_day public_fixed_numbers: null source_of_truth: AI Studio project rate-limit dashboard reset: Daily request quotas reset at midnight Pacific time. ``` ## What happens to your prompts? **Not private.** Unpaid-service inputs and outputs may be retained and used to improve and train Google models. Privacy is audited separately from price. Review the current governing terms before sending sensitive or regulated data. ## Data governance and agreements ```yaml data_governance: review_status: reviewed plan_scope: Gemini Developer API and Google AI Studio unpaid quota; paid services and EEA, Switzerland, or UK treatment differ. prompt_retention: Unpaid-service content may be retained and used for product and model improvement. Abuse-monitoring data is retained for 55 days. Feature-specific storage includes grounding data for 30 days and optional or stateful logs with configurable retention. response_retention: Generated responses follow the same unpaid-service, abuse-monitoring, and feature-specific rules. ordinary_logging: Google may log prompts, context, and outputs for abuse monitoring. Paid-project user logs are optional except stateful features and default to a maximum 55-day retention. model_training: Unpaid-service inputs and outputs may be used to improve and train Google models. Paid-service content is not used for product improvement without permission; EEA, Swiss, and UK unpaid use receives the paid-service data treatment. product_improvement: Allowed for unpaid services outside the stated regional exception. Paid logging datasets can be voluntarily shared for improvement and training. human_or_operator_access: Authorized human reviewers may read, annotate, and process unpaid-service content and content flagged for abuse review; Google says identifiers are disconnected before improvement review. subprocessors_and_routing: Google and its service infrastructure process content; grounding and other integrations introduce feature-specific handling under the additional terms. deletion_controls: Paid-project logs can use 7, 14, 28, or 55-day retention; datasets persist without a fixed period, files remain until deletion or expiry, and stateful features require explicit configuration for zero-retention behavior. caveat: The free tier has materially different data-use terms from the paid tier, and users are told not to submit sensitive, confidential, or personal information to unpaid services. privacy_caveat: Free-tier content may be used to improve Google products; paid-tier content is not used that way under the published terms. agreements: service_specific_terms: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms privacy_policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy prohibited_use_policy: https://policies.google.com/terms/generative-ai/use-policy ``` ## Eligibility ```yaml account_required: true payment_method_required: false geographic_availability_applies: true api_key_transition: As of September 2026, use an AI Studio Auth key or a standard Google API key restricted to the Generative Language API; unrestricted standard keys are rejected. ``` ## API compatibility and modalities - **Compatibility:** Provider-specific or not documented - **Modalities:** Embeddings, Speech / audio ## Before you build with Google AI Studio / Gemini Developer API ### Read the classification narrowly This record describes the bounded offer supported by evidence on 2026-09-19; it does not guarantee permanence, production suitability, uptime, latency, model quality, or access from every account and region. “Always-free quota” should be interpreted together with the Current directory placement, High confidence, No payment-card status, and the plan-specific sources below. ### Resolve the live model route The snapshot records 22 model IDs. Match the exact ID against the provider's current catalog before using it in code because zero-price routes, aliases, context limits, and feature support can rotate while an older documentation page remains online. ### Match the quota to the workload shape Translate the allowance into peak requests per minute, input and output tokens, concurrency, retries, and every daily or monthly ceiling that applies to the intended account. The first limit reached by the workload is the practical ceiling. A large token pool can still fail interactive bursts, and a high request limit can still fail long-context work. Include tool calls and retry traffic, test the largest realistic payload, and treat research, experimental, and community access as conditional on their eligibility and fair-use terms. ### Preserve billing and privacy boundaries The recorded payment-card requirement is No, and account access is required. Confirm both in the live signup flow, set provider-side budgets when charges are possible, and observe the balance or usage fields after a complete request. The prompt-handling classification is **Not private** because Unpaid-service inputs and outputs may be retained and used to improve and train Google models. Re-read the terms for the exact route and plan before sending sensitive, regulated, or proprietary content. ### Follow the evidence, then re-check it This record links 14 first-party sources covering the offer, catalog, limits, pricing, terms, privacy, or adoption evidence available to the audit. Prefer the newest and most specific governing document or live catalog when sources disagree. A dated finding can become stale even when the page remains online, so retain the source and snapshot that supported the decision and submit a correction when a provider changes a material term. ### Plan fallback without policy drift A fallback should preserve modality, context length, streaming, structured output, tools, safety controls, and data terms, not only API syntax. Decide which errors may retry, cap retry storms, and prevent an exhausted free route from silently switching to a billable model. Rotating aliases and free pools can change behavior without changing the endpoint, so retain the response model field and test at least one substitute route before the primary offer becomes unavailable. ### Monitor the offer as a dependency Capture the model ID, response model, rate-limit headers, usage fields, latency, HTTP status, and provider request identifier. Watch authorization failure, quota exhaustion, catalog removal, policy revision, and balance movement as separate failure modes. Re-check the live catalog and governing sources on a schedule proportionate to the workload's importance, and keep an owner and exit path for any production dependency on volatile free capacity. ### Test one complete request before scaling Start with the smallest permitted request using the exact credential, model ID, endpoint, region, and account type intended for deployment. Record the status, headers, usage fields, response model, latency, and dashboard balance movement. Then exercise an invalid model, quota exhaustion, or rate limit so failure is explicit and cannot silently switch to a paid route. Validate streaming, structured output, and tool calls separately because a free model can expose fewer features than its paid counterpart. Keep a budget ceiling outside the application whenever billing is possible, and do not send sensitive data until the observed route matches the reviewed agreement. ## Primary sources - [Gemini API pricing](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing): Official Pricing - [Rate limits](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits): Official Docs - [API keys](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/api-key): Official Docs - [Deprecations](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/deprecations): Official Docs - [Gemini API changelog](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/changelog): Official Changelog - [Gemini API Additional Terms of Service](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/terms): Official Terms - [Google Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy): Official Privacy - [Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy](https://policies.google.com/terms/generative-ai/use-policy): Official Aup - [Data logging and sharing](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/logs-policy): Official Docs - [Zero data retention](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/zdr): Official Docs - [Last published free-tier rate-limit table (archived 2025-12-01)](https://web.archive.org/web/20251201061102/https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits): Official Docs Archived - [Gemini 2.5 Pro model specifications and current paid rates](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/models/gemini-2.5-pro): Official Docs - [First year of the Gemini era (millions of developers)](https://developers.googleblog.com/en/looking-back-at-the-first-year-of-the-gemini-era/): Official Adoption - [pypistats recent downloads for the official google-genai package](https://pypistats.org/api/packages/google-genai/recent): Package Downloads ## Sitemap See the full [semantic sitemap](/sitemap.md) for every page and markdown mirror.