It's the same as with every LLM API. You could've asked Gemini to explain like a 5 year old: The Google Gemini API has a pricing structure that can seem a bit complex at first, but it essentially boils down to paying for what you use. Here's a breakdown: Two Tiers: Free Tier: This is like a trial version. You can use Gemini for free, but there are limits on how much you can use it. It's great for testing and trying out the API. Paid Tier: This gives you full access to Gemini's power with higher usage limits. You pay for what you use, similar to how you pay for electricity or mobile data. What you pay for: Input Tokens: Every word, number, or symbol you send to Gemini is an input token. Output Tokens: Every word, number, or symbol Gemini sends back in response is an output token. Context Caching: This is like Gemini's memory. If you want it to remember past conversations, you pay a small fee to store that information. How much does it cost? The exact cost depends on which Gemini model you use and how many tokens you need. Input tokens can range from $0.075 to $3.50 per 1 million tokens. Output tokens are typically more expensive, ranging from $0.30 to $10.50 per 1 million tokens. Context caching also varies in price. Think of it like this: Imagine you're sending a letter. You pay for the paper (input tokens), the stamp (output tokens), and maybe a special envelope if you want to send something fragile (context caching). The bigger and heavier the letter, the more it costs to send. Where to find the details: Google provides detailed pricing information on their website. You can find the latest pricing for each Gemini model and feature there. Key takeaway: Google Gemini API pricing is based on usage. You have the flexibility to use the free tier for testing or choose the paid tier for more demanding applications. Just remember that the more you use, the more it costs. Gemini API Pricing  |  Google AI for Developers Or you could do simple google search to find this: Context caching  |  Gemini API  |  Google AI for Developers More on reddit.com

Currently with gemini 2.0 costing $0.40 per 1M ouput tokens, my kinda conservative ballpark range would be 3 - 4 dollars given the compute and tokens. I just can't wait to get higher rate limits in the next few weeks, i have a few projects that would really benefit from this model More on reddit.com

building a company is hard and users dont know all the pressures you face. respect, keep going! More on reddit.com

Both. Google AI Studio is targeted more towards developers and has stuff like manually setting levels of filtering, variable cost based on usage,... Gemini Advanced uses the same Gemini 1.5 Pro model with 1 million tokens at the moment. It's their consumer facing product with normal monthly subscription and you don't have to worry about charges based on your usage. More on reddit.com