Google AI Studio
Google's free Gemini console; the strongest models are paid-only
Overview
Google AI Studio is Google's free browser workspace for prompting Gemini models, generating Gemini API keys and building apps in Build mode. The free tier covers Flash and Flash-Lite models, while Gemini 4 Argon and Gemini 3.1 Pro are paid-only through prepaid Gemini API billing. It began life in 2023 as MakerSuite.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 14 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- Limited access to certain models
- Free input and output tokens
- Google AI Studio access
- Content used to improve Google products
- Free tier available
- Content not used to improve Google products on paid tier
- Free tier available
- Batch and Flex at half price
- 5,000 free Google Search grounding requests a month
- Not available on the free tier
- Not available on the free tier
- Batch and Flex $1 / $5 per 1M until 30 Nov 2026
- Dedicated support channels
- Advanced security and compliance
- Provisioned throughput
- Volume-based discounts
API pricing (pay as you go)
| Model | Input | Cached input | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Prompts <=200k tokens; >200k: $4 in, $0.40 cache, $18 out. No free tier. | $2 | $0.20 | $12 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash Through 31 Dec 2026; from 1 Jan 2027 $1.50 in / $0.15 cache / $7.50 out. | $0.75 | $0.075 | $3.75 |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash Through 31 Dec 2026; from 1 Jan 2027 $1.50 / $0.15 / $7.50. | $0.75 | $0.075 | $3.75 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | $1.50 | $0.15 | $9 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite Input rate covers text, image, video and audio. | $0.30 | $0.03 | $2.50 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite Text/image/video rate; audio input $0.50, audio cache $0.05. | $0.25 | $0.025 | $1.50 |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro Prompts <=200k; >200k: $2.50 in, $0.25 cache, $15 out. | $1.25 | $0.125 | $10 |
Use cases
What you can produce with Google AI Studio
- Prompts tested against Gemini models with text, image, audio and video input in the browser
- A Gemini API key and runnable code exported from any prompt
- Full-stack apps built in Build mode and published on Google Cloud's Starter Tier (up to two)
- Free-tier API access to Gemini Flash, Flash-Lite, Live and TTS models
- Per-project rate-limit, usage and spend-cap views for the Gemini API
- Paid access to Gemini 4 Argon and Gemini 3.1 Pro on prepaid billing
AI Studio remains the quickest way to try Gemini: sign in, prompt with text, images, audio or video, export the code and take an API key. Flash and Flash-Lite are free on the API, and Build mode can now publish small apps without a billing account.
Treat the free tier as a trial, not infrastructure. The flagship Gemini 4 Argon and 3.1 Pro are paid-only, free-tier data may be used to improve Google's products, rate limits are shown only inside the console, and paid use now means prepaid credits and spend caps. Several Flash prices also double in January 2027.
What we found
Google AI Studio is Google's browser workspace for trying Gemini models, taking a Gemini API key and, increasingly, building whole apps. It began in March 2023 as MakerSuite for the PaLM API and took its current name with the Gemini launch in December 2023; makersuite.google.com still redirects there. A Google account is all it takes to start, and the console itself costs nothing.
What is free underneath it has narrowed. Google's pricing page lists no free tier for its strongest models, Gemini 4 Argon, released on 13 October 2026, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview. The free tier covers Flash, Flash-Lite, Live, speech and transcription models. Google's release notes do not record when Pro access was withdrawn; third-party trackers say 1 April 2026, so this page no longer states a date. Gemini 2.5 Pro still shows a free price, but since 18 September 2026 the 2.5 models are open only to accounts that used them before. Free-tier prompts and responses may be used to improve Google's products; paid ones are not.
Paid use is now prepaid. Google is moving Gemini API accounts from postpay to prepay, accounts climb usage tiers by cumulative spend, and monthly spend caps apply at account and project level. Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 output until 31 December 2026, then doubles; Gemini 4 Argon is $2 and $10 until 30 November, then $4 and $20. Batch and Flex run at half price, and Priority costs more.
Rate limits are no longer published as a table: Google says to check them inside AI Studio and that stated limits are not guaranteed. Complaints quoted on this page before, such as throttling after a dozen requests, could not be traced and have been removed. Build mode can publish up to two full-stack apps on Google Cloud's Starter Tier without a billing account. For production at scale, Google points enterprises to its Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Google AI Studio's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Google AI Studio unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
For the latest details, please refer to Google AI Studio directly →
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