Google Gemini API vs OpenRouter
Same workloads, both price lists, refreshed daily. List prices tie on nearly all 15 shared line items today, so the choice comes down to platform differences (routing, limits, tooling), summarized below.
Google Gemini API
Gemini models with the most generous free tier of any frontier lab and very cheap Flash-class models. Vertex AI offers the same models with enterprise controls.
- Generous free tier
- Cheapest frontier-adjacent small models
- Native multimodal
OpenRouter
One API key for 340+ models across every major provider, with automatic failover and pass-through pricing. The fastest way to hedge provider risk or A/B models without new integrations.
- 340+ models, one integration
- Automatic provider failover
- Pass-through pricing, small platform fee
Shared models, priced by both
List prices refreshed 2026-08-23 ยท input $/1M tokens| Model | Google Gemini API in/out | OpenRouter in/out | Cheaper input |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini-2.0-Flash-001 | $0.100 / $0.400 | $0.100 / $0.400 | tie |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | $0.100 / $0.400 | $0.100 / $0.400 | tie |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | $0.250 / $1.50 | $0.250 / $1.50 | tie |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | $0.300 / $2.50 | $0.300 / $2.50 | tie |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | $0.300 / $2.50 | $0.300 / $2.50 | tie |
| Google Gemini Flash Latest | $0.300 / $2.50 | $0.375 / $1.88 | Google Gemini API |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview | $0.500 / $3.00 | $0.500 / $3.00 | tie |
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | $0.750 / $3.75 | $0.750 / $3.75 | tie |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash | $0.750 / $3.75 | $0.375 / $1.88 | OpenRouter |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | $1.25 / $10.00 | $1.25 / $10.00 | tie |
| Google Gemini Pro Latest | $1.25 / $10.00 | $2.00 / $12.00 | Google Gemini API |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | $1.50 / $9.00 | $1.50 / $9.00 | tie |
| Gemini-3-Pro | $2.00 / $12.00 | $2.00 / $12.00 | tie |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | $2.00 / $12.00 | $2.00 / $12.00 | tie |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Custom Tools | $2.00 / $12.00 | $2.00 / $12.00 | tie |
Cheaper-on-count is a tally of listed prices, not a quality verdict: throughput, reliability and quantization differ between providers. Disclosure.