Anthropic Claude API vs Google Gemini API pricing
Both are in llm apis. Anthropic Claude API is billed per token; Google Gemini API is billed per token. Numbers below are copied from each vendor's pricing page.
Anthropic Claude APINo free tier
- Free tier
- Trial credits on signup (no ongoing API free tier)
- Billed
- Per token
- Best for
- Frontier reasoning and agentic coding
- Verified
- Jun 27, 2026
Google Gemini APIFree tier or trial
- Free tier
- Free tier on Flash models: ~1,500 req/day, 250k TPM (Pro models paid-only since Apr 2026)
- Billed
- Per token
- Best for
- Multimodal, long-context, GCP-backed
- Verified
- Jun 27, 2026
Anthropic Claude API plans
| Plan | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.8 | $5 / $25 per 1M tokens | Flagship model, input/output; 1M-token context with no long-context surcharge. Fast Mode available at $10/$50. |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3 / $15 per 1M tokens | Best speed/intelligence balance, input/output; 1M-token context. |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | $1 / $5 per 1M tokens | Fastest, most cost-effective tier, input/output; 200K context. |
| Claude Fable 5 | $10 / $50 per 1M tokens | Most capable widely released model for the most demanding reasoning/agentic work; 1M context. |
| Batch API | 50% off standard rates | Asynchronous processing; up to 100K requests or 256MB per batch, most complete within 1 hour. |
| Prompt caching | ~0.1x read / 1.25x write (5m) | Cached input served at ~10% of base price; up to ~90% savings on repeated prefixes. |
- Rate-limit and quota tiers are opaque, limits are not always clearly stated, generating developer frustration
- Premium pricing at the Opus/Fable tier is high versus commodity LLM APIs
- Some features are gated by model tier or unavailable on certain third-party platforms (e.g. no Batches/web search on Bedrock)
Source: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing
Google Gemini API plans
| Plan | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier (AI Studio) | $0 | Free access to Gemini models via Google AI Studio with rate/quota limits; data may be used to improve products. |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | $0.10 / $1.50 in/out per 1M | Lowest-cost tier; output $0.40 on the Developer API. Batch halves it to $0.05/$0.20. |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash | $0.30 / $2.50 in/out per 1M | Cost-efficient workhorse with 1M context; Batch $0.15/$1.25; caching $0.03 per 1M + $1.00/hr storage. |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | $1.25 / $10.00 in/out per 1M | High-reasoning tier; rises to $2.50/$15.00 for prompts over 200K tokens. Batch $0.625/$5.00. |
| Grounding / tools add-on | $35 per 1,000 prompts | Google Search grounding after free tier; Maps grounding $25 per 1,000 prompts. |
- Restrictive quotas/rate limits on free and lower paid tiers cause friction
- Intelligence Index sits mid-pack rather than top-of-class vs. similarly-priced reasoning models
- Free-tier inputs may be used to improve Google products, a data-privacy concern for some teams