Gemini Multimodal
💰 Token Pricing
| Type | Price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Input | Omni Flash: $0.15/M input tokens (multimodal); Nano Banana 2 Lite: $0.034/1K image tokens; Veo 3.1: $0.10/sec video | per million tokens |
| Output | Omni Flash: $0.60/M output tokens (multimodal); Nano Banana Pro: $0.12/1K image tokens | per million tokens |
🤖 Supported Models (5)
✨ Pros
- ✓Gemini Omni Flash is Google's first natively multimodal flagship model supporting audio + video + text inputs
- ✓Nano Banana 2 Lite is Google's lightweight image-gen model launched in 2026-06 at $0.034 per 1K image tokens
- ✓Veo 3.1 and Imagen 4 round out the same API for video + image generation, completing the 'understand + generate' loop
- ✓Free tier covers 15 RPM Omni Flash + 2 Veo 3.1 generations per day — enough for small-batch product validation
- ✓1M token context window can process 60-min video + audio + subtitles in a single request without chunking
⚠️ Cons
- ×China access requires proxy (Google AI Studio not directly accessible)
- ×Complex pricing tiers — Veo 3.1 per-second billing makes cost prediction hard
- ×Omni Flash latency rises significantly above 500K token context
- ×Imagen 4 and Veo 3.1 have copyright + portrait restrictions in some regions
- ×Not OpenAI-compatible — must use Google Gen AI SDK or direct REST
🎯 Best For
Multimodal understanding (video/audio/image+text); production-grade image/video generation; Google ecosystem and Vertex AI integration
💰 Pricing & Plans
| Model / Capability | Unit | Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini Omni Flash (input) | 1M tokens | $0.15 | Long-context multimodal understanding |
| Gemini Omni Flash (output) | 1M tokens | $0.60 | Reasoning + structured output |
| Nano Banana 2 Lite (image) | 1K image tokens | $0.034 | High-volume, low-cost image gen |
| Nano Banana Pro (image) | 1K image tokens | $0.12 | Production-grade image gen |
| Imagen 4 (image) | per image | $0.04 | Standard image generation |
| Veo 3.1 (video) | per second | $0.10 | Short-form video generation |
🔧 API & Developer Experience
- •API Style: Google Gen AI SDK (Python/Node/Go/Java/REST) and Vertex AI endpoint — NOT OpenAI-compatible by default, but OpenAI-compatible wrappers exist (e.g. OpenRouter, LiteLLM).
- •Base URL: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta (Google AI Studio) or https://{region}-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1 (Vertex AI).
- •SDK Compatibility: Official google-genai SDK unifies Gemini + Imagen + Veo under one import; community SDKs via OpenAI-compatible wrappers.
- •Multimodal Input: Single request accepts text + image (inline or File API) + audio + video (up to 60 min in 1M context) — no separate per-modal endpoints.
- •Streaming: SSE token streaming for text; file/video outputs stream generation progress; audio output synthesis available on Omni Flash.
- •Context Window: 1M tokens on Omni Flash (≈ 60 min video + audio + subtitles in a single request) — largest among commercial APIs in 2026.
- •Tool / Function Calling: Native function calling with JSON-schema; code execution sandbox via the code_execution tool; Google Search grounding built in.
🎬 Multimodal at 1M Context
Gemini Omni Flash is the only commercial flagship API in 2026 that natively ingests audio + video + image + text in a single request without pre-processing or chunking. The 1M-token context window is large enough to hold roughly 60 minutes of video plus its audio track plus subtitles, which lets developers ship 'watch this clip and answer' style features without building their own frame-sampling pipelines. Image and video generation live in the same endpoint (Imagen 4, Nano Banana 2 Lite/Pro, Veo 3.1), so a single API key covers the full understand-and-generate loop — useful for product teams that want multimodal chat and content creation behind one billing relationship. The trade-off is API style: Google Gen AI SDK and Vertex AI are not OpenAI-format, so migrations from an OpenAI-based stack require a wrapper layer (OpenRouter, LiteLLM, or a custom adapter).
🌐 Regional Availability & Latency
Google AI Studio and Vertex AI are not directly accessible from mainland China — both the generative-language API and the Imagen/Veo endpoints require a stable proxy or VPN. Latency for users inside China is therefore effectively the proxy latency plus 100–300ms typical Google API response time, which makes real-time multimodal chat unreliable on mainland networks. Outside China, Google AI Studio from US/EU typically returns first-token in 200–600ms for text and 1–3s for image/video generation starts. The free tier (Omni Flash 15 RPM, Veo 3.1 2/day, Imagen 4 10/day) is generous enough for prototype validation without a credit card, but production users in China typically route through a third-party aggregator (OpenRouter, LiteLLM-hosted proxies, or an authorized reseller) to avoid operating their own proxy fleet. Developers building for both China and global audiences should expect to maintain two parallel integration paths — direct Google API outside China, aggregator-routed inside.