# DeepInfra vs Google Gemini API

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/deepinfra-vs-google-gemini/

Every value below is read from DeepInfra's and Google Gemini API's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | DeepInfra | Google Gemini API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | Two products on one bill: per-token serverless inference with a separate cached-input rate for each model, and dedicated GPUs billed per minute and invoiced weekly. Models without per-token pricing are billed for inference execution time instead. | Per million tokens, with dated price changes published in advance — the current Gemini 3.x rates are explicitly promotional through 31 December 2026 and roughly double on 1 January 2027. A free tier exists, and its content is used to improve Google's products where the paid tier's is not. |
| Input price, top model | $1.30 per million input tokens for DeepSeek-V4-Pro, the most expensive model in its catalogue. Cached input is $0.10. | $0.75 per million input tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash through 31 December 2026, then $1.50. Gemini 3.1 Pro, still preview, is $2.00 for prompts up to 200k tokens and $4.00 above. |
| Output price, top model | $2.60 per million output tokens for DeepSeek-V4-Pro. | $3.75 per million output tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash through 31 December 2026, then $7.50. Thinking tokens are billed as output. |
| Input price, cheapest model | $0.06 per million input tokens for DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731, with cached input at $0.015 and output at $0.18. DeepSeek itself charges $0.44 at peak for the same checkpoint and Fireworks $0.22. | $0.30 per million input tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, with output at $2.50. |
| Context window | 1024k tokens on the DeepSeek V4 models it serves; 160k on the V3 generation. The window is the model's rather than a platform limit. | 1,048,576 tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash. Read from the Vertex AI model card: the Gemini API docs build their model cards client-side and publish no figure a fetch can read. |
| Prompt caching | Supported | Supported |

## Where they differ

### Pricing model

- DeepInfra: Two products on one bill: per-token serverless inference with a separate cached-input rate for each model, and dedicated GPUs billed per minute and invoiced weekly. Models without per-token pricing are billed for inference execution time instead. ([source](https://deepinfra.com/pricing))
- Google Gemini API: Per million tokens, with dated price changes published in advance — the current Gemini 3.x rates are explicitly promotional through 31 December 2026 and roughly double on 1 January 2027. A free tier exists, and its content is used to improve Google's products where the paid tier's is not. ([source](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing))

### Input price, top model

- DeepInfra: $1.30 per million input tokens for DeepSeek-V4-Pro, the most expensive model in its catalogue. Cached input is $0.10. ([source](https://deepinfra.com/pricing))
- Google Gemini API: $0.75 per million input tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash through 31 December 2026, then $1.50. Gemini 3.1 Pro, still preview, is $2.00 for prompts up to 200k tokens and $4.00 above. ([source](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing))

### Output price, top model

- DeepInfra: $2.60 per million output tokens for DeepSeek-V4-Pro. ([source](https://deepinfra.com/pricing))
- Google Gemini API: $3.75 per million output tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash through 31 December 2026, then $7.50. Thinking tokens are billed as output. ([source](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing))

### Input price, cheapest model

- DeepInfra: $0.06 per million input tokens for DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731, with cached input at $0.015 and output at $0.18. DeepSeek itself charges $0.44 at peak for the same checkpoint and Fireworks $0.22. ([source](https://deepinfra.com/pricing))
- Google Gemini API: $0.30 per million input tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, with output at $2.50. ([source](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing))

### Context window

- DeepInfra: 1024k tokens on the DeepSeek V4 models it serves; 160k on the V3 generation. The window is the model's rather than a platform limit. ([source](https://deepinfra.com/pricing))
- Google Gemini API: 1,048,576 tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash. Read from the Vertex AI model card: the Gemini API docs build their model cards client-side and publish no figure a fetch can read. ([source](https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/models/gemini/3-8-flash))

## Which should you choose?

Pick DeepInfra if Running open-weight models at the lowest published per-token rates here — DeepSeek-V4-Flash at $0.06 per million input is a fraction of what the lab itself charges — with dedicated H100s at $2.20 an hour if throughput demands it.

Pick Google Gemini API if Getting to a working prototype without a card, then staying on the cheapest frontier-adjacent rates in this set — $0.75 per million input tokens is well under half what Anthropic and OpenAI charge for their top models.

Consider something else: DeepInfra — Only some models carry per-token pricing; the rest bill for inference execution time, which is a different and harder thing to forecast.

Consider something else: Google Gemini API — The rates are dated: they roughly double on 1 January 2027, free-tier content is used to improve Google's products, and rate limits are not published anywhere you can read before signing up.

## Documented by only one

- Free tier: Google Gemini API: Yes
- Max output tokens: Google Gemini API: 65,536 tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash, and Google counts thinking tokens as output.
- Batch discount: Google Gemini API: 50% off through the Batch API, which is a paid-tier feature.
- Rate limits: Google Gemini API: Tied to a usage tier — Free, then Tier 1/2/3 unlocked by cumulative spend — and enforced as requests per minute, input tokens per minute and requests per day. Google publishes no numbers in the docs: limits are viewed in AI Studio and are stated not to be guaranteed.
- H100 SXM, per GPU-hour: DeepInfra: $2.20 per GPU-hour for a dedicated H100 80GB — below every dedicated cloud in this dataset. A100 80GB is $0.89, H200 $2.69, B200 $3.69. Billed in minute granularity, invoiced weekly.
- Largest GPU offered: DeepInfra: 270GB per GPU on a B300, at $4.89 per GPU-hour.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose DeepInfra or Google Gemini API?**

Pick DeepInfra if Running open-weight models at the lowest published per-token rates here — DeepSeek-V4-Flash at $0.06 per million input is a fraction of what the lab itself charges — with dedicated H100s at $2.20 an hour if throughput demands it.
Pick Google Gemini API if Getting to a working prototype without a card, then staying on the cheapest frontier-adjacent rates in this set — $0.75 per million input tokens is well under half what Anthropic and OpenAI charge for their top models.