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Fireworks AI vs Google Gemini API

A comparison of Fireworks AI and Google Gemini API built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Updated 12 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Pick Fireworks AI if
Running open-weight models without operating GPUs — the same DeepSeek and Qwen checkpoints the labs publish, served per token, with a path to dedicated hardware 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.

6 sourced criteria separate them:

Pricing model
Fireworks AI: Three products on one bill. Serverless inference is per token, per model. Fine-tuning is per million TRAINING tokens by parameter band — $0.50 for models up to 16B, $10.00 above 300B. Dedicated GPUs are hourly: $7.00 for an H100 or H200, $10.00 for a B200.
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.
Input price, top model
Fireworks AI: $3.00 per million input tokens for Kimi K3, the most expensive model in its serverless catalogue. Fireworks hosts other labs' open-weight models rather than its own, so "flagship" here means the top of what it serves.
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.
Output price, top model
Fireworks AI: $15.00 per million output tokens for Kimi K3.
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.
Input price, cheapest model
Fireworks AI: $0.15 per million input tokens for GLM 5.3 Flash, with output at $0.50. DeepSeek-V4-Flash is $0.22 in and $0.66 out — the same model DeepSeek itself sells at $0.44 peak.
Google Gemini API: $0.30 per million input tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, with output at $2.50.
Context window
Fireworks AI: 1,048,576 tokens on Kimi K3, GLM 5.3 and both DeepSeek V4 variants; 262,144 on Qwen3.8 and 131,072 on Muse Glimmer 30B. The window is the model's, not Fireworks'.
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.
Max output tokens
Fireworks AI: No separate output cap. max_tokens is bounded by the model's context length — prompt plus completion must fit inside it — and what happens on overflow is set by context_length_exceeded_behavior rather than a fixed ceiling.
Google Gemini API: 65,536 tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash, and Google counts thinking tokens as output.
Visit Fireworks AI documentationVisit Google Gemini API documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionFireworks AIGoogle Gemini API
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Pricing modelThree products on one bill. Serverless inference is per token, per model. Fine-tuning is per million TRAINING tokens by parameter band — $0.50 for models up to 16B, $10.00 above 300B. Dedicated GPUs are hourly: $7.00 for an H100 or H200, $10.00 for a B200.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.
Inference
Input price, top model
$3.00 per million input tokens for Kimi K3, the most expensive model in its serverless catalogue. Fireworks hosts other labs' open-weight models rather than its own, so "flagship" here means the top of what it serves.
$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
$15.00 per million output tokens for Kimi K3.
$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
$0.15 per million input tokens for GLM 5.3 Flash, with output at $0.50. DeepSeek-V4-Flash is $0.22 in and $0.66 out — the same model DeepSeek itself sells at $0.44 peak.
$0.30 per million input tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, with output at $2.50.
Context window
1,048,576 tokens on Kimi K3, GLM 5.3 and both DeepSeek V4 variants; 262,144 on Qwen3.8 and 131,072 on Muse Glimmer 30B. The window is the model's, not Fireworks'.
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.
Max output tokensNo separate output cap. max_tokens is bounded by the model's context length — prompt plus completion must fit inside it — and what happens on overflow is set by context_length_exceeded_behavior rather than a fixed ceiling.65,536 tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash, and Google counts thinking tokens as output.
Prompt cachingSupportedSupported

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Pricing model

Fireworks AI
Three products on one bill. Serverless inference is per token, per model. Fine-tuning is per million TRAINING tokens by parameter band — $0.50 for models up to 16B, $10.00 above 300B. Dedicated GPUs are hourly: $7.00 for an H100 or H200, $10.00 for a B200.
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.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Fireworks AI ↗

    “MODELS UP TO 16B PARAMETERS $0.50 $1.00 $1.00 $2.00 [...] MODELS >300B (E.G. DEEPSEEK V3, KIMI K2) $10.00 $20.00 $20.00 $40.00 [...] H100 80 GB GPU $7.00 $8.00 H200 141 GB GPU $7.00 $8.00 B200 180 GB GPU $10.00 $13.00”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Gemini Developer API Pricing ↗

    “Paid Tier, per 1M tokens in USD [...] $0.75 through December 31, 2026. $1.50 starting January 1, 2027. [...] Used to improve our products | Yes | No”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

Input price, top model

Fireworks AI
$3.00 per million input tokens for Kimi K3, the most expensive model in its serverless catalogue. Fireworks hosts other labs' open-weight models rather than its own, so "flagship" here means the top of what it serves.
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.
Sources (2) →
  • Models — Fireworks AI ↗

    “Kimi K3 $3/M Input • $15/M Output • 1048576 Context”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Gemini Developer API Pricing ↗

    “Gemini 3.8 Flash [...] Input price | Free of charge | $0.75 through December 31, 2026. $1.50 starting January 1, 2027. [...] Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview [...] Input price | Not available | $2.00, prompts <= 200k tokens $4.00, prompts > 200k tokens”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

Output price, top model

Fireworks AI
$15.00 per million output tokens for Kimi K3.
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.
Sources (2) →
  • Models — Fireworks AI ↗

    “Kimi K3 $3/M Input • $15/M Output • 1048576 Context”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Gemini Developer API Pricing ↗

    “Output price (including thinking tokens) | Free of charge | $3.75 through December 31, 2026. $7.50 starting January 1, 2027.”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

Input price, cheapest model

Fireworks AI
$0.15 per million input tokens for GLM 5.3 Flash, with output at $0.50. DeepSeek-V4-Flash is $0.22 in and $0.66 out — the same model DeepSeek itself sells at $0.44 peak.
Google Gemini API
$0.30 per million input tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, with output at $2.50.
Sources (2) →
  • Models — Fireworks AI ↗

    “GLM 5.3 Flash $0.15/M Input • $0.5/M Output • 1048576 Context [...] DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 $0.22/M Input • $0.66/M Output • 1048576 Context”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Gemini Developer API Pricing ↗

    “Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite [...] Input price | Free of charge | $0.30 (text / image / video / audio) Output price (including thinking tokens) | Free of charge | $2.50”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

Context window

Fireworks AI

1,048,576 tokens on Kimi K3, GLM 5.3 and both DeepSeek V4 variants; 262,144 on Qwen3.8 and 131,072 on Muse Glimmer 30B. The window is the model's, not Fireworks'.

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.

Sources (2) →
  • Models — Fireworks AI ↗

    “Kimi K3 $3/M Input • $15/M Output • 1048576 Context [...] Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B $2/M Input • $6/M Output • 262144 Context [...] Muse Glimmer 30B $0.35/M Input • $1.5/M Output • 131072 Context”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing

  • Gemini 3.8 Flash — Vertex AI model card, Google Cloud ↗

    “Token limits Context window 1,048,576 Maximum output tokens 65,536”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official docs

Max output tokens

Fireworks AI
No separate output cap. max_tokens is bounded by the model's context length — prompt plus completion must fit inside it — and what happens on overflow is set by context_length_exceeded_behavior rather than a fixed ceiling.
Google Gemini API
65,536 tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash, and Google counts thinking tokens as output.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Which should you choose?

Choose Fireworks AI if…

Running open-weight models without operating GPUs — the same DeepSeek and Qwen checkpoints the labs publish, served per token, with a path to dedicated hardware if throughput demands it.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose 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.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Fireworks AI: You want a frontier proprietary model: Fireworks serves other people's open weights, so the ceiling is whatever the open ecosystem has released.
  • 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.
04.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.

Batch discountGoogle Gemini API: 50% off through the Batch API, which is a paid-tier feature.
Rate limitsGoogle 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-hourFireworks AI: $7.00 per hour for an H100 80GB on demand, or $8.00 on the shorter commitment shown beside it. The same rate applies to an H200 141GB.
Largest GPU offeredFireworks AI: 180GB per GPU on a B200, at $10.00 an hour on demand.
05.

Questions this comparison answers.

Should I choose Fireworks AI or Google Gemini API?

Pick Fireworks AI if Running open-weight models without operating GPUs — the same DeepSeek and Qwen checkpoints the labs publish, served per token, with a path to dedicated hardware 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.

Provider pages

Fireworks AIServerless inference for open-weight models from other labs, priced per token, with fine-tuning and dedicated GPUs billed separately.Google Gemini APIHosted inference for the Gemini model family, with a free tier and per-million-token paid pricing.

Related comparisons

Anthropic vs Fireworks AIAnthropic vs Google Gemini APIBaseten vs Fireworks AIDeepInfra vs Fireworks AIDeepSeek vs Fireworks AIFireworks AI vs Novita AIGoogle Gemini API vs DeepSeekOpenAI vs Fireworks AI

Every page here is sourced and dated.