# Google Gemini API vs Novita AI

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

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

## At a glance

| Criterion | Google Gemini API | Novita AI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pricing model | 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. | Per-token serverless inference with a cache-read rate published beside most models, and GPU instances offered at both on-demand and spot rates — the spot column is roughly half. Two models, Ling 3.0 Flash Fin and Sante, are listed at no charge on both input and output. |
| Input price, top model | $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. | $2.00 per million input tokens for Qwen3.8 Max, the most expensive model in its catalogue, with cache reads at $0.25 and output at $6.00. |
| Output price, top model | $3.75 per million output tokens for Gemini 3.8 Flash through 31 December 2026, then $7.50. Thinking tokens are billed as output. | $6.00 per million output tokens for Qwen3.8 Max. |
| Input price, cheapest model | $0.30 per million input tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite, with output at $2.50. | $0.075 per million input tokens for GLM 5.3 Flash at short context, rising to $0.15 above the threshold, with cache reads at $0.015 and output at $0.25. Fireworks serves the same model at $0.15. |
| Context window | 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. | 1M tokens on the DeepSeek V4 line and GLM 5.3, published as "1M" rather than an exact figure — so it is recorded at 1,000,000 and may in practice be the 1,048,576 other providers state. Qwen3.8 is listed at 977K. |
| Prompt caching | Supported | Supported |

## Where they differ

### Pricing model

- 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))
- Novita AI: Per-token serverless inference with a cache-read rate published beside most models, and GPU instances offered at both on-demand and spot rates — the spot column is roughly half. Two models, Ling 3.0 Flash Fin and Sante, are listed at no charge on both input and output. ([source](https://novita.ai/pricing))

### Input price, top model

- 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))
- Novita AI: $2.00 per million input tokens for Qwen3.8 Max, the most expensive model in its catalogue, with cache reads at $0.25 and output at $6.00. ([source](https://novita.ai/pricing))

### Output price, top model

- 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))
- Novita AI: $6.00 per million output tokens for Qwen3.8 Max. ([source](https://novita.ai/pricing))

### Input price, cheapest model

- 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))
- Novita AI: $0.075 per million input tokens for GLM 5.3 Flash at short context, rising to $0.15 above the threshold, with cache reads at $0.015 and output at $0.25. Fireworks serves the same model at $0.15. ([source](https://novita.ai/pricing))

### Context window

- 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))
- Novita AI: 1M tokens on the DeepSeek V4 line and GLM 5.3, published as "1M" rather than an exact figure — so it is recorded at 1,000,000 and may in practice be the 1,048,576 other providers state. Qwen3.8 is listed at 977K. ([source](https://novita.ai/pricing))

## Which should you choose?

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.

Pick Novita AI if Breadth — 200+ models under one API with a cache-read rate published next to most of them, and an H100 SXM at $3.39 an hour if the same vendor should run the dedicated side too.

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.

Consider something else: Novita AI — It is rarely the cheapest for any given model: DeepInfra serves DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 at $0.06 against Novita's $0.44, and its H100 is $2.20 against Novita's $3.39 on demand.

## 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: Novita AI: $3.39 per GPU-hour for an on-demand H100 SXM 80GB, or $1.70 spot. The page names the card the site's GPU comparison is fixed on, so no substitution is involved.
- Largest GPU offered: Novita AI: 80GB per GPU on an H100 SXM, the largest card it lists; below it are an L40S 48GB, RTX 5090 32GB and RTX 4090 24GB.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Should I choose Google Gemini API or Novita AI?**

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.
Pick Novita AI if Breadth — 200+ models under one API with a cache-read rate published next to most of them, and an H100 SXM at $3.39 an hour if the same vendor should run the dedicated side too.