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Google Gemini API vs OpenAI API: pricing, quotas & features (2025)

Gemini 2.5 Pro, Flash, Flash-Lite — multimodal + 2M context
vs. Frontier models: GPT-5, o-series reasoning, image, audio, embeddings

Data sourced from vendor documentation · Last updated May 2026

Google AI Studio ↗OpenAI Platform ↗

Summary

Google Gemini API and OpenAI API are both ai-api platforms, addressing the same core use case with different implementation philosophies and trade-offs. Both offer a free tier, making it easy to prototype without a credit card. OpenAI API has a broader documented feature set (12 vs 11 features). The right choice depends on your existing stack, team experience, and feature requirements. All pricing and quota data below is sourced from Google Gemini API and OpenAI API's official documentation — not generated by AI or estimated.

Google Gemini API vs OpenAI API: Comparativa de precios, cuotas y características (2025)

En esta comparativa analizamos Google Gemini API y OpenAI API lado a lado — incluyendo precios mensuales, límites del tier gratuito, características técnicas, cuotas de uso (almacenamiento, transferencia, usuarios activos mensuales) y los interfaces de desarrollo disponibles. Todos los datos proceden de la documentación oficial de cada proveedor, no de respuestas generadas por IA.

Google Gemini API es una plataforma de la categoría ai-api — Gemini 2.5 Pro, Flash, Flash-Lite — multimodal + 2M context. Ofrece 4 tiers de precio: Free Tier (AI Studio) gratuito, Paid API (Gemini API) gratuito, Vertex AI (GCP) gratuito, Gemini Enterprise (personalizado). Su catálogo en Staxly documenta 11 características y 6 interfazes para desarrolladores.

OpenAI API pertenece a la categoría ai-api — Frontier models: GPT-5, o-series reasoning, image, audio, embeddings. Ofrece 4 tiers de precio: Free Tier (Trial) gratuito, Pay-as-you-go gratuito, Usage Tiers (1-5) gratuito, Enterprise (personalizado). Su catálogo documenta 12 características y 7 interfazes para desarrolladores.

A continuación encontrarás los tiers de precio completos de ambas plataformas, una matriz de cuotas del tier gratuito (transferencia, almacenamiento, MAU, llamadas a la API y otros límites), el listado completo de características y los interfaces (CLI, SDKs, REST, GraphQL, MCP) disponibles para integrar cada servicio.

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Pricing tiers

Google Gemini API

Free Tier (AI Studio)
Generous free tier with rate limits. Good for dev + prototyping. Data may be used to improve Google products.
Free
Paid API (Gemini API)
Pay-as-you-go per-token. Data NOT used for training.
$0 base (usage-based)
Vertex AI (GCP)
Enterprise deployment via Google Cloud. Same pricing structure + GCP features (IAM, VPC-SC, CMEK).
$0 base (usage-based)
Gemini Enterprise
Custom. Gemini 2.5 Deep Think model access + Google Workspace + Agentspace.
Custom
Google AI Studio ↗

OpenAI API

Free Tier (Trial)
$5 free credit for new accounts. Rate-limited.
Free
Pay-as-you-go
No monthly min. Per-token pricing by model.
$0 base (usage-based)
Usage Tiers (1-5)
Automatic tier promotion based on cumulative spend. Higher tiers = higher rate limits + new model access.
$0 base (usage-based)
Enterprise
Custom. Priority access, SLA, dedicated capacity.
Custom
OpenAI Platform ↗

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing free-tier on Google Gemini API vs free-tier on OpenAI API.

MetricGoogle Gemini APIOpenAI API
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

Google Gemini API · 11 features

  • Batch API — 50% discount for async processing.
  • Code Execution — Python code interpreter tool (sandboxed).
  • Context Caching — Cache system instructions + tools for up to 90% savings.
  • File API — Upload large files (up to 2 GB) for multimodal prompts.
  • Function Calling — JSON schema-based tool calling. Parallel supported.
  • Grounding with Search — Augment answers with Google Search results. Fact-checked citations returned.
  • Model Tuning — Supervised fine-tuning via AI Studio.
  • Multimodal Live API — Bidirectional streaming voice + video (WebSocket).
  • Safety Settings — Configurable thresholds for harm categories.
  • generateContent API — Core generation endpoint.
  • streamGenerateContent — Streaming variant with SSE.

OpenAI API · 12 features

  • Assistants API — Stateful assistants with tools, threads, file search.
  • Batch API — 50% discount for async processing within 24h.
  • Chat Completions API — Classic /v1/chat/completions endpoint.
  • Files API — Upload docs for retrieval, fine-tuning, batch.
  • Fine-Tuning — Supervised + DPO fine-tuning for GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, GPT-4o-mini.
  • Function Calling — JSON-schema tool calling; parallel calls supported.
  • Moderation — Safety classifier API (free).
  • Prompt Caching — Auto-cache repeated prefixes; 50% cheaper cached hits.
  • Realtime API — WebSocket streaming voice + text with low latency.
  • Responses API — Stateful conversational API.
  • Structured Outputs — Enforced JSON schema compliance.
  • Vision — Image input for GPT models.

Developer interfaces

KindGoogle Gemini APIOpenAI API
SDK@google/genai, google-genai (Python), google-genai-goopenai-dotnet, openai-go, openai-node, openai-python
RESTGemini REST API, Vertex AI EndpointOpenAI REST API
MCPGemini MCPOpenAI MCP
OTHER—Realtime API (WebSocket)

Key takeaways

  • Both Google Gemini API and OpenAI API offer a free tier — Google Gemini API ("Free Tier (AI Studio)") and OpenAI API ("Free Tier (Trial)") — with no credit card required to start.
  • OpenAI API has a broader documented feature set (12 features) vs. Google Gemini API (11 features) in Staxly's catalog.
  • Developer integrations differ: only OpenAI API offers OTHER.
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Google Gemini API and OpenAI API may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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