Gemini 3.6 Flash API Pricing
Google · context window 1M · prices updated 2026-09-15
Where Gemini 3.6 Flash sits on price
At $3.75 per million output tokens, Gemini 3.6 Flash is a mid tier model — 1.8× the median output price of $2.08, which puts it cheaper than 39% and pricier than 61% of the models we track. It sits 28th cheapest of the 38 Google models we track. Output costs 5.0× input, the usual spread — trim both, starting with the answer length.
Cached input is 90% cheaper. On an input-heavy workload you need roughly a 28% cache-hit rate to take 25% off the input line — reachable for chatbots and agents that resend the same system prompt and history.
What real workloads cost on Gemini 3.6 Flash
These three workloads are the ones teams actually run on a mid-priced model — a $3.75/1M model is not bought for the same job as one ten times the price.
| Workload | Per request | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win. | $0.009 | $135 |
| Document pipeline — 10K docs/day (3K in / 500 out) Batch-friendly: no user waiting, so a ~50% batch discount usually applies. | $0.0041 | $1238 |
| Long-context analysis — 200 runs/day (250K in / 4K out) Only possible on large-context models; input cost is nearly the whole bill. | $0.2025 | $1215 |
Model your exact traffic in the API cost calculator — it preloads Gemini 3.6 Flash with caching and batch options.
Gemini 3.6 Flash price history
Google last cut Gemini 3.6 Flash's output price on Aug 14, 2026 (-50% per output token), from $1.50/$7.50 to $0.75/$3.75 per 1M in/out. That is the only repricing in the 44 days we have tracked it — worth knowing before you hard-code today's rate into a budget.
| Date | Input /1M | Output /1M | Output change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2, 2026 (tracking began) | $1.50 | $7.50 | — |
| Aug 14, 2026 | $0.75 | $3.75 | -50% |
Change-points from our daily price snapshots (tracking since Aug 2, 2026; intraday moves between snapshots are not captured).
Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch)
The closest-priced alternative from another vendor is Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) (Mistral) — priced within a rounding error on output, with identical input pricing. When two models land this close on price, the decision is quality on your own workload, not the price sheet: run 50 real requests through both and compare.
See Mistral Medium 3.5 (batch) pricing →Cheaper alternatives
More Google models
Frequently asked questions
› How much does the Gemini 3.6 Flash API cost?
Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.075 per million (90% cheaper). That works out to roughly 266,667 output tokens per dollar.
› What does the support chatbot workload cost on Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Support chatbot — 500 conversations/day (5K in / 1.4K out) costs about $0.009 per request and $135 per month on Gemini 3.6 Flash. Conversation history re-sent each turn — the classic prompt-caching win.
› What does it cost to fill Gemini 3.6 Flash's 1M context window?
Sending 1M of input in a single request costs $0.7864 at $0.75 per million tokens — before any output. With prompt caching that same fill drops to about $0.0786 on repeat requests. This is why large context windows are cheap to advertise and expensive to actually use.
› Is Gemini 3.6 Flash worth the price?
Gemini 3.6 Flash sits in the middle of the market (28 of 38 by price within Google). The honest test is a routing experiment: send the same 200 real requests to this model and to a tier below, and compare failure rate against the price gap — most teams find a majority of traffic never needed the pricier model.