Google AIApril 1, 20263 min read

Google Removes Gemini Pro Models from Free API Tier Starting April 2026

Starting April 1, developers using the Gemini API free tier lost access to Pro-series models. Flash remains free with reduced rate limits. Here's how to adapt.

Google tightened its Gemini API free tier on April 1, 2026, removing access to Pro-series models and restricting free usage to Gemini Flash variants only.

What changed:

Gemini 3.1 Pro and Gemini 3.0 Pro: paid access only

Free tier now limited to Gemini 3.1 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Flash-8B

Rate limits on Flash also reduced from 60 to 30 requests/minute on free tier

Three migration strategies:

1.Stay on Flash: For most classification, summarization, and routing tasks, Gemini Flash performs at 90%+ of Pro quality at 10% of the cost

2.Add a paid plan: Google AI Studio Tier 1 starts at $7/month with 1,000 Pro requests included

3.Use Flash for preprocessing, Pro only for final synthesis

For production applications that were relying on the free tier, expect $15–40/month for moderate API workloads.

Source:help.apiyi.com

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