Gemini API Relay Selection and Pricing Guide

1. Gemini 3 Series Overview

Google's Gemini 3 series in 2026 offers multiple SKUs: gemini-3.1-pro-preview (flagship, multimodal reasoning), gemini-3.5-flash (balanced, speed + capability), gemini-3-flash-preview (lightweight), and gemini-2.5-flash (previous-gen stable). TokenAPI Scan tracks 45 relay providers offering Gemini API access — the third most covered model family.

2. Official Google API vs Relay Pricing

Google AI Studio offers free tier and official paid API, but requires a Google Cloud account. Relay advantages: no Google Cloud needed, supports local payment methods, direct domestic network access. Price differences:

• Official: gemini-3.1-pro ~$1.25/1M input, $5/1M output
• Relay average: $1.5-3/1M input, 20%-140% markup
• Flash series official ~$0.075/1M, relay $0.1-0.2/1M

3. Flash vs Pro: When to Use Which?

The core Gemini 3 choice is Flash vs Pro. Pro suits complex reasoning, long-document analysis, multimodal understanding; Flash suits high-concurrency chat, real-time translation, content generation. The price gap is ~17x — choosing wrong severely impacts cost.

• Pro: math reasoning, code generation, long context (1M token window), image understanding
• Flash: daily conversation, text summarization, real-time translation, content moderation
• Flash Lite: ultra-light tasks, keyword extraction, simple classification

4. 45 Relay Providers Compared

TokenAPI Scan has probed pricing and tracked stability across 45 Gemini relay providers. View real-time quotes on the Gemini price comparison page. Key finding: the same model can vary 3-5x between relays — lowest price does not equal best choice; consider stability and response speed holistically.

5. Multimodal Capabilities & Relay Support

Gemini's multimodal capability (image, audio, video understanding) is its core advantage. But not all relays support the full multimodal API. Some only forward text endpoints; image/audio requires extra configuration. Use the Gemini detection tool to verify multimodal support.

6. Security Assessment

Gemini relay-specific risks: 1) Model downgrade — substituting Flash for Pro; 2) Missing multimodal — claiming image support but not forwarding; 3) Context window limits — official supports 1M tokens, but relays may truncate to 32k. Use TokenAPI Scan to verify model version and feature completeness, and check provider profiles for stability history.