Google Gemini API vs OpenRouter: free tier limits side by side

The free tier limit rows of Google Gemini API and OpenRouter, as each vendor's public page listed them. Data collected on 2026-10-05.

Each column keeps the order of that tool's own page. A row puts two items next to each other by position only: they are the same kind of limit only when the item names say so. This page ranks nothing and picks neither tool.

Google Gemini API	OpenRouter
Gemini 2.5 Flash (free tier): free of charge	Free model requests: 20 per minute
Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite (free tier): free of charge	Free model requests per day (fewer than 10 credits purchased): 50
Gemini 2.5 Pro (free tier): free of charge	Free model requests per day (at least 10 credits purchased): 1,000
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (free tier): not available
Gemini Embedding 2 (free tier): not available
Grounding with Google Search: 5,000 free search requests per month, shared across Gemini 3.x models
Requests per minute and per day: not stated by the vendor

Tool pages

Each tool page has the card and commercial use terms, the gotchas and the address of the vendor page that was read.

Is Google Gemini API still free? Yes, with limits
Is OpenRouter still free? Yes, with limits