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Welcome to the Google Gemini Era

Updated: Oct 25


Google's most advanced AI model to date is Gemini. Text, code, graphics, music, and video are just a few of the many forms of information that Gemini can easily understand, process, and integrate because it was designed from the ground up to be multimodal.


MULTIPLE GEMINI SIZES FOR UNMATCHED VERSATILITY


Pro


  • Description:


The Pro model is the best-performing model designed for a wide range of reasoning tasks. It is versatile, balancing capability and efficiency with a long context window.


  • Availability:


Available now


  • Model Versions:


  1. 1.0 Pro

  2. 1.5 Pro


  • Strengths:


Versatile, balances capability and efficiency, long context window.


  • Best Suited For:


General performance across a variety of tasks.


  • Example Use Cases:


  1. Code generation and improvements

  2. In-depth document analysis

  3. Fine-grained object detection

  4. Long-video summarization and temporal reasoning

  5. Drafting and ideation


Flash


  • Description:


The Flash model is lightweight and optimized for speed and efficiency. It features low latency, cost-efficiency, and a long context window.


  • Availability:


Available now.


  • Model Versions:


  1. 1.5 Flash


  • Strengths:


Lightweight, low latency, cost-efficient, long context window.


  • Best Suited For:


High-volume, high-frequency tasks at scale.


  • Example Use Cases:


  1. Summarization

  2. Chat applications

  3. Image and video captioning

  4. Data extraction from long documents and tables

  5. Education products

  6. On-demand content generation (e.g., gaming)


Ultra


  • Description:


The Ultra model is the largest model, designed for large-scale, highly complex tasks. It offers state-of-the-art performance with advanced reasoning and creativity.


  • Availability:


Limited - Preview Access with allowlist (Vertex).


  • Model Versions:


  1. 1.0 Ultra


  • Strengths:


State-of-the-art performance, advanced reasoning and creativity.


  • Best Suited For:


Research, highly complex tasks, multilinguality.


Nano


  • Description:


The Nano model is the most efficient model, built for on-device tasks. It emphasizes efficiency, local processing, and offline availability.


  • Availability:


Limited - Preview Access with allowlist (AI Core).


  • Model Versions:


  1. 1.0 Nano


  • Strengths:


Efficiency, local processing, offline availability.


  • Best Suited For:


Research, highly complex tasks, multilinguality.


Google Gemini

BUILDING & DEPLOYING GEMINI RESPONSIBLY


From the beginning, we've built Gemini responsibly, integrating security measures and collaborating with partners to enhance its safety and inclusion.


INTEGRATE GEMINI MODELS INTO YOUR APPS WITH:


Google AI Studio


The fastest way to create, experiment, build and launch model prompts with Google's most powerful AI models.


With Google AI Studio, developers can easily integrate Gemini models to quickly create prompts and turn ideas into code to create generative AI applications. A free web-based product called Google AI Studio acts as a gateway to the Gemini API.


You should use AI Studio if you:


Are interested in a free tier to test out and experiment with Gemini


  • Are looking to prototype and quickly launch apps via an API

  • Are an independent developer or a developer at an early stage startup

  • You’re still considering your infrastructure options

  • Don’t need enterprise-level assistance

  • Are in a supported region (details)


Vertex AI


For businesses looking for a scalable, fully managed AI platform


Google Cloud's enterprise AI platform, Vertex AI, helps users discover, modify, extend, deploy and manage agents created with the Gemini API. Vertex AI uses the data governance and privacy protections built into Google Cloud, and it also offers tools to help developers use models responsibly and securely.


You should use Vertex AI in Google Cloud if you:


  • Are an existing Google Cloud customer

  • Require scale in production

  • Are an enterprise developer or a developer at a growth stage startup

  • Need tooling to customize, augment, deploy or govern models

  • Require enterprise-level support and compliance

  • Are in a supported region (details)


AICore


A fresh system service that makes Gemini Nano accessible.


A new system-level feature called Android AICore gives users access to Gemini Nano, the smallest version of Gemini, for on-device execution. You can easily create AI experiments with AICore that use sensitive data that are best kept on-device or that work offline. The Google AI Edge SDK includes the APIs required to run Gemini Nano on AICore.


Currently, Google Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung S24 Series are the only devices that support AICore.


You should use Android AICore if you:


  • Desire to build on-device use cases that benefit from security, limited latency, and ambient experiences

  • Need to keep sensitive data on-device

  • You need offline functionality for your use cases


Note: Only Google Pixel 8 Pro and Samsung S24 Series devices are compatible with AI Core.


Google Gemini


Integrate Gemini Models Into Your Apps With:


  • Free Tier: Available with restrictions. Input/output data in the free tier is used to improve Google products.

  • Rate Limits: Varies by model (See details). Increased rate limits available for paid tier.

  • Pricing: Varies by model (Gemini API via AI Studio), (Gemini via Vertex).

  • SDKs Supported: Python, Node.js, Android (Kotlin/Java), Swift, Go for AI Studio; Python, Node.js, Java, Go for Vertex AI.


Develop With Gemini Assistance



Google Gemini

Model Capabilities Overview


1.0 Pro


The 1.0 Pro model is designed primarily for text-only tasks. It accepts text inputs and outputs text, making it ideal for a wide range of text-focused applications. This model is the best performing for a variety of text-only tasks.


Context Window:


  • Vertex: Up to 32K tokens

  • API via AI Studio:

  • Free tier: Up to 32K tokens

  • Paid tier: Up to 120K tokens


Features:


  • Tuning: Available via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • Function Calling: Available via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • Context Caching: Not available

  • JSON Mode: Available on Vertex

  • JSON Schema: Available on Vertex

  • System Instructions: Vertex only (See details)

  • Code Execution: Not available

  • Vertex Grounding: Available for text input only


1.5 Pro


The 1.5 Pro model supports a wider range of inputs, including text, code, images, audio, video, video with audio, and PDFs. It outputs text and is suitable for tasks that require text or chat prompts to generate text or code responses. This model also supports long-context understanding up to the maximum input token limit.


Context Window:


  • Vertex: Up to 2 million tokens

  • API via AI Studio:

  • Free tier: Up to 32K tokens

  • Paid tier: Up to 2 million tokens


Features:


  • Tuning: Coming soon via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • Function Calling: Available via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • Context Caching: Available via Vertex (coming soon) and API via AI Studio

  • JSON Mode: Available via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • JSON Schema: Available via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • System Instructions: Vertex (See details), API via AI Studio

  • Code Execution: Available via API via AI Studio

  • Vertex Grounding: Available for text input only


1.5 Flash


The 1.5 Flash model is designed to provide speed and efficiency for high-volume, quality, and cost-effective applications. It supports the same range of inputs as the 1.5 Pro model, including text, code, images, audio, video, video with audio, and PDFs, and it outputs text.


Context Window:


  • Vertex: Up to 1 million tokens

  • API via AI Studio:

  • Free tier: Up to 1 million tokens

  • Paid tier: Up to 2 million tokens


Features:


  • Tuning: Coming soon via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • Function Calling: Available via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • Context Caching: Available via API via AI Studio only

  • JSON Mode: Available via Vertex and API via AI Studio

  • JSON Schema: Available via Vertex only

  • System Instructions: Yes Vertex (See details), API via AI Studio

  • Code Execution: Yes via API via AI Studio

  • Vertex Grounding: Available for text input only


Learn more about the Gemini model capabilities in AI Studio and Vertex.


Google Gemini

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


1. HOW SHOULD I DECIDE WHEN TO USE GEMINI 1.5 PRO VERSUS GEMINI 1.5 FLASH?


Gemini 1.5 Flash is the best option for developers looking to build apps using Google's fastest and most affordable model without sacrificing core quality. For cost-effective deployment of latency-sensitive applications, we recommend Flash. Applications that require the orchestration of complex tasks involving higher-order reasoning with greater depth, knowledge, and granularity than Flash should use Gemini 1.5 Pro. For applications requiring the highest quality for a variety of challenging tasks, we recommend the Pro.


2. WHAT DOES PUBLIC PREVIEW MEAN?


Products or features are developed for customer testing on preview. Although preview products are often made public, they may not be fully functional and may not come with service level agreements or technical support guarantees. Unless otherwise specified by Google, Preview Products are intended to be used exclusively in a test environment. The preview phase usually lasts six months. Learn more: Google Cloud Product Launch Phases and API Versions


03. I WANT TO USE THE FREE TIER FOR THE GEMINI API via GOOGLE AI STUDIO. HOW CAN I ENSURE I AM NOT BILLED?


You can continue to use the Gemini API at no charge if you use it from a Google Cloud project where charging has been removed before May 2, 2024. However, you will not be able to use the features of Google's subscription plan. You may want to create a separate project with billing disabled to use the Gemini API, as disabling billing from an existing project may prevent other billable services. Note: Google's AI Studio still provides free direct access to Gemini models.


4. ARE THERE ANY RESOURCES TO HELP ME START USING THE GEMINI API via GOOGLE AI STUDIO?


No doubt! See the Gemini API Quickstart for instructions on how to use the SDK of your choice to get started with the Gemini API. The Gemini API Cookbook, a collection of instructions and examples for the Gemini API, is also available on Github. It includes samples of things you can create, as well as quickstart tutorials for creating prompts and using many of the API's features.


5. I WANT TO MIGRATE MY PROJECT FROM GOOGLE AI STUDIO TO VERTEX. HOW CAN I DO THAT?


Here are the steps startups can take to transition from Google AI Studio to Vertex. We advise businesses that need enterprise-level support (ie data privacy and governance, compensation protection, provisioned throughput, etc.) to build with Gemini in Google Cloud's Vertex. In case you need further assistance, please contact your Google Cloud account manager.


06. I WANT TO ADD PRE-PACKAGED GEMINI API SOLUTIONS TO MY APP. HOW CAN I DO SO?


Firebase extensions are prefabricated solutions that allow you to add additional functionality to your app with a few lines of code. Create a chatbot using the Gemini API and create multimodal tasks using the Gemini API By uploading documents to Firestore, you can use Firebase extensions to develop AI use cases.


7. CAN I USE GOOGLE FOR STARTUPS CLOUD PROGRAM CREDITS TOWARDS THE GEMINI API VIA AI STUDIO?


No, only GCP services and a limited number of Google Cloud services are eligible to earn credits from the Google for Startups Cloud Program. Gemini API based on AI Studio is not included. With Google Cloud's Vertex AI, you can use your credits to build with Gemini.

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