Last refreshed 2026-05-19. Next refresh: weekly.
Why use Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B on GCP Vertex AI?
GCP Vertex AI offers Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B with pay-as-you-go pricing at $0.04/1M input tokens. Vertex AI is Google Cloud's managed AI platform, offering access to Gemini models and hundreds of partner models alongside tools for fine-tuning, grounding, vector search, and end-to-end MLOps pipelines.
Setup recipe
Python + curlpip install google-cloud-aiplatformexport GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=...import os
import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel
vertexai.init(project=os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"], location="us-central1")gemini-1.5-flash-8bRequest example
import os
import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel
# Reads GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT from env; authenticates via Application Default Credentials
vertexai.init(project=os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"], location="us-central1")
model = GenerativeModel("gemini-1.5-flash-8b")
response = model.generate_content("Hello")
print(response.text)Gotchas
- For Google-published models use the model name directly, e.g. "gemini-2.0-flash-001". For third-party publishers (Anthropic, Meta, etc.) use the full publisher path, e.g. "publishers/anthropic/models/claude-3-5-sonnet-v2@20241022".
- The examples expect GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT; rename it only if your application config maps the new variable.
Pricing
| Type | Price (per 1M) |
|---|---|
| Input tokens | $0.04 |
| Output tokens | $0.15 |
Capabilities
No model capability flags are currently sourced.
About Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B
Lightweight 8B variant of Gemini 1.5 Flash optimized for speed and cost-efficiency. Supports 1M token context with fast inference for real-time applications.
FAQ
What does Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B cost on GCP Vertex AI?
On GCP Vertex AI, Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B costs $0.0375 per 1M input tokens and $0.15 per 1M output tokens.
What is the context window for Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B on GCP Vertex AI?
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B supports a 1m token context window on GCP Vertex AI.
Who created Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B?
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B was created by Google DeepMind as part of the Gemini 1.5 model family.
Is Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B open source?
Gemini 1.5 Flash 8B is not open source; the seed data lists it as proprietary.