Last refreshed 2026-05-11. Next refresh: weekly.
Why use ShieldGemma 2 on GCP Vertex AI?
GCP Vertex AI offers ShieldGemma 2 with free input token pricing. 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.
Input / 1M
Free
Output / 1M
Free
Cache
Not sourced
Batch
Not sourced
Setup recipe
Python + curlInstall
pip install google-cloud-aiplatformAuth
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT=...Call
import os
import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel
vertexai.init(project=os.environ["GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT"], location="us-central1")Model ID
shieldgemma-2Request 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("shieldgemma-2")
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 | Free |
| Output tokens | Free |
Capabilities
VisionMultimodalFunction CallingTool UseStructured Outputs
About ShieldGemma 2
Google ShieldGemma 2 safety classification model for harmful content detection.
FAQ
What does ShieldGemma 2 cost on GCP Vertex AI?
On GCP Vertex AI, ShieldGemma 2 costs $0 per 1M input tokens and $0 per 1M output tokens.
Who created ShieldGemma 2?
ShieldGemma 2 was created by Google DeepMind as part of the Gemma 3 model family.
Is ShieldGemma 2 open source?
ShieldGemma 2 is not open source; the seed data lists it as proprietary.
Model Specs
Released2024-09-01
ArchitectureDecoder Only