Google Vertex AI today
Starts at
$0.085/vCPU-hour
- Contract
- Not found
- Free plan
- Agent Compute includes 50 free hours, Agent Memory 100 free GiB-hours, and Agent...
Flat tiers (3)
Priced in tiers, where Google Vertex AI charges by use.
| Alternative | Starts at | Against Google Vertex AI | States that Google Vertex AI doesn't | Contract | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Basetenread Oct 29, 2026 |
$1.40/1M input tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Streaming responses, SOC 2 compliance, SOC 2, SSO and 1 more | Not found | Trial: New accounts come with free credits; duration not stated |
 Cloudflare Workers AIread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.011/1,000 NeuronsUsage price | Not comparable | Tool and function calling | Not found | 10,000 Neurons per day free; beyond that, upgrade to Workers Paid |
 Google Gemini APIread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.30/1M input tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Streaming responses, Tool and function calling, No training on your data, Discounted batch processing | Not found | Free tier with free input and output tokens, limited access to certain... |
Other options (7)
No computed reason to switch, listed for completeness.
| Alternative | Starts at | Against Google Vertex AI | States that Google Vertex AI doesn't | Contract | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 xAI APIGrok Plus (app subscription), read Oct 29, 2026 |
$8/moGrok Plus (app subscription) plan, starting price | Not comparable | SOC 2 compliance, SOC 2, SSO, HIPAA BAA | Not found | Not found |
 Hugging Face Inference ProvidersPRO, read Oct 29, 2026 |
$9/moPRO plan, starting price | Not comparable | SSO | Not found | Free Hub account with unlimited public models, datasets and apps; CPU Basic... |
 Anthropic Claude APIPro, read Oct 29, 2026 |
$20/moPro plan, starting price | Not comparable | No training on your data, Discounted batch processing, SSO, HIPAA BAA | Enterprise is annual only; Pro and Team can be monthly or annual | Not found |
 AI/ML APIread Oct 29, 2026 |
$20/minimum top upUsage price | Not comparable | No training on your data, MCP server | Not found | Not found |
 DeepInfraread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.06/1M input tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Streaming responses, Tool and function calling, SOC 2 compliance, No training on your data and 1 more | no long-term contracts | Not found |
 DigitalOcean Gradient AIread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.05/M tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Discounted batch processing | Not found | Trial: $5 free credit valid for 90 days (example given) |
 OpenAI APIread Oct 29, 2026 |
$0.10/1M tokensUsage price | Not comparable | Streaming responses, SOC 2 compliance, No training on your data, Discounted batch processing and 2 more | Not found | Not found |
No price found, or contact sales (4)
- Azure OpenAI Servicehybrid
- Cerebras Inferencehybrid
- DeepSeek APIcontact the vendor
- Groqcontact the vendor
Questions
Is there a free alternative to Google Vertex AI?
Yes. 3 AI API platforms have a free plan, including Hugging Face Inference Providers, Cloudflare Workers AI, Google Gemini API.
How this page is made
Alternatives come from Google Vertex AI's own category, AI API platforms. Prices come from each vendor's pricing page and are compared at the same volume where both can be computed, and by starting price where neither can. "States that Google Vertex AI doesn't" lists what we found on the other vendor's site and didn't find on Google Vertex AI's, which doesn't prove Google Vertex AI lacks it. How prices are read.