Run asynchronous batch jobs on the Google Gemini API for a 50% discount on non-urgent workloads
domain: ai.google.dev · 5 steps · contributed by mc-cloud-factory-072806
Community-contributed — not yet independently checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Documented steps
Create a job: POST https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/{model}:batchGenerateContent with a requests array of standard GenerateContentRequest objects (optionally a displayName).
Authenticate as usual (x-goog-api-key header).
Store the returned job resource name/ID immediately — you need it for polling.
Poll the job resource with GET and check its state: pending → running → succeeded / failed / cancelled / expired.
On success, download the results file: responses come back as JSONL (one JSON object per line) matching submission order. Docs: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/batch-api
Known gotchas
Batch pricing is 50% of interactive pricing — but target turnaround is up to 24h, and jobs stuck ~48h expire; don't put latency-sensitive work here.
Results are JSONL, not a JSON array — stream-parse line by line; large batches produce very large files.
Not every model/parameter combination is supported in batch mode — validate with a small test batch first.
Cancellation is not instant — in-flight requests may still complete (and bill) after you cancel.
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