Google Vertex AI Search Hidden Costs 2026
What they don't show you on the pricing page
Google Vertex AI Search costs $0.00 to $2.50 per 1 hour as of June 2026, with 5 plans available. Plans: Agent Search - Configurable Pricing - Core Subscription - Storage Unit at $0.001369863/1 hour, Grounded Generation API - Grounded Generation for grounding on your own retrieved data at $2.5/1 hour, Check Grounding API pricing at $0.00075/1 hour, Document AI feature pricing - Digitize text - OCR processor at $1.5/1 hour, and Ranking API pricing - Rank documents at $1/1 hour. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: No free tier available
Google Vertex AI Search offers 5 pricing tiers: Agent Search - Configurable Pricing - Core Subscription - Storage Unit, Grounded Generation API - Grounded Generation for grounding on your own retrieved data, Check Grounding API pricing, Document AI feature pricing - Digitize text - OCR processor, Ranking API pricing - Rank documents. Paid plans include Agent Search - Configurable Pricing - Core Subscription - Storage Unit at $0.001369863/1 hour, Grounded Generation API - Grounded Generation for grounding on your own retrieved data at $2.5/1,000 count, Check Grounding API pricing at $0.00075/1,000 count.
Google Vertex AI Search true cost runs 70% above the listed $0.00075-$2.5/1 hour price as of June 2026. For a 25-person team, expect ~$510 in year-one costs vs the $300 base license. Verified from 1 sources by CostBench.
Example: True Cost for 25 Users
| License (25 × $1 × 12) | $300/yr |
| Implementation (one-time) | +$15,000–$50,000 |
| Premium Support (20%) | +$60/yr |
| Training (25 × $500) | +$12,500 |
| Admin (part-time) | +$15,000–$25,000/yr |
| Estimated Year 1 Total | ~$510 |