Apply your own routing policies, reduce token costs automatically, and see every routing decision in real time with Merge Gateway.
What Gemma 3 27B IT costs to run
Test Gemma 3 27B IT
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See a prompt's output, token spend, latency, and more with Gemma 3 27B IT.
Route requests to Gemma 3 27B IT in minutes
1$ pip install merge-gateway-sdk1from merge_gateway import MergeGateway
2
3client = MergeGateway(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
4
5response = client.responses.create(
6 model="openai/gpt-5.2",
7 input=[
8 {"type": "message", "role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful programming tutor. Explain the concepts clearly with practical examples."},
9 {"type": "message", "role": "user", "content": "Explain the concept of recursion in programming with a simple set of examples."},
10 ],
11)
12
13print(response.output[0].content[0].text)1response = client.responses.create(
2 model="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
3 input=[
4 {"type": "message", "role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful programming tutor. Explain the concepts clearly with practical examples."},
5 {"type": "message", "role": "user", "content": "Explain the concept of recursion in programming with a simple set of examples."},
6 ],
7)1from openai import OpenAI
2
3client = OpenAI(
4 api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
5 base_url="https://api-gateway.merge.dev/v1/openai",
6)1response = client.chat.completions.create(
2 model="gpt-5.2",
3 messages=[
4 {"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful programming tutor. Explain the concepts clearly with practical examples."},
5 {"role": "user", "content": "Explain the concept of recursion in programming with a simple set of examples."},
6 ],
7)
8
9print(response.choices[0].message.content)1npm install merge-gateway-ai-sdk-provider ai1import { createMergeGateway } from "merge-gateway-ai-sdk-provider";
2
3const gateway = createMergeGateway({
4 apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY",
5});1import { generateText } from "ai";
2
3const { text } = await generateText({
4 model: gateway("openai/gpt-4o"),
5 prompt: "Explain the concept of recursion in programming with a simple set of examples.",
6});
7
8console.log(text);1import { createOpenAI } from "@ai-sdk/openai";
2
3const gateway = createOpenAI({
4 apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY",
5 baseURL: "https://api-gateway.merge.dev/v1/ai-sdk",
6});
7
8// All generateText/streamText calls work unchanged1from anthropic import Anthropic
2
3client = Anthropic(
4 api_key="YOUR_API_KEY",
5 base_url="https://api-gateway.merge.dev/v1/anthropic",
6)
7
8message = client.messages.create(
9 model="claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
10 max_tokens=1024,
11 messages=[
12 {"role": "user", "content": "Explain the concept of recursion in programming with a simple set of examples."},
13 ],
14)
15
16print(message.content[0].text)Explore other models available in Merge Gateway
Gemma 3 27B IT FAQ
Heading
What other models does Google offer?
Google offers both open-weight Gemma models and the closed, hosted Gemini family. Here are some other models Google supports:
- Gemma 3 12B: the mid-size open-weight Gemma model, for lighter deployments than the 27B tier
- Gemma 3 4B: a small open-weight model for constrained hardware and high-throughput tasks
- Gemma 4 31B: the next-generation open-weight model, above the Gemma 3 line in capability
How does Gemma 3 27B IT differ from Google's other models?
Gemma 3 27B IT is the largest instruction-tuned model in the Gemma 3 open-weight line, positioned as a self-hostable alternative to the closed Gemini models.
- Openness: ships as open weights you can self-host and fine-tune, unlike the hosted-only Gemini models
- Modality: accepts text and image input, so it covers multimodal tasks beyond text
- Context window: a 128K-token window, generous for an open model of its size
- Size and reach: the 27B tier is the most capable of the Gemma 3 dense models, above the 12B and 4B options, and covers a wide range of languages
Reach for Gemma 3 27B IT when you want strong open-weight, multimodal quality you can run in your own environment rather than calling a hosted API.
What models should I consider using alongside Gemma 3 27B IT?
No single model is optimal for every task. Here are models worth pairing with Gemma 3 27B IT depending on what your product needs:
- Claude Opus 4.8 for the hardest reasoning or coding tasks that need frontier quality
- Gemini 3.5 Flash for high-volume, low-cost hosted tasks where self-hosting isn't worth it
- Qwen3-VL Plus as another vision-language option to benchmark against on your image mix
- Gemma 3 12B for lighter workloads where the 27B tier is more than you need
What are the challenges of using Gemma 3 27B IT in my product?
Like any production LLM, Gemma 3 27B IT comes with tradeoffs worth planning for:
- Self-host operations: running the open weights yourself means owning deployment, scaling, and GPU or TPU capacity
- Quality ceiling: as a mid-size open model, it trails the frontier Gemini and cross-provider flagships on the hardest reasoning
- Image accuracy varies: multimodal quality depends on image type, so evaluate on your real inputs before relying on it
- Provider dependency: if you use a hosted version instead of self-hosting, relying on a single endpoint is fragile during outages
- Cost at scale: self-hosting shifts cost to infrastructure, which still compounds at high volume and needs capacity planning
Why should I use Merge Gateway to route LLM requests with Gemma 3 27B IT and every other model?
Gemma 3 27B IT through Merge Gateway comes with the control layer around the model, not just the model:
- One API, every provider: Access Gemma 3 27B IT and every other major LLM behind one endpoint and key, changing models by editing a string instead of your code
- Intelligent routing and automatic failover: Merge reroutes around provider outages automatically, and an open-model-to-frontier quality ladder is easy to express as a policy that can cut spend 40 to 60%
- Cost governance: Keep traffic on budget with project caps, and attribute every request by model, project, and tag in one dashboard
- Build Your Own Router: Weight your own evals so the router keeps routine tasks on Gemma and escalates only when needed, explaining each pick
- Security and compliance controls: Enforce DLP, prompt injection protection, and per-project region rules before any request leaves your control
How can I start routing requests to Gemma 3 27B IT via Merge Gateway?
Getting Gemma 3 27B IT running through Merge Gateway takes a few minutes:
1. Create an account and get your API key from the dashboard.
2. Install the Merge Gateway SDK: run pip install merge-gateway-sdk (Python) or npm install merge-gateway-sdk (Node). Alternatively, if you're already using the OpenAI SDK, set base_url = "https://api-gateway.merge.dev/v1/openai" and your existing code works as-is.
3. Make your first request using the provider/model format. For Gemma 3 27B IT, the model string is google/gemma-3-27b-it (confirm the exact slug in the dashboard). Swap the model string to route to any other provider without changing anything else.
4. Configure a routing policy in the dashboard to set failover behavior, cost limits, and optimization strategy. Your first policy can be as simple as naming Gemma 3 27B IT as primary with one fallback.
Full setup instructions and SDK references are in the Merge Gateway docs.
Try Gemma 3 27B IT through Merge Gateway
Route, observe, and control AI requests across providers from one API.
