Create a context cache

Create a context cache to reduce costs with repeated requests that contain the same token count input.

Explore further

For detailed documentation that includes this code sample, see the following:

Code sample

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment. 

import (
	"context"
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"io"

	genai "google.golang.org/genai"
)

// createContentCache shows how to create a content cache with an expiration parameter.
func createContentCache(w io.Writer) (string, error) {
	ctx := context.Background()

	client, err := genai.NewClient(ctx, &genai.ClientConfig{
		HTTPOptions: genai.HTTPOptions{APIVersion: "v1"},
	})
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to create genai client: %w", err)
	}

	modelName := "gemini-2.0-flash-001"

	systemInstruction := "You are an expert researcher. You always stick to the facts " +
		"in the sources provided, and never make up new facts. " +
		"Now look at these research papers, and answer the following questions."

	cacheContents := []*genai.Content{
		{
			Parts: []*genai.Part{
				{FileData: &genai.FileData{
					FileURI:  "gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/pdf/2312.11805v3.pdf",
					MIMEType: "application/pdf",
				}},
				{FileData: &genai.FileData{
					FileURI:  "gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/pdf/2403.05530.pdf",
					MIMEType: "application/pdf",
				}},
			},
			Role: "user",
		},
	}
	config := &genai.CreateCachedContentConfig{
		Contents: cacheContents,
		SystemInstruction: &genai.Content{
			Parts: []*genai.Part{
				{Text: systemInstruction},
			},
		},
		DisplayName: "example-cache",
		TTL:         "86400s",
	}

	res, err := client.Caches.Create(ctx, modelName, config)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to create content cache: %w", err)
	}

	cachedContent, err := json.MarshalIndent(res, "", "  ")
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal cache info: %w", err)
	}

	// See the documentation: https://pkg.go.dev/google.golang.org/genai#CachedContent
	fmt.Fprintln(w, string(cachedContent))

	// Example response:
	// {
	//   "name": "projects/111111111111/locations/us-central1/cachedContents/1111111111111111111",
	//   "displayName": "example-cache",
	//   "model": "projects/111111111111/locations/us-central1/publishers/google/models/gemini-2.0-flash-001",
	//   "createTime": "2025-02-18T15:05:08.29468Z",
	//   "updateTime": "2025-02-18T15:05:08.29468Z",
	//   "expireTime": "2025-02-19T15:05:08.280828Z",
	//   "usageMetadata": {
	//     "imageCount": 167,
	//     "textCount": 153,
	//     "totalTokenCount": 43125
	//   }
	// }

	return res.Name, nil
}

Python

Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in the Vertex AI quickstart using client libraries. For more information, see the Vertex AI Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Vertex AI, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment. 

from google import genai
from google.genai.types import Content, CreateCachedContentConfig, HttpOptions, Part

client = genai.Client(http_options=HttpOptions(api_version="v1"))

system_instruction = """
You are an expert researcher. You always stick to the facts in the sources provided, and never make up new facts.
Now look at these research papers, and answer the following questions.
"""

contents = [
    Content(
        role="user",
        parts=[
            Part.from_uri(
                file_uri="gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/pdf/2312.11805v3.pdf",
                mime_type="application/pdf",
            ),
            Part.from_uri(
                file_uri="gs://cloud-samples-data/generative-ai/pdf/2403.05530.pdf",
                mime_type="application/pdf",
            ),
        ],
    )
]

content_cache = client.caches.create(
    model="gemini-2.5-flash-preview-05-20",
    config=CreateCachedContentConfig(
        contents=contents,
        system_instruction=system_instruction,
        display_name="example-cache",
        ttl="86400s",
    ),
)

print(content_cache.name)
print(content_cache.usage_metadata)
# Example response:
#   projects/111111111111/locations/us-central1/cachedContents/1111111111111111111
#   CachedContentUsageMetadata(audio_duration_seconds=None, image_count=167,
#       text_count=153, total_token_count=43130, video_duration_seconds=None)

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