Vertex AI Agent Builder + Gemini Enterprise

By Deepak Patel, Founder, SellerShorts

Published January 1, 2025 · Updated May 20, 2026

Google's agent platform consolidated in 2026 into Gemini Enterprise, described on the Google Cloud blog as "one platform for agent development, orchestration, and governance." The underlying pieces (Agent Development Kit, Agent Engine, Agent Sandbox on GKE, Agent Executor) are still active. If you are on Google Cloud and using Gemini as your primary model, this is the native agent path.

What the platform actually is in 2026

Google's agent story has multiple moving parts. The Gemini Enterprise platform is the umbrella for agent development, orchestration, and governance on Google Cloud. Below that sit specific products:

• Agent Development Kit (ADK): Google's open-source SDK for building agents. The newest framework launched in 2025 and matured through 2026.
• Agent Engine: the managed runtime for production agents on Vertex AI.
• Agent Sandbox on GKE: the "Agent Substrate" for running agents inside Google Kubernetes Engine.
• Agent Executor: Google's distributed Agent Runtime for high-scale workloads.
• Data Agent Kit: tools for data practitioners to build agents via IDE or CLI.
• AI Edge Portal: benchmark and optimize LLMs on-device for edge agents.

Google was named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for AI Application Development Platforms, signaling that the agent platform has reached enterprise credibility.

Key capabilities

• Agent Development Kit (ADK) for framework-based agent building
• Agent Engine for managed production deployment
• Agent Sandbox on GKE for self-hosted Kubernetes deployment
• Agent Executor distributed runtime
• Native Gemini integration (Gemini Pro, Flash, on-device Gemini Nano)
• Built-in RAG, search, and evaluation tools
• Google Cloud IAM and VPC governance
• Multimodal support (text, vision, audio)

Pricing

Vertex AI Agent Builder and Gemini Enterprise are billed through Google Cloud usage-based pricing. You pay for compute (Agent Engine, GKE if you use the sandbox), model inference (Gemini Pro, Flash), and any storage or networking. The ADK SDK itself is free. Specific tiers shift over time; check Google Cloud's Agent Builder page for current rates.

Who Vertex AI Agent Builder fits

• Teams already on Google Cloud (BigQuery, GKE, Vertex AI)
• Companies using Gemini as the primary model (long context, multimodal, on-device)
• Enterprises that want Google Cloud's data governance and IAM model
• Data teams who want agents close to their BigQuery or Looker stack

Who it does not fit

• Teams on AWS or Azure (start with the native platform there)
• Solo developers who do not need cloud-managed infrastructure
• Anyone committed to OpenAI or Anthropic models exclusively

Vertex Agent Builder vs Bedrock AgentCore and Azure AI Foundry

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Best Gemini integration (long context, multimodal, Gemini Nano on-device)
• Strong data tooling via BigQuery and Looker integrations
• 2026 Gartner Leader recognition

Cons:

• Multiple product names (Vertex AI, Gemini Enterprise, ADK, Agent Engine) can confuse decision-making
• Tightest value if you commit to Gemini; weaker if you mix models
• Google Cloud overhead is friction for non-GCP teams

How I'd think about Vertex AI Agent Builder on SellerShorts

For SellerShorts tool builders targeting Amazon sellers, Vertex AI is rarely the natural pick. Most Amazon sellers do not have a Google Cloud account, and the AWS path (Bedrock AgentCore + Anthropic Claude) is closer to where the Amazon ecosystem lives. Vertex AI is the right answer for SellerShorts tool builders whose buyers are large enterprises on Google Cloud with Gemini as the corporate-approved LLM.

Try Vertex AI Agent Builder

Building agents for Amazon? See the Amazon AI hub.

Frequently asked questions