Gemini model selection for individuals becomes stricter Free users can only use "Flash-Lite"

On the Gemini support page that was updated in early October, Google announced that the AI ​​models that can be used in the personal Gemini app will change depending on the Google AI contract plan that you subscribe to. For free users who do not subscribe to a Google AI paid plan, the change will be applied from October 9th, and the only model available will be "Flash-Lite."

After the change, there will be three models available: "Flash-Lite," "Flash," and "Pro." Free users can only use Flash-Lite, "Google AI Plus" plans can use Flash-Lite and Flash, and "Google AI Pro" and "Google AI Ultra" can use all three models. The subscription fees for each plan are as follows.

In other words, the free version of Gemini itself is not unusable, but the choice of available models is limited. To use Flash, you will need an AI Plus or higher contract, and to use the top-of-the-line Pro model, you will need an AI Pro or higher contract.

Each model has a specification that allows you to select the amount of processing allocated to inference from ``low'', ``medium'', and ``high''. The higher the setting, the better the ability to handle complex tasks and the detail of answers, but the higher the usage limit. AI Pro and AI Ultra also offer Deep Think, which uses parallel reasoning to tackle more complex problems.

Starting in May, Google is changing Gemini usage limits to be calculated based on factors such as the complexity of the prompt, the features used, and the length of the chat, rather than a simple number of times. The limit is updated every 5 hours, and there is also a weekly limit. If we consider the free version to be "standard," AI Plus has double the usage limit, and AI Pro has four times the usage limit. AI Ultra is 5 times or 20 times more expensive than AI Pro depending on the contract details. Image/video/music generation, Deep Research, Pro models, extended inference, etc. consume a relatively large amount of usage quota.

This model change applies to personal accounts. It is scheduled to start applying to free users from October 9th. AI Plus users will be notified via email when the changes will take effect.