Google is about to remove free access to Gemini Flash and Pro

Google is limiting access to its Gemini AI models for free users. From October 9th, free users will only be able to access the Flash Lite model, losing access to the standard Flash and Pro models. Currently, free users can choose from Gemini Flash Lite, Flash, and Pro.

To access the standard Flash model, users will need to subscribe to Google AI Plus for $4.99/month. However, this subscription will no longer include access to the Gemini Pro model, according to The Verge. Users who want to maintain their current experience will have to upgrade to a Google AI Pro subscription for at least $19.99/mo, as reported by Mashable.

Existing Google AI Pro subscribers will gain access to the "Deep Think" advanced reasoning option, which was previously exclusive to higher tiers. The changes come as Google continues to evolve its AI offerings, having previously introduced features like Gems, which allowed users to create customized AI helpers, and more recently, Skills, which enables users to invoke pre-configured prompts from any chat window.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Verge, Android Authority, Mashable — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.