Gemini free tier drops to Flash-Lite on Oct 9; AI Plus loses Pro
Google trims model access as Gemini 3 demand surges: paid tiers reshuffle, Pro moves upmarket, and new compute caps reset every five hours.
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Free app: Flash-Lite only
From Oct 9, signed-out and free Gemini users lose Flash and Pro, left with just the lightweight Flash-Lite. If a side project or quick-draft habit rides on free Gemini Pro, that quality drops Thursday—line up a paid tier or an alternative now.
AI Plus keeps Flash but loses Pro
The $4.99/mo AI Plus tier keeps Flash-Lite and Flash but drops Pro, now reserved for AI Pro ($19.99/mo) and AI Ultra. AI Pro also gains the Deep Think reasoning mode. If you pay $4.99 mainly for Pro-grade answers, the real question is whether to jump to $19.99.
New caps: compute budget, 5-hour resets
Alongside the model cuts, Google is shifting to compute-based limits that refresh roughly every 5 hours up to a weekly ceiling, with free users hitting the model restriction on top. Google frames it as capacity management after Gemini 3's demand spike—batch heavy prompts around the reset window.