Google Drops Paywall for Gemini Skills as Gem Retirement Looms
Google has opened up its Gemini Skills feature to all users, making it free for everyone over 18 who is signed in to a personal Google account. This change comes ahead of the planned retirement of Gems, custom assistants that users could set up inside the Gemini app.
Gems will be recreated as Skills automatically, and users who prefer to do it themselves can rebuild their Gem as a skill manually on the Gemini website, including transferring any uploaded knowledge files.
The rollout appears to be happening in stages, with some free accounts still showing Gems with no sign of Skills. The shutdown schedule for Gems varies by account type: personal accounts will lose Gems in November 2026, while workspace business, enterprise, and non-profit accounts won't see the end until March 2027, and education accounts can hold on to their Gems until June 2027.
Skills work differently from Gems, allowing users to call up a skill by typing a slash followed by its name (this will change to an @ symbol soon). Gemini can also apply a skill automatically when it matches the user's request. However, some tools do not yet work with Skills, including Canvas, Deep Research, video and music creation, and Guided Learning.