Google Tightens Gemini Model Access for Free and AI Plus Users

Google is restructuring access to its Gemini AI models, creating a new divide between free users and subscribers. Starting October 9, free users will lose access to Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Pro, leaving them with only Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. Meanwhile, AI Plus subscribers, who pay $4.99 per month, will retain access to Flash-Lite and Flash but will lose the Pro model.

AI Pro subscribers, who pay $19.99 per month, will gain access to Deep Think, a parallel reasoning mode previously available only on more expensive plans. Google has not yet clarified whether the upcoming Gemini 4 Argon model will be included in the Pro tier or require a separate plan.

In addition to these changes, the Gemini app may introduce three levels of computational effort, low, medium, and high, for each available model. Higher levels should improve task performance but will consume users' allowances more quickly. Currently, users can enable deep reasoning mode for complex tasks, and the new levels will resemble settings in Google AI Studio and Antigravity.