Free Gemini accounts drop to Flash-Lite on October 9, and AI Plus loses Pro
Google's support page lists which Gemini models each plan keeps once the October changes land. Accounts without a subscription get Flash-Lite only, AI Plus keeps Flash but loses Pro, and only AI Pro and AI Ultra keep all three. Every plan gains an effort selector, and the usage meter stays compute-based with a five-hour refresh.
Source
Changes to Gemini model access and limitsGoogle Chrome Help · Original published October 6, 2026
Google has published a support page titled Changes to Gemini model access and limits. It states that model availability in the Gemini apps changes for personal accounts starting in October 2026, and that users without an AI subscription see the change from October 9, 2026. AI Plus subscribers receive an email with their own date.
Who keeps which model
The page carries a table with three models and four plans. An account without a plan keeps Flash-Lite and loses Flash and Pro. AI Plus keeps Flash-Lite and Flash and loses Pro. AI Pro and AI Ultra keep all three, and Deep Think stays exclusive to AI Ultra.
Google does not say on that page why the free tier shrinks. The same page also carries the usage rules in force since May 17, 2026, when the apps moved to compute-based limits that refresh every five hours until a weekly cap is reached.
What it costs to keep Pro
Engadget reports the US prices: AI Plus costs $5 a month, AI Pro $20, and AI Ultra at least $100. The support page itself lists no prices.
This suggests the cheapest route to the Pro model is now AI Pro at $20 a month, four times the AI Plus price, because AI Plus drops Pro on the date Google emails to each subscriber.
Effort levels and limits
For each available model you can pick an effort level of low, medium, or high. Higher effort gives more thorough answers and uses more of your limit.
Limits scale by plan: AI Plus gets twice the standard limit, AI Pro four times, and AI Ultra five or twenty times the AI Pro limit depending on the subscription. Media generation, Deep Research, the Pro model, and extended thinking use the limit faster.
„Paid users have higher limits than users without a Google AI subscription.“
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