Google will limit people using the Gemini app without an AI subscription to its Flash-Lite model from 9 October 2026, 9to5Google reported on 3 October. The change concerns personal accounts and will also narrow the models available to AI Plus subscribers. AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers will keep access to all three models listed in Google’s new access table.
Key points
- From 9 October, Gemini app accounts without a subscription will have Flash-Lite access only.
- AI Plus will retain Flash-Lite and Flash, while AI Pro and AI Ultra will retain access to Pro as well.
- AI Pro subscribers will gain the Deep Think option; AI Plus subscribers will be emailed their effective date.
Flash-Lite becomes the free Gemini choice
Google’s support page sets out different model choices for each personal-account plan, FourWeekMBA reported. Once the changes apply, an account without a plan can select Flash-Lite but neither Flash nor Pro. AI Plus can select Flash-Lite or Flash. AI Pro and AI Ultra can select any of the three. The names are easy to confuse: AI Pro is a subscription plan, while Pro is one of the models available within the app.
That is a change in access rather than a change in how often an available model can be used. The plan determines which models appear as choices before a prompt is sent. A separate allowance determines how much use the account can make of the choices it has. Paying for AI Plus will therefore preserve a choice between Flash-Lite and Flash, but it will no longer provide access to the Pro model.
AI Plus costs $4.99 per month and AI Pro costs $19.99 per month, according to 9to5Google. The publication identifies the models affected as 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.6 Flash and 3.1 Pro. Their version numbers matter here because the restriction is on model selection in the Gemini app, rather than a limit described only in terms of subscription names.
On 4 October, a separate Gemini usage-limits help page still showed all three models across the plans, XenoSpectrum reported. The new access table describes the conditions that will apply as the changes take effect. For accounts without a subscription that date is 9 October; AI Plus subscribers are to receive an email with the date for their accounts.
Gemini’s five-hour allowance remains separate
Google had already changed the other part of the arrangement. From 17 May 2026, Gemini’s usage limits were based on computing demand, with allowances refreshing every 5 hours until a weekly limit is reached, according to the Google support page as reported by FourWeekMBA. Prompt complexity, the features used and the length of a chat all count towards that demand. The Pro model and Deep Think use more of an allowance.
Think of the allowance as a meter and the model list as the set of choices beside it. A complicated request or a longer conversation can draw more heavily on the meter; a model excluded by the subscription cannot be selected in the first place. The October rules put that second condition on top of the compute-based limits introduced in May.
Drafting an email from a long exchange could use more of an allowance than asking a short question, because chat length and prompt complexity count towards usage. After the access change, choosing a model for either task would also depend on the plan, even if allowance remained.
The support page also describes low, medium and high effort settings for each model an account can access. Google says a higher setting can produce more thorough answers while consuming more of the limit. These settings would give an account another way to spend its allowance, but they would operate within the model choices permitted by its plan.
AI Pro gains the Deep Think option
Google’s access changes also add Deep Think to AI Pro. Google describes the option as offering “maximum parallel reasoning”: working through possible approaches alongside one another is different from following just one line of thought.
Deep Think was previously available on the $99.99 and $199.99 per month plans, 9to5Google reported. AI Pro subscribers will gain that option while retaining Flash-Lite, Flash and Pro model access. AI Ultra subscribers will also retain all three models and have Deep Think available under the new table.
Google will email AI Plus subscribers to explain when the model-access changes take effect for their accounts.
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