Starting October 9th, Google will limit free Gemini users to the Flash Lite model, paywalling Flash behind the $4.99/month AI Plus plan and restricting Gemini Pro and Deep Think to the $19.99 AI Pro or $99.99 Ultra subscriptions.
<figure>
<img alt="Vector illustration of the Google Gemini logo." data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Illustration: The Verge" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/chorus/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25290329/STK255_Google_Gemini_A.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100" />
<figcaption>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Starting on October 9th, anyone using Google Gemini on a free plan will be <a href="https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/17004136">limited to the Flash Lite model</a>. Free users can currently choose from Gemini Flash Lite, Flash, and Pro, but now you'll need a $4.99/month Google AI Plus subscription to access the standard Flash model. However, that subscription is also getting a downgrade - it will soon no longer include Gemini Pro. Google says AI Plus subscribers will receive an email letting them know when they'll lose access to it. </p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">After these changes, access to the top-tier Gemini Pro model and a "Deep Think" advanced reasoning option will be restricted to users with a Google AI Pro or Ultra s …</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1005451/google-gemini-free-flash-lite-only">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>
# Google is about to remove free access to Gemini Flash and Pro
Source: [https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1005451/google-gemini-free-flash-lite-only](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1005451/google-gemini-free-flash-lite-only)
[](https://www.theverge.com/authors/stevie-bonifield)
Stevie Bonifield
is a news writer covering all things consumer tech\. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI\.
Starting on October 9th, anyone using Google Gemini on a free plan will be[limited to the Flash Lite model](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/17004136)\. Free users can currently choose from Gemini Flash Lite, Flash, and Pro, but now you’ll need a $4\.99/month Google AI Plus subscription to access the standard Flash model\. However, that subscription is also getting a downgrade – it will soon no longer include Gemini Pro\. Google says AI Plus subscribers will receive an email letting them know when they’ll lose access to it\.
After these changes, access to the top\-tier Gemini Pro model and a “Deep Think” advanced reasoning option will be restricted to users with a Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription, which cost $19\.99 or $99\.99 per month, respectively\.
Google says users will still be able to choose from low, medium, and high effort levels for each model, but using higher effort levels could[burn through your Gemini usage limit](https://www.theverge.com/news/773496/google-gemini-usage-limits)faster\.
**Follow topics and authors**from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates\.
- Stevie Bonifield
Google has released Gemini 3.5 Flash, a new model that is now generally available and being integrated into many Google products. The model comes with a significant price increase compared to its predecessors.
Google launched Gemini 3.8 Flash, an AI model that performs more reasoning steps and tool iterations, improving performance on benchmarks but potentially increasing costs due to higher token usage.
Google releases Gemini 3.7 Flash, a new AI model focused on coding and agentic workflows, with a 50% introductory price cut on API tokens until end of 2026. The model improves planning, instruction following, and error recovery to reduce retries and manual oversight.