Starting October 9, free Gemini users will no longer access Gemini Flash or Pro models, with all inquiries defaulting to Flash-Lite. Google announced the change on its support page, noting that Flash offers improved capabilities over Lite, while Pro was built for advanced reasoning and complex tasks. Free users seeking Flash or Pro functionality will need to upgrade.
Google AI Plus subscribers ($5/month) will lose access to Gemini 3.1 Pro, which excels in math, coding, and multimodal understanding across text, files, images, and videos. For coding or document-heavy use, users may need AI Pro ($20/month) or AI Ultra ($100+/month). Google is also adding 'effort level' options (low, medium, high) to control model thoroughness and usage.
AI Ultra subscribers gain Deep Think access and early access to Gemini 4 Argon, currently limited to Google’s Fairwind Program for governments and trusted partners.
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing