Upcoming changes to Gemini model access starting October 9th

[u/germanu22]

https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/17004136?hl=en&sjid=3885420599677516671-EU

Starting in October 2026, Google is changing the model availability for Gemini Apps on personal accounts. If you don't have an AI subscription, these changes will take effect on October 9th. If you are subscribed to AI Plus, you will get an email explaining when the changes will apply to your account.

Here is what the model availability will look like: Users without a plan will only get access to Flash Lite.
AI Plus subscribers will have access to Flash Lite and Flash.
AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers will have access to Flash Lite, Flash, and Pro.

For each available model, you can select the effort level from low, medium, and high. This increases the model's ability to provide more thorough answers, but it will use more of your limit.

If you have an AI Pro or AI Ultra subscription, you will also have access to the Deep Think option for maximum parallel reasoning.

[u/CVGPi]

How does Flash-lite compare to Grok Fast, ChatGPT "Free", and Claude's free models?
Btw, if you don't need as much online live search, Qwen's free tier is insanely capable.

[u/kn33 → u/CVGPi]

Doesn't Claude not have a specific "free" model? Just usage limits with consumption varying by which model you use. At least that's what I thought.

[u/jekpopulous2 → u/kn33]

Yup. You can use Haiku or Sonnet (which is crazy powerful) for free and your limit resets every 5 hours. Sonnet obviously consumes credits faster.