Free Gemini users will lose Flash and Pro access from October 9

Google intends to reduce free access to artificial intelligence models in its Gemini service, days after the launch of its new model "Gemini 4 Argon".

The company explained that free personal accounts that are not subscribed to Google AI plans will lose access to the "Gemini Flash" and "Gemini Pro" models, to be limited to "Flash-Lite", in a major change to the level of services available for free.

Users without a subscription had access to all three models, before the company decided to limit free use to the "Flash-Lite" model only.

The changes also include Google AI Plus subscribers who will retain Flash-Lite and Flash access to the /Pro/, while Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscribers will continue to benefit from the three models

Google noted that AI Plus subscribers will receive emails with when the changes will be applied to their accounts.

In a related context, the company revealed that the "Deep Think" feature is available to subscribers of the "Google AI Pro" and "Google AI Ultra" plans, after the feature was only available to "Ultra" subscribers.

The feature, which Google describes as dedicated to maximizing parallel inference, allows for complex tasks to be tackled using advanced inference capabilities.

Under the new changes, AI Pro subscribers will have access to Flash-Lite, Flash, and Pro models, along with the Deep Thinking feature, while AI Ultra subscribers will retain the same set of models and features.

The move follows Google's launch of the Gemini 4 Argon model, through which it seeks to compete with the latest AI models, including GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5, while continuing to expand the use of Gemini across its various applications and platforms.

The new restrictions are set to come into effect on October 9, with the models and benefits available to users varying according to their subscription plans.

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