Google is downgrading Gemini for users on budget plans

Google has been rolling out iterative updates to its lightweight Gemini models almost every month, including Gemini 3.8 Flash in September. While there’s no word on Gemini 3.9 Flash, Google has already started testing Gemini 4 “Argon” in closed quarters before releasing it to the wider user base. It’s also when Google might release the first advanced reasoning model since Gemini 3.1 Pro. But before that release, Google is tugging the reins on usage across different subscription tiers and going after limits again.

Google recently updated its support page (via 9to5Google) to highlight changes to access and limits for its frontier models. In this document, it specifies that users without a Google AI subscription will be limited to only using Gemini 3.5-Flash-Lite. That means non-paying users will no longer be able to access Gemini 3.6 Flash or newer variations of the models, as they currently can.

Along with non-paying users, Google is also culling access for the AI Plus tier, which costs $4.99 a month. Google plans to restrict them to Flash and Flash-Lite models, while removing access to Gemini 3.1-Pro and newer reasoning models. These announced changes go into effect later this week, i.e., on October 9th.

These restrictions, meanwhile, don’t apply to Gemini AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, who will also have access to a Deep Thinking option.

Along with these degraded usage for lower-paying users, Google has also revealed that users will be able to choose among low, medium, and high effort for models, but the usage limits would be exhausted more quickly based on the effort.