People using Gemini for quick daily questions will have one free option from 9 October: Flash-Lite. Google is removing standard Flash from the free tier, leaving the lighter model as the sole choice for free daily chats.
The change also reaches customers who pay for Google AI Plus. They will lose access to Pro, the model aimed at advanced reasoning and longer context, although they will retain Flash and Flash-Lite.
Google AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers will continue to have all three versions: Flash-Lite, Flash and Pro. Pro is being reserved for those two higher subscription tiers.
Google disclosed the changes in a pop-up in the Gemini web app. It is also sending current Plus subscribers individual timelines setting out when their downgrade will take effect, so the precise date differs from the 9 October change for free users.
Plus subscribers who need Pro before the October deadline can move to AI Pro, which restores access to the model.
The distinction between the models is practical. Google describes Flash as the option for fast replies and everyday questions, while Flash-Lite is designed for lighter work and has less capacity.
Google AI Plus launched at $4.99 a month as a tier between the free service and Pro. Google now sells four consumer plans: Free at $0, Google AI Plus at $4.99 a month, Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month, and Google AI Ultra at $99.99 a month for 5x access or $199.99 a month for 20x access.
The company had already removed Pro-tier models from free accounts on April 1, 2026, replacing them with faster, cheaper models.
The plans also differ in how Google handles user data. On the free tier, data is used to improve products; Google says this does not happen on paid tiers. Its terms say that, for Unpaid Services, it uses submitted content and generated responses to provide, improve and develop Google products and services and machine learning technologies.
Google continues to offer access for developers through its application programming interface, or API. The three newest Flash models have an introductory price of $0.75 input and $3.75 output per million tokens through December 31, 2026, with those prices doubling on January 1, 2027.
One of those models, Gemini 3.8 Flash, is listed by Google as “our most intelligent Flash model” and is engineered for long-horizon software engineering.
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