Google – Welcome to the Gemini era
Published by GoogleWatch on YouTube
Updated Oct 4, 2026
AI Assistants
Gemini
Google's AI assistant for people who work in Google's apps
From $4.99/mo
Gemini at a glance
from our research
Google's AI assistant on the web, Android, iOS, Mac and Windows, for people who live in Google's apps
Can summarize Gmail, create Calendar events and search Drive files from inside a chat
Limits are compute-based and features vary by plan and region, so entitlements need checking
Google AI Pro costs $19.99 a month; businesses get Gemini through Google Workspace
Overview
What is Gemini?
Gemini is Google's AI assistant, made by Google LLC, the American company founded in 1998; it launched in March 2023 as an experiment called Bard. You type, talk or upload files, photos and videos, and Gemini answers with Google's Flash and Pro models, grounding some responses in Google Search. With your permission it works with Connected Apps such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive and YouTube Music, so it can summarize email, create events or find a file in the middle of a chat.
Deep Research runs a series of searches and writes a cited report, using Google Search by default plus your Gmail, Drive or uploaded files if you add them. In Canvas, Gemini drafts or edits a document, slides, code or a small app alongside the chat. Gemini generates and edits images on every plan, and paid plans add video generation. Gemini Notebook keeps a project's sources and chats together and answers with citations to those sources.
Gemini runs at gemini.google.com, in Android and iOS apps and in desktop apps for Mac and Windows. Personal accounts use it free or through Google AI plans, monthly subscriptions that bundle Google One storage and, on paid tiers, Gemini inside Gmail and other Google apps. Usage is compute-based, with a limit that refreshes every five hours up to a weekly cap. Companies get Gemini through Google Workspace instead, where it is a core service in the Business and Enterprise editions.
Our verdict on Gemini
Updated Oct 4, 2026Pricing checked Oct 3, 2026
Gemini makes the most sense for people who already keep their mail, calendar and files with Google. Connected Apps let it read Gmail, add Calendar events and pull files from Drive inside a chat, and a paid Google AI plan puts Gemini inside Gmail and Docs as well. It also handles media: images on every plan and video on paid plans. The free tier includes image generation, Deep Research and Gemini Notebook, so the approach can be tried before paying.
The catch is the number of moving parts. Limits are compute-based, so Pro-model answers, Deep Research and media generation run the five-hour allowance down faster than a quick question. The context window depends on the plan: 32,000 tokens without one, 128,000 on AI Plus and 1 million only from AI Pro up. Newer features such as the Spark agent are unavailable in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK. On personal accounts, chats saved with Keep Activity on can be read by human reviewers and used to improve Google's AI, so confidential material calls for Keep Activity off or a temporary chat.
For an individual, Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month is the plan that changes the experience. It raises usage to four times Free, opens the 1 million token context window and adds Gemini in Gmail and Docs and 5TB of storage. Google AI Plus, at $4.99 a month, doubles Free's limits and adds video generation and 400GB of storage but keeps the smaller context window. Ultra costs $99.99 a month for five times AI Pro's usage, or $199.99 a month for twenty times, billed monthly only. These plans need a personal Google account; a business gets Gemini through its Workspace subscription.
Choose Gemini if your work already runs through Gmail, Calendar and Drive, or if you want image and video generation bundled with your storage. If your company runs on Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Copilot Business adds Copilot to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams for $21 per user a month billed yearly, on top of an eligible Business plan. For long documents that end as Office files, Claude Pro, at $20 a month or $17 billed yearly, returns Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly.
Written by Lokesh Kapoor
Pros & cons
Gemini pros and cons
What it does well
- Image generation, Deep Research and Gemini Notebook all work on the free plan
- Deep Research can search Gmail, Drive and uploaded files alongside Google Search
- AI Pro raises the context window to 1 million tokens and puts Gemini in Gmail and Docs
- A core service in Google Workspace Business and Enterprise editions
Where it falls short
- Context window is 32,000 tokens without a plan and 128,000 on AI Plus
- With Keep Activity on, human reviewers may read chats to improve Google's AI
- Spark and chat import aren't offered in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK
Editor's assessment from vendor documentation and published pricing
Pricing
Gemini pricing
Gemini's paid plans start at $4.99/month, below the $16.67 median across the 5 tools in our AI Assistants ranking. A free plan is available.
Free
$0
Free plan
For one person
- Gemini 3.6 Flash
- Limited Gemini 3.1 Pro
- Image generation and editing
- Deep Research
- 15GB storage
Google AI Plus
$4.99/mo
per month
For one person
- 2x Free's usage limits
- 200 Flow credits a month
- Gemini in Gmail and Vids
- 400GB storage
Usage: Limits refresh every five hours up to a weekly cap; AI credits extend them.
Google AI Pro
$19.99/mo
per month
For one person
- 4x Free's usage limits
- 1,000 Flow credits a month
- Gemini in Gmail and Docs
- YouTube Premium Lite
- 5TB storage
Usage: Limits refresh every five hours up to a weekly cap; AI credits extend them.
Google AI Ultra
$99.99/mo
per month (5x Pro usage)
For one person
- 5x AI Pro's usage limits
- 10,000 Flow credits a month
- Early access to Deep Think
- YouTube Premium
- 20TB storage
Usage: Monthly billing only.
Google AI Ultra (20x)
$199.99/mo
per month (20x Pro usage)
For one person
- 20x AI Pro's usage limits
- 25,000 Flow credits a month
- Early access to Deep Think
- YouTube Premium
- 30TB storage
Usage: Monthly billing only.
Checked against Google LLC's pricing page on October 3, 2026 · see the full breakdown
Capabilities
Gemini features
Checked against the same feature list as every other tool in its category.
Platform
- Included:Developer APIThe same models available programmatically for building your own applications.
Reasoning & Modes
- Included:Custom assistants & agentsSave a reusable assistant with its own instructions, files and tools.
- Included:Extended reasoning modeA slower mode that thinks through multi-step problems before answering, for maths, analysis and planning.
- Included:Long context windowAccepts book-length input in a single conversation without losing earlier detail.AI Pro plan and up
- Included:Persistent memoryRemembers your preferences and context across separate conversations.
Knowledge & Sources
- Included:App connectorsConnects to Drive, SharePoint, email or a code host so the assistant can use your own data.
- Included:File & document analysisReads uploaded PDFs, spreadsheets and images and answers questions about them.
- Included:Inline source citationsLinks each claim back to the page it came from so answers can be checked.
- Included:Live web searchSearches the web during an answer rather than relying on training data alone.
Multimodal
- Included:Code execution & data analysisRuns code in a sandbox to analyse data, make charts and verify its own answers.
- Included:Image generationCreates and edits images from a text description inside the same conversation.
- Included:Voice conversationReal-time spoken conversation with interruption, not just dictation.
Team & Governance
- Included:No training on your dataBusiness tiers exclude your conversations from model training by default.
- Included:Team admin & SSOCentral billing, seat management and single sign-on for organisations.
Ecosystem
Gemini integrations
- Gmail
- Google Drive
- Google Docs
- Google Sheets
- Google Meet
- YouTube
Videos
Watch Gemini in action
Product walkthroughs from Gemini's own YouTube channel.
Introducing Canvas in Gemini
Published by GoogleWatch on YouTube
Alternatives
Top Gemini alternatives
Tools that do the same job, from the same category.
Microsoft Copilot
Best for Microsoft 365 organizations that work in Excel, Outlook and Teams all day
Free plan
Fit check
Will Gemini fit your team?
Support
- Email support
- Live chat
- Knowledge base
- Community forum
Training
- Documentation
- Video tutorials
- Webinars
Deployment
- Web
- iOS
- Android
Typical users
- Freelancers
- Small businesses
- Mid-size companies
- Enterprises
FAQs
Gemini FAQs
Written by our editorial team.
Is Gemini free?
Yes, with a Google Account. The free plan includes the Flash model, limited access to the Pro model, image generation and editing, Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas, Gemini Notebook and 15GB of storage, with a 32,000-token context window. Video generation needs a paid plan. Google AI Plus costs $4.99 a month and Google AI Pro $19.99 a month. See Gemini pricing for every plan.
How do Gemini's usage limits work?
Gemini uses compute-based limits that weigh the complexity of your prompt, the model and features you use, and the length of the chat. The limit refreshes every five hours until you reach a weekly cap. AI Plus gets twice the free limits, AI Pro four times, and Ultra five or twenty times AI Pro's. The Pro model, higher thinking levels, Deep Research and media generation use more of the allowance. Subscribers who hit a limit can keep chatting with Flash-Lite or buy AI credits.
Does Gemini use your chats to train Google's AI?
On a personal account it can. With Keep Activity on, chats are saved to your Google account and a subset is read by human reviewers to improve Google's services; reviewed chats are kept for up to three years. Turning Keep Activity off, or using a temporary chat, keeps future chats out of AI training as long as you send no feedback, though Google still keeps them for 72 hours. Work and school accounts follow their Workspace license, and core-service editions get enterprise-grade data protections.
Can you use Gemini with a Google Workspace work account?
Yes. Most work accounts have access, and Gemini is a core service in Workspace Business Starter, Standard and Plus and the Enterprise editions, with enterprise-grade security and privacy. Your administrator controls access and data retention, and limits differ from the personal Google AI plans, which require a personal account. For how it stacks up against Microsoft's assistant, see Gemini vs Microsoft Copilot.
Who owns what Gemini creates, and can you export it?
You do: Google's terms say it won't claim ownership of original content you generate, though they bar using that output to build machine-learning models. You can send a response to Google Docs, draft it in Gmail, export tables to Google Sheets or send Python code to Colab. To take everything with you, Google Takeout downloads your Gemini chats, generated media and uploads. If you are leaving, see Gemini alternatives.
Sources & methodology
Product details come from Google LLC's public website and documentation (United States). Every plan and price was checked against the vendor's pricing page on October 3, 2026. We haven't tested this product hands-on; the verdict is a desk assessment. How we research and rank tools
- Founded 1998
- 11 languages supported
- google.com
Keep researching