Google officially announced that it will be changing access to specific Gemini models. In a recently published support document, the internet search giant said Gemini users without a AI subscription will lose access to the (3.6) Flash and (3.1) Pro models and will only have access to the (3.5) Flash-Lite model, starting 9 October.
Unfortunately, AI Plus users are not spared from these changes either, as subscribers to this plan will lose access to the Pro model and be limited to the Flash-Lite and Flash models. Google said that AI Plus users will “receive an email that explains when these changes will take effect”, although it did not specify when the changes will take effect for each subscriber.
Meanwhile, AI Pro and AI Ultra users will retain access to all three aforementioned models. Rather than lose features, users of the AI Pro and AI Ultra plans will instead have access to Deep Think for “maximum parallel reasoning”.
The changes to model availability are separate from Gemini’s compute-based usage limits, which the company introduced back in May. Rather than simply counting the number of prompts a user sends, the system takes into account factors such as the complexity of a prompt, the features being used and the length of a chat, meaning more demanding tasks can consume a user’s allowance faster.
Google notes that users can also select between low, medium, and high effort levels for each available model. Choosing a higher effort level allows the model to handle tasks more effectively and provide more detailed responses, although this will also consume more of the aforementioned usage limit.
(Source: Google, via 9to5Google)
