Unnerd AI
You commented GEMINI
Free AI plans, side by side
Google is cutting the free Gemini plan from 9 October. Here's what each free AI plan gives you now, and which one to use for what.
Checked on 8 Oct 2026. Tools change fast, so the official page always wins if it says something different.
What changes in Gemini
- Free (no plan): from 9 October you only get Flash-Lite, Google's smallest model. Flash and Pro are gone.
- Google AI Plus (about $4.99/mo): keeps Flash-Lite and Flash, loses Pro. Google is emailing Plus users their own change date.
- Google AI Pro (about $19.99/mo): keeps everything.
- Free limits refresh every 5 hours up to a weekly limit, and free users can be slowed down first when Google is busy.
- Do you need to do anything? For quick stuff (short emails, simple questions) Flash-Lite is fine. For real work (long documents, research, writing), switch that work to one of the free plans below or pay.
Every free plan, side by side
As of 8 October 2026. Free plans change often, so the official page always wins.
- Model
- OpenAI's newest (GPT-6) is rolling out to free users from 8 Oct
- Limits
- "Unlimited" everyday text chats; images, uploads, voice and deep research are limited
- Good stuff
- Web search, projects, memory, image creation (limited)
- Watch out
- Free users may see ads (US test)
- Cheapest paid
- ChatGPT Go, about $8/mo · Plus $20/mo
- Model
- Sonnet (5.5) and Haiku
- Limits
- Resets every 5 hours; how much you get depends on demand
- Good stuff
- Careful writing, long documents and PDFs, web search, voice, memory, up to 5 projects
- Watch out
- No image making, no deep research on free
- Cheapest paid
- Claude Pro, $20/mo ($17/mo yearly)
- Model
- Picks one for you
- Limits
- Basic searches practically unlimited · 3 Pro searches a day · 1 deep research a month
- Good stuff
- Answers with sources you can click and check
- Watch out
- No image making on free
- Cheapest paid
- Perplexity Pro, $17/mo yearly (about $20 monthly)
- Model
- Not named for free users
- Limits
- "Subject to available capacity and limits", no numbers
- Good stuff
- Chat, images, file uploads (20 files, 50 MB each), web answers
- Watch out
- Deep Research was removed from the app in August
- Cheapest paid
- Microsoft 365 Personal, $9.99/mo
- Model
- Muse Spark
- Limits
- Free for everyday use, no numbers
- Good stuff
- Quick help and images right inside WhatsApp, Instagram and meta.ai, plus voice
- Watch out
- Meta uses your AI chats to personalise content and ads
- Cheapest paid
- Meta One Core, $7.99/mo
- Model
- Flash-Lite only from 9 Oct
- Limits
- Refresh every 5 hours up to a weekly limit
- Good stuff
- Quick questions, Google apps. Images and Deep Research were on free before the change; Google hasn't updated its limits page yet, so check before you rely on them
- Watch out
- Smallest model, and a small memory per chat
- Cheapest paid
- Google AI Plus, $4.99/mo (Flash) · AI Pro $19.99/mo (everything)
Find your best free plan in 10 minutes
Pick one real task
Not a test question. Something you actually do: reply to a customer email, summarise a PDF, plan a week of posts, research a product.
Paste the same task into 2 or 3 free plans
Start with the ones that match your job in the table above. Use the exact same words in each.
Keep the winner for that job
Most people end up with two: one for writing and one for research. That's normal.
Switch off training if you care about privacy
Most free plans can use your chats to improve their AI. You can switch it off:
ChatGPT: Settings → Data controls → Improve the model for everyone → off
Claude: Settings → Privacy → Model improvement → off
Perplexity: Settings → Preferences → AI data retention → off
Gemini: myactivity.google.com/product/gemini → Keep activity → off
The catch
- Every free plan has limits, and they keep shrinking. Gemini just showed that. Don't build your business on one free plan.
- Never paste private stuff into a free plan: passwords, client data, bank details.
- Prices here are US prices. UK and India prices are different.
- If AI already makes you money or saves you hours every week, one good paid plan (about $20/mo) usually pays for itself.
Official links
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Unnerd AI · I'm not paid by any of these companies. Prices are US prices and may differ where you live.