How Google’s New Gemini Rates Work and How to Track Your Usage

Google doesn’t specify what the usage limits are on the free tier—it describes them only as “standard.” You then get 2x these “standard” limits on the AI Plus plan, and 4x on the AI Pro plan. The AI Ultra limits are either 5x or 20x higher than those on AI Pro, depending on which level of payment you’re on.

All users have access to all the Gemini AI models, including Flash-Lite, Flash, and Pro. As you progress through those models, they get smarter and will count more toward usage. Each model also has different “thinking” levels—Standard, Extended, and Deep Think—which also affect response quality, speed, and usage limits.

The final difference between these models is context window size. Basically, this indicates how much information you can include in a single conversation thread. For free users, the context window is 32K tokens (small chunks of text)—roughly 24,000 words. For AI Plus users, it goes up to 128K tokens (about 96,000 words), and for AI Pro and Ultra users, the limit is a million tokens (about 750,000 words).

Check Your AI Usage

You can see how close you are to your plan’s limits.

Photograph: Courtesy of David Nield

While the new rules around AI usage may be lacking in specifics, at least it’s easy enough to check your status. In the Gemini app on the web, click the cog icon (lower left) then Usage limits; in the mobile app for Android or iOS, tap the menu button (top left), then the cog, then Usage limits.

You’ll see two bars. The top bar shows your current usage, which resets every five hours. If you run through this, you’ll need to wait before coming back; the Gemini app tells you the time of the next reset.

The second bar is your weekly limit, which as you might expect, resets every week. (Again, this will be shown onscreen.) If you hit these limits and you’re on a paid plan, you’ll be demoted to the most basic AI model, which you can continue to use until the next reset.

You will, inevitably, see offers to upgrade your AI plan on the usage limits screen. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Google’s support documents say limits may change without notice, due to capacity constraints—and that free users may be affected first if Google needs to manage its AI resources.