Gemini Free vs Pro in 2026: What the Free Plan Does, Plan Prices, and Image and Video Limits

Gemini Free is the $0 plan that, as of September 2026, gives you Gemini 3.6 Flash, image generation, Deep Research and Gemini Live, while video generation is reserved for paid plans. The paid plans are Google AI Plus at $4.99 a month, Google AI Pro at $19.99, and Google AI Ultra at $99.99 or $199.99 in the US; in South Korea they cost ₩7,500, ₩29,000, and ₩119,000 or ₩300,000. Each step raises usage limits, to 2x and 4x of Free for Plus and Pro, and Ultra goes higher than Pro. ASAP built this guide only from Google's official subscription pages, Google One and the Gemini Help Center.

What can you do with Gemini for free? (September 2026)

Gemini Free is a plan that, as of September 2026, runs on Gemini 3.6 Flash by default and also offers some access to 3.1 Pro. Google's release notes say 3.6 Flash rolled out to all Gemini app users worldwide on July 21, 2026. The subscription page lists these features for Free:

• Image generation and editing (Nano Banana)
• Deep Research, Gemini Live, Canvas and Gems
• Gemini Notebook, a research and writing assistant
• Limited Google Flow access, including limited access to Nano Banana Pro
• 15 GB of storage shared across Gmail, Drive and Photos

The Help Center feature table also marks music generation, slide generation, AI Audio Overviews, and quizzes and flashcards as available on Free. Video generation, recreating images with Nano Banana Pro, Daily Brief and scheduled actions are not. The Free context window, the amount Gemini reads at once, is 32,000 tokens, smaller than any paid plan.

Gemini plans compared: Free, AI Plus, AI Pro and AI Ultra prices

Gemini's consumer plans are Free, Google AI Plus, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra as of September 2026. Usage limits are 2x Free on Plus and 4x Free on Pro, and Ultra sits a step above Pro.

Item	Free	AI Plus	AI Pro	AI Ultra
Monthly price (US)	$0	$4.99	$19.99	$99.99 or $199.99
Monthly price (Korea)	₩0	₩7,500	₩29,000	₩119,000 or ₩300,000
Usage limits	Standard	2x Free	4x Free	5x or 20x AI Pro (subscription page)
Context window	32,000 tokens	128,000 tokens	1 million tokens	1 million tokens
Video generation	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Google Flow credits	Limited access	200	1,000	10,000 or 25,000
Gemini in Google apps	No	Gmail, Vids and more	Gmail, Docs, Vids and more	Highest limits
Cloud storage	15 GB	400 GB	5 TB	20 TB or more

AI Plus has two price listings in Korea. The Gemini subscription page lists AI Plus with 400 GB at ₩7,500 a month, while the Google One plans page lists AI Plus with 2 TB at ₩11,900. The Gemini features are the same; storage sets the price.

What Gemini Pro and Ultra add

Gemini Pro, formally Google AI Pro, is the $19.99 plan (₩29,000 in Korea) that raises usage limits to 4x Free and expands the context window to 1 million tokens. Google says 1 million tokens lets Gemini take in up to 1,500 pages of text or 30,000 lines of code at once. Pro also brings higher access to 3.1 Pro and Deep Research, Gemini inside Gmail, Docs and Google Vids, and 5 TB of storage that can be shared with up to five people. Developers get entry-level limits in Google Antigravity, Google's agentic development platform.

Gemini Ultra comes in two tiers: $99.99 (₩119,000) with 5x the AI Pro limits and $199.99 (₩300,000) with 20x. Ultra-only features include Deep Think, Project Genie for building interactive worlds with the Genie 3 world model, and early access to new features such as Gemini Spark. Deep Think is a maximum parallel reasoning mode whose answers can take several minutes, and Gemini Spark is offered only in some countries.

Gemini image generation and video: how far does Free go?

Gemini image generation works on Free through Nano Banana, but Gemini video generation requires AI Plus or higher as of September 2026. In the Help Center feature table, image generation with Nano Banana is checked for all four plans, while video generation is blank only for Free.

On images, the line between free and paid is the higher-end model. Recreating images with Nano Banana Pro starts at AI Plus, while Free gets only limited Nano Banana Pro access inside Google Flow. On video, Gemini Omni is the centerpiece. Google describes Gemini Omni as a model that creates and edits video conversationally from text, photos and video, and offers it in the Gemini app to Google AI subscribers aged 18 and over, with availability varying by region. The AI Pro description also mentions a limited free trial of Veo 3.1 Lite, a video model focused on speed.

How to use Gemini: getting started for free

Getting started with Gemini requires only a personal Google account, and as of September 2026 it works on the web, mobile and desktop apps. The steps are:

1. On the web, go to gemini.google.com; on a phone, install the Gemini app for Android or iOS. On a PC, use the Mac app for macOS 15 or later or the Windows app for Windows 10 or later, released on September 10, 2026.
2. Sign in with a personal Google account that you manage yourself. Work and school accounts have separate instructions.
3. Pick a model, such as 3.6 Flash, from the model dropdown.
4. Describe a scene to generate an image, or upload files and photos for summaries and analysis.
5. To check your limits, open Settings at the bottom left and select usage limits.
6. If you keep hitting limits, upgrade to a Google AI plan from Settings. You can cancel anytime, and the remaining billing period is not refunded except where required by law.

Which Gemini plan should users in Korea choose?

The most practical choices for users in Korea are Free and AI Pro at ₩29,000 a month. Free covers search, summaries and light image generation, while AI Plus at ₩7,500 is a middle step for people who want to try video generation or need more storage.

In Korea, AI Pro costs the same ₩29,000 a month as ChatGPT Plus. At that price, AI Pro bundles 5 TB of storage, Gmail and Docs integration, and a 1 million token context. For anyone already paying for Google One storage, the AI features come close to a free add-on, and for anyone who needs to drop in long PDFs or whole codebases, the context gap is decisive. To compare model performance alone, see the [ASAP AI leaderboard](/leaderboard/llm-intelligence/).

College students should check the student offer first. Google gives eligible college students one year of AI Plus at no cost in more than 140 countries, and the Korean subscription page shows the promotion. Per the release notes, the redemption deadline is December 31, 2026, and the plan renews at the standard monthly price afterward. Ultra starts at ₩119,000, which is more than most people need unless video production is your job or you specifically need Deep Think.

What to watch for in Gemini usage limits

Gemini usage limits are compute-based since the May 17, 2026 change, not a fixed count of prompts. The Help Center says limits account for prompt complexity, the model and features used, and conversation length, and they refresh every 5 hours until you reach a weekly limit. Two free users can burn through limits at very different speeds if one leans on Deep Research or media generation.

Some conditions favor paying users. During periods of high demand, free users may lose access to compute-heavy features such as Deep Research, and when limits are adjusted, free users are restricted before subscribers. Paid subscribers who hit their limit can keep chatting with Flash-Lite.

Official pages also disagree in places. The subscription page puts Ultra at 5x or 20x AI Pro limits, while the Help Center table says 4x or 20x. Model names differ as well: the subscription page says 3.6 Flash and 3.1 Pro, while the Help Center model table says Gemini 3 Flash and 3 Pro. Before paying, check the latest wording on the gemini.google subscription page.

Sources: Google AI Plans (Google Gemini) · Google AI Plans, Korea (Google Gemini) · Google One plans and pricing (Google) · Gemini Apps limits and upgrades for Google AI subscribers (Gemini Apps Help) · Gemini Apps release notes (Google Gemini) · ChatGPT Pricing (OpenAI)