Google is restricting Gemini model access by subscription tier. Free users and AI Plus subscribers will lose access to certain models, a change that follows the compute-based usage limits introduced in May 2026.
The tiered model access system pushes advanced capabilities, including Deep Think, exclusively to AI Pro subscribers. This is not a performance tweak. It is a structural gate on what the product fundamentally does depending on what you pay.
The full article details which models get cut for which tiers and when the changes take effect. If you use Gemini for anything beyond casual queries, the specifics matter.
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