Google removes manual model selection on Gemini's free plan and cuts Gemini Pro access for $4.99 AI Plus subscribers, sparking user backlash.

Is the era of free high-end AI officially coming to an end? In this episode, we unpack Google's major overhaul of its Gemini subscription tiers and free service. Free users can no longer manually select models, as Google replaces the model picker with an automatic "Auto" setting that defaults most prompts to the lightweight Flash-Lite model. At the same time, Google is rolling out new "effort levels" (Low, Medium, and High) to adjust reasoning depth.


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This episode includes AI-generated content.