Google Gemini: A Comprehensive Review of Free and Paid Features in 2025

Google Gemini Review: A Competent AI Chatbot With Fantastic Tie-Ins

You can use Gemini for free, but premium plans unlock more features. Free users get access to the 2.5 Flash model and limited access to the 2.5 Pro model. Voice mode, called Gemini Live, is freely available, and you also get limited use of deep research as well as Gems, Gemini's take on custom AI assistants. Limited access to Gemini's Whisk animation tool and 15GB of Google Drive cloud storage round out the offerings. As you might expect, premium plans expand usage limits and unlock more advanced models. Premium plans include Google AI Pro ($19.99 per month) and Google AI Ultra ($249.99 per month). The AI Pro tier, for which a one-month trial is available, gives you higher usage limits across the board. It also unlocks the Flow filmmaking tool, Gemini in Google Chrome, and video generation via Gemini's Veo 2 model, alongside a larger context window for processing more complex prompts. Google Drive cloud storage increases to 2TB with AI Pro, too. Finally, this plan includes Gemini integrations across Google Workspace apps, like Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and more. Gemini's AI Ultra plan has everything in the AI Pro plan, but it increases usage limits even further and adds in a couple new features: 30TB of Google Drive cloud storage, early access to Gemini's task-streamlining agent, exclusive access to Gemini's upcoming 2.5 Pro Deep Think mode, Google's latest Veo 3 video generation model, and YouTube Premium. Considering its prohibitive cost, though, I recommend AI Pro if you are interested in a premium Gemini plan. If you sign up for a Google One subscription, a service primarily focused on providing cloud storage through Google Drive, you can get Gemini AI Pro with more than 2TB of cloud storage, such as 5TB ($25 per month) or 10TB ($50 per month). For this review, I tested the AI Pro and AI Ultra tiers. All three major chatbots, Copilot, ChatGPT, and Gemini, charge around $20 per month for their flagship premium plans. However, Gemini and Copilot stand out from ChatGPT in terms of value, since they integrate with Google and Microsoft 365 apps, respectively. ChatGPT doesn't offer anything similar, focusing purely on chatbot functionality. Though Copilot Pro has some unique features, Gemini's cloud storage stands out to me as the best tie-in of all the chatbot subscriptions.

What Gemini app features are free versus paid?

As of May (I/O) 2025, Google offers the Gemini app in three tiers. Many Gemini app features are available for free, while paying $19.99 per month for Google AI Pro (which includes 2 TB of storage) unlocks a lot more. Google AI Ultra at $249.99/month gives you everything else, including cutting edge capabilities. Gemini Apps has more prompt and chat limits for more advanced models. If you reach your capacity limit for a specific model for a given period, you can switch to a different model until that limit is reached or your capacity limit is refreshed. Gemini app users with Google AI Pro or Google AI Ultra have higher capacity limits for advanced models. Google AI Pro and AI Ultra users get a long context window of 1 million tokens, which is equivalent to 1,500 pages of text or 30,000 lines of code. Free users can upload documents and slides to get summaries, insights, and ask questions. Supported file formats include: Uploading spreadsheets and other data files requires Google AI Pro and AI Ultra, with the ability to analyze and visualize (with charts) that information. Similarly, the ability to upload code folders and repositories also requires a subscription. Google touts how you can get "insights from thousands of lines of code, make intelligent changes, debug errors, and optimize your code for peak performance." Free users have access to Saved info to specify chat preferences (like "I'm a vegetarian" or "Make responses concise") for every conversation instead of having to add instructions to every prompt. With Google AI Pro and AI Ultra, Gemini can look at past chats you've had to inform the current conversation. To trigger, "mention topics or timeframes of past chats" to trigger, while this capability can be used to summarize previous chats. The "Sources and related content" section will note when "Previous chats" have been used. Gemini's first agentic lets users ask a question and get a multi-point research plan that they can further customize. Once approved, Gemini will search the web, analyze what it found, and compose a report. As of I/O 2025, files and images can be uploaded to Deep Research, thus combining user and public knowledge for the final result. All users have "general access" to image generation, which includes creating images with people. As of I/O 2025, the Gemini app is using Imagen 4 for higher quality, richer details, and better text/typography. There's also native image editing where you refine pictures (including generated ones and those you've uploaded) via text prompts. Both videos use the same prompt: "Aerial shot of a grassy cliff onto a sandy beach where waves crash against the shore, a prominent sea stack rises from the ocean near the beach, bathed in the warm, golden light of either sunrise or sunset, capturing the dramatic elevation change and the serene beauty of the Pacific coastline."