What Gemini is best at
- Students and researchers - search-grounded answers with citations
- Anyone deep in Gmail, Docs, Drive and Android
- Cheap high-volume API work: the Flash line undercuts every Western rival
Where it isn’t the answer
People who want one standalone app with personality - it shines as infrastructure, not as a companion.
Plans & pricing
The story so far
- Dec 2023Gemini 1.0 replaces Bard
- Feb 2024Gemini 1.5 introduces the million-token context
- 2025Gemini 2.x closes the quality gap; Veo video joins the app
- Jul 21, 2026Gemini 3.6 Flash and 3.5 Flash-Lite reach general availability
- Aug 13, 2026Gemini 3.7 Flash ships as the coding and agent workhorse
- Sep 2, 2026Gemini 3.8 Flash lands - the most capable Flash model yet
- Sep 15, 2026Gemini 3.8 Live brings real-time speech-to-speech to general availability
Questions people actually ask
Is Gemini really free?
The free tier is the most generous of any frontier lab - real daily usage without paying, plus free API quota for developers. Paid plans start at $4.99/month.
What is the newest Gemini model?
Gemini 3.8 Flash, released September 2, 2026, built for long-horizon software engineering and autonomous agents. Gemini 3.1 Pro is still the top of the Pro line.
What is Gemini’s context window?
1 million tokens, roughly 1,500 pages, on the current 3.x Flash models. The 2-million-token figure you may still see quoted belonged to the older Gemini 1.5 Pro preview.
Does Gemini work inside Gmail and Docs?
Yes, and that is its biggest advantage. It drafts, summarizes and searches inside the Google apps you already use.