Major labs
Google (Gemini)
Makes Gemini, and has the most free-tier-friendly lineup of the major labs.
Checked September 19, 2026
No lab publishes a real roadmap
So this page keeps three things apart on purpose. What has already shipped is dated. What is coming is listed only where the lab itself has said it in public, with the source named. Everything else sits under “What to watch” and is my own read of their shipping pattern — informed guessing, not news. If a date matters to you, check the lab's own page linked above.
What they are
Google has the most free-tier-friendly lineup of the major labs: free app access to a flagship, a free API tier, and a fully open-weight family.
It ships frequently and renames often, and it runs its consumer app and its developer API on different pricing logic — the same model can be free in one and paid in the other.
What they currently ship
Every model in the directory entry, with its free-tier status.
- Gemini 3.1 Pro— Flagship for complex reasoning, coding and creative work — free with limits in the Gemini app, paid-only via the API.Free with limits
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (and the 3.5 / 3.6 Flash-Lite tiers below it)— Fast, capable everyday and agentic-workflow models, free through both the Gemini app and Google AI Studio’s API, with rate limits.Free
- Gemini 3.1 Deep Think— An extended-reasoning mode for hard research and engineering problems, on the Google AI Ultra plan.Paid only
- Nano Banana / Nano Banana Pro— Image generation and editing — free with limits in the Gemini app and Search; full API access is mostly paid.Free with limits
- Gemma 4— Google’s fully open-weight family, sized from phone-friendly to workstation-class — download from Hugging Face, Kaggle or Ollama.Free, open-weight
- Note: Veo (video) and Lyria (music) generation exist but are paid-plan features, not free.
What you get for free
The honest version, in one paragraph.
The strongest free story of the major labs. You get flagship access with limits in the app, a real free API tier on the Flash models, free image generation with limits, and an open-weight family you can download and keep. Video, music and extended reasoning are the paid parts.
Track record
Things that actually happened, oldest first, each with a date.
- December 2023The first Gemini models replace Bard and unify Google's model branding.
- 2024–2025The Gemma open-weight family establishes Google as a serious open-weight publisher, not just a closed one.
- 2026The 3.x Gemini generation lands, with Flash tiers free in both the app and Google AI Studio's API.
Confirmed and announced
Only what the lab has stated in public. Nothing here rests on a rumor.
Gemini 3.8 Flash and the Flash-Lite tiers below it are free through the Gemini app and Google AI Studio's API, with rate limits.
Stated on the lab's own pricing or docs page
Gemini 3.1 Deep Think requires the Google AI Ultra plan, and Veo (video) and Lyria (music) are paid-plan features.
Stated on the lab's own pricing or docs page
What to watch
My own read of where this lab is heading, based on how it has shipped so far. Not announcements — treat these as questions to check, not facts.
- — The next Gemma generation, which is the part of Google's line you can actually own rather than rent.
- — Whether Deep Think-style extended reasoning ever reaches a free tier.
- — Model-name churn: Google renames and re-tiers faster than anyone here, so check the model list before relying on a name.
Their ethics and safety policies
What Google (Gemini) has published about safety and ethics, the documents themselves, what those documents leave out — and my own read, kept separate.
Looking for which tool to actually use? See AI Models Compared