Gemini is Google's AI assistant for text generation, research, and productivity, integrated with Google apps and available on the web and mobile. It runs on a freemium model with a genuine free tier, and paid plans start at $4.99 per month (Google AI Plus), giving individuals access to higher usage limits and Google's Gemini 3.1 Pro model without running any infrastructure of their own.
Who builds it
Gemini is developed by Google. The consumer product at gemini.google.com is built on the same Gemini model family that Google also exposes to developers through the Gemini API, and the assistant is integrated across Google's own apps and Workspace.
What it does
Gemini turns natural-language prompts into text for research, drafting, summarizing, and everyday productivity tasks, with the Google AI Pro and Ultra plans built specifically around access to the Gemini 3.1 Pro model. Its context window reaches 1,000,000 tokens, long enough to work over large documents or long conversations in one session. Gemini can be grounded with Google Search, so responses include the model's text answer together with inline citations linking back to the search results the answer is based on.
Core features
- Freemium access with a free tier and paid consumer plans from $4.99/month (Google AI Plus)
- Gemini 3.1 Pro available on paid tiers, with a 1,000,000-token context window
- Google Search grounding with inline source citations
- Team access through Google Workspace Business, Enterprise, and Frontline plans, which include the standalone Gemini app
- Full Gemini API for developers, with free-of-charge starting limits before paid, production-scale usage
- API pricing on the flagship model: $2 per 1M input tokens, $12 per 1M output tokens, and $0.20 per 1M cached tokens (for prompts up to 200k tokens)
- SOC 1/2/3, ISO 27001, and ISO 27701 certification for Gemini in Workspace
Who it's for
Gemini suits individuals and teams already inside the Google ecosystem — Gmail, Docs, and Workspace users — who want an AI assistant embedded in the tools they already use, as well as developers who want to build on Gemini 3.1 Pro through the API. The free tier, which includes access to Gemini 3.5 Flash and varying access to 3.1 Pro, is enough to evaluate the assistant; Google AI Plus at $4.99/month roughly doubles usage limits, with Pro and Ultra tiers above it for heavier individual use. Organizations that want Gemini rolled out across a whole team move to Workspace's Business, Enterprise, or Frontline plans. Developers evaluating Gemini purely for API-based projects can start on the free-of-charge tier before committing to production usage.
Data and compliance
Google states that Gemini for Workspace is one of the first generative AI solutions certified against SOC 1, 2, and 3, ISO 27001, and ISO 27701 industry security and privacy standards. We don't track a specific fact in our data on region-locked (EU-only) hosting for consumer Gemini beyond these certifications, so organizations with strict data-residency requirements should confirm current options directly with Google before rolling Gemini out at scale.