Despite Microsoft's best efforts, "Bing it" never became a thing. Google is still the only search engine to become an everyday verb. Unfortunately, Google didn't move fast enough in the AI space to earn its Gemini chatbot that distinction. As a result, OpenAI's ChatGPT is the product that's become synonymous with AI. There was even a South Park episode dedicated to "ChatGPT, dude."
While ChatGPT remains the world's most popular AI chatbot with 60% global market share, Google's aggressively pushing to move Gemini up that list. The search giant is determined to make it people's default AI platform, giving more capabilities for free users even if it might cost the company more to do so.
Right now, there are three tiers of Google Gemini: Free, AI Pro and AI Ultra. Considering AI Ultra costs $250 a month, it's more for heavy AI users who need the most advanced models for research, AI filmmaking and agentic help. Most people will likely be deciding if it's worth upgrading to the $20 AI Pro model. As someone who's reviewed both the free and paid versions of Gemini, I can say with confidence that while the paid version is better, the free version offers a lot and is good enough for most people. It gives so much that it can pull people away from the free version of ChatGPT.
What are the differences?
Gemini Free isn't running Google's most powerful AI model. Instead, it's running Gemini 2.5 Flash, a lighter model that's better for easier queries and results in faster output. Free users can use the 2.5 Pro model up to five times a day before being reverted to 2.5 Flash, however. Despite foregoing the 2.5 Pro and Ultra models, it can still handle basic file analysis, integrates with other Google services like Gmail and Docs and generates images, albeit with a lower advertised token amount. It also doesn't give you access to Veo 3 or NotebookLM, powerful video generation and brainstorming tools.
Google is generous with its Gemini Code Assist, however, giving you a "practically unlimited" coding companion.
How far behind is Gemini Free in practice?
In my day-to-day testing of the free version of Gemini, I was surprised at how much I got out of it. I tried my hardest to push the model to hit my daily allowance, a feat that wasn't at all difficult with ChatGPT Free. Gemini kept going, answering all my in-depth and esoteric questions until I eventually gave up.
Of course, the quality of answers isn't as complex as Gemini's AI Pro subscription. Depending on the types of questions you're asking, you should be able to get by with Gemini's lighter 2.5 Flash model. I wasn't simply asking the free version of Gemini basic questions. I tried pushing its understanding of copyright law, video game technology and the New York rental car market. I found Gemini Free to be competent in analyzing and answering my questions in a manner that was easily understandable.
When it comes to image generation, Gemini Free isn't great. At the same time, it can output multiple images before timing out. The images I got had logical inconsistencies that I attempted to remedy with multiple attempts to no avail. ChatGPT Free, by comparison, does a better job of rendering the type of image you asked for, but can take upwards of 30 minutes to output one image. Doing so often eats up your token allowance, forcing you to wait a few hours before you can use the service again.
Google also says that Gemini 2.5 Flash is a "thinking" model, one that can recursively consider the answer it's about to output, double-check, and give you a final response. Doing so takes more time and computation but generally yields better results. And with models like DeepSeek R1 out on the market, all the AI companies need to have a smart model that can compete for free.
When to consider Gemini AI Pro?
If answers to your questions seem too brief and to the point, consider checking out Gemini Pro. Google's more advanced AI model is particularly adept at coding and research. It can pull from the large corpus of information that Google's cultivated as the leader in online search. Not only that, Google can also pull in data from YouTube, something it doesn't let other AI companies do.
I found Gemini Pro to be a fun coding companion when developing a custom Chrome extension for work. Since I'm not a coder, Gemini Pro had to hold my hand as it developed code for me and had me test it out on Chrome. It did mess up quite a few times, but was always ready to correct its mistake and try again. But remember: Google's made Gemini Code Assist free, available to run online via an in-browser sandbox, in Apigee, Cloud Run and other environments. So, if you do hit your token limit on Gemini Free when coding, there are other places you can go to continue coding.
Beyond research, writing, coding and editing, Gemini AI Pro sets itself apart with more advanced image and video generation. If you are the type of person who'll use these functions often, skip Gemini Free.
Save the cash and start with Gemini Free
If you're an avid ChatGPT or other AI chatbot user, give Gemini Free a try. It's free, so why not? You might find that it does what you need it to do without having to enter your credit card information. While not as performant as any of the paid models, it's still quite capable and at least allows image generation, even if it's not that great.
While Gemini won't replace ChatGPT as the generic verb for AI, it's still worth checking out.