Plans, Privacy, and Choosing the Right Level¶
Plans overview¶
Gemini is available as a free product, with paid individual tiers and Workspace plans for institutions. Google currently offers four personal Google AI tiers: Free, Plus, Pro, and Ultra. Workspace plans cover institutional use.
A note on naming: Google AI Pro was previously called "Google One AI Premium" and included "Gemini Advanced." This rebranding happened at Google I/O 2025. If you encounter the old names in documentation or blog posts, they refer to the same tier.
Approximate pricing (March 2026)¶
| Plan | Price | Key additions |
|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | Gemini 3 Pro (daily limits), file/image uploads, basic web search |
| Plus | ~£7/month | Higher usage limits, more model access |
| Pro | ~£17/month | Deep Research, Canvas, Gems, Connected Apps, Gemini Live, higher limits |
| Ultra | ~£210/month | Highest limits, Agent mode, Project Mariner, Jules, Code Assist |
Prices are approximate GBP equivalents. See Google's subscription page for current details.
Student access¶
Google is offering free AI Pro access for a school year to university students in the US, UK, Japan, Brazil, and Indonesia. If you or your students are at an eligible institution, this is worth investigating before paying for a personal subscription.
Feature availability by plan¶
| Feature | Free | Plus | Pro | Ultra | Workspace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| File uploads | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web search | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deep Research | — | limited | ✓ | highest | ✓ |
| Canvas | limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gems | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Connected Apps | limited | limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gemini Live | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | varies |
| Image generation | limited | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Video generation | — | — | limited | ✓ | — |
| Agent mode | — | — | — | ✓ | — |
| AI Studio | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gemini CLI | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Code Assist | — | — | — | ✓ | varies |
| Jules | — | — | — | ✓ | — |
Feature availability by plan. Limits vary significantly by country, account type, and Google's rollout schedule. See Google's subscription page for current details. As of March 2026.
Privacy and data handling¶
Privacy on Gemini requires more careful attention than on some other platforms, because the defaults are less conservative.
Personal accounts¶
On personal Google accounts with Gemini Apps Activity turned on:
- Your conversations may be reviewed by human reviewers.
- Reviewed conversations may be retained for up to 3 years.
- Your data may be used for model training.
You can turn Gemini Apps Activity off in your Google account settings. This reduces data retention but may also reduce some personalisation features.
Temporary Chat provides a blank slate: conversations are automatically deleted within 72 hours and are not used for training. Temporary Chat is not available on work or school (Workspace) accounts.
Workspace accounts¶
Google Workspace accounts have different governance. Workspace administrators control data policies, and Google generally commits to stronger privacy protections for business and education customers. The specifics depend on your institution's agreement with Google.
For a fuller discussion of data governance across platforms, see Data Governance.
Essential
Know your account type. Personal accounts and Workspace accounts have very different privacy defaults. If you are using Gemini for institutional work, check whether your institution has a Workspace agreement — and use it. If you are on a personal account, review your Gemini Apps Activity settings and consider using Temporary Chat for sensitive work.
Workspace vs personal: which should you use?¶
For humanities researchers, the practical distinction is:
- Personal account: Fine for public, low-risk, or exploratory work. Be aware of the training/review defaults.
- Workspace account: Better for institutional data, student data, or anything sensitive. But availability depends on your institution.
If your university has Google Workspace with Gemini enabled, use it for work. Use your personal account only for personal experimentation.