Earlier this week, Google doubled the recently introduced 2.5 Pro query limit in the Gemini app for AI Pro subscribers. It then emerged that Google is planning to make similar limit changes to AI Studio.
Google AI Studio is a developer tool that lets you directly access Gemini and other first-party models. To date, the website has provided free access to those models with pretty generous limits. Compared to the Gemini app, you get more fine-grained controls (like adjusting temperature) and less restrictions. Meanwhile, a third way to access Google models, especially for third-party app/service integration, is through the Gemini API.
It’s important to note that AI Studio is primarily intended and designed for developers, while the Gemini app is Google’s consumer-friendly offering that prioritizes ease-of-use and ultimately being an assistant.
Before the limits this week, paying for the Gemini app resulted in generous query/usage limits that most people did not meet. Heavy users, like coders, were upset by this change (which Google later increased in response). They pointed out how the free Google AI Studio offering was more generous than the $19.99 per month Google AI Pro.
Amidst that discussion, Google said AI Studio is moving to be “fully API key based.” To date, users get their own API key (versus more-or-less using Google’s) when they exceed the free usage limits, and have to start paying for model access. Given Google’s generous AI Studio limits (like the Gemini app originally), most people did not need to do so.
In Google sharing those upcoming AI Studio plans (of which there are no other details yet), developers became concerned about having to pay to continue accessing Gemini in that same (high) manner.
Google AI Studio (and Gemini API) lead Logan Kilpatrick on Saturday morning released a post about the situation. The high-level is that the “Google AI Studio free tier isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
Moving AI Studio to be API key based does not mean you won’t get free access to stuff. We have a free tier in the API used by millions of developers (more people than use the UI experience, by design).
While the Gemini API does offer a free tier, it does not include free access to 2.5 Pro, compared to AI Studio (and Gemini app).
Many folks mentioned 2.5 Pro as not being available for free in the API, this is in large because we offered it for free in the UI as well so we were giving out double free compute in a world where we have a huge amount of demand. I expect there will continue to be a free tier for many models in the future (though subject to many things like how the model is, how expensive it is to run, etc), and 2.5 Pro will hopefully be back in the free tier (we are exploring ways to do this, lifetime limits, different incentives etc)
People’s complaints about AI Studio being less generous are somewhat born out of them trying to use it as a more pro-level alternative to the Gemini app.
In the case of the Gemini app, it does seem that people who want something closer to the original (generous) usage limits have to now pay for the $250/month Google AI Ultra.
It remains to be seen what the path forward for free pro users/developers is for AI Studio. Google said it would explore what AI Studio in AI Pro/Ultra might look like, while adding more controls to the Gemini app is also something in the discussion phase.
We will do this in a thoughtful way to minimize disruption, provide clear messaging, a great product experience, and make sure that Google has the world’s best models, consumer products, and AI developer platforms.
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