Google updated a support document this week, and here is what it says: starting October 9, Gemini users without a subscription can only reach 3.5 Flash-Lite. 3.6 Flash and 3.1 Pro go away for them. 9to5Google reported it on Friday, Android Headlines the same day, both pointing at Google’s support page.
Who gets what on October 9
The table is short:
| Tier | Flash-Lite | Flash | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| No plan | yes | no | no |
| AI Plus ($4.99) | yes | yes | no |
| AI Pro ($19.99) | yes | yes | yes |
| AI Ultra | yes | yes | yes |
So AI Plus loses Pro. Google says those customers will get an email telling them when the change hits their account. Nothing is taken away from AI Pro and Ultra — the opposite, in fact: AI Pro at $19.99 gains Deep Think, the “maximum parallel reasoning” option that until now belonged to the $99.99 and $199.99 tiers.
On top of that, the Gemini app is set to get three effort levels in October — low, medium, high, for every available model. Right now there is only an “Extended thinking” switch. The three levels match what Google AI Studio and Antigravity already offer.
Argon has no row in that table
The interesting part is what’s missing. Google introduced Gemini 4 Argon last week as its new frontier model and shipped it to AI Ultra subscribers first. Whether Argon counts as a Pro model in this table or gets a row of its own above it, Google hasn’t said. While that stays open, “Pro” for AI Pro customers still means 3.1 Pro.
The free tier is now an argument in the subscription comparison
What interests me here is less Google than the line being drawn. Free tiers used to be about how many messages you get. Now they’re about which model answers at all — permanently, not just after you hit a daily cap.
For anyone comparing against Claude, that is a concrete point. If you use the free Gemini app as your reference, from October 9 you are talking to the smallest model in the family. Whatever impression you walk away with has nothing to do with what Argon can do. And the $4.99 tier, built as a cheap way in, slides toward being a slightly better free account once Pro is gone.
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