3 Gemini Advanced features that have made their way to the free tier

Gemini Advanced is a more capable version of Google’s AI chatbot, coming with early access to new Gemini models and cutting-edge features. But Advanced’s feature exclusivity has taken a few hits recently: over the past month alone, Google’s made a handful of Advanced features free, and recent reporting suggests another one could be coming soon. Here are three Gemini features that started on the Advanced plan, then made their way to the free experience — plus one that could do the same in the near future.

Gemini Live

Gemini Live is a feature that lets Gemini respond to verbal prompts one after the other, without the need for users to say a hotword or press a button in between individual prompts. Given Gemini’s ability to retain context throughout a given session, the overall experience mimics the feel of a human conversation, with two parties exchanging information in a natural rhythm.

Live isn’t what I’d call an essential Gemini feature, but it removes some friction from longer strings of queries. It’s also just plain cool: when Gemini Live was released into Gemini Advanced last August, the ability to have a relatively natural spoken conversation with a disembodied AI voice was still pretty novel. But that novelty wasn’t exclusive to the paid Gemini tier for long: Gemini Live came to the free Gemini experience the next month, in September.

File analysis

Google’s been steadily building out Gemini’s capacity to automate typical office tasks, and last May, Gemini Advanced got the ability to scan and analyze uploaded documents like Word files and PDFs. With document analysis, you can get summaries of reports, ask questions about contracts, and so on.

The ability to upload and interact with documents was exclusive to Gemini Advanced for the better part of a year, but eventually made its way to the free Gemini tier in late February. Gemini Advanced can handle larger files, but what the free version offers should be enough for most tasks. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/google-gemini-file-uploads-finally-arrive-for-free-users/

Saved info

Gemini Advanced gained the ability to remember details last November. After that update, subscribers were able to save information to Gemini for the chatbot to apply to future interactions, helping it tailor its responses to your prompts to be more specific to your needs.

In late February, Google expanded this capability to the free Gemini experience. Now any user can have Gemini remember personal details. Letting Gemini know your goals and preferences in a way that persists across interactions should make the digital assistant that much more helpful — and as of last month, all users now have that ability.

Another rumored feature: Deep Research

One of Gemini Advanced hallmark features today is the ability to do what Google calls Deep Research. Based on a prompt that can be as vague or detailed as you like, Deep Research combs the web and assembles information into a report that you can then export into Google Docs to review, share, or edit.

In an APK teardown reported last week, Android Authority found evidence that a version of Deep Research could be coming soon to the free Gemini experience. AA called it a “freemium” version, implying the full functionality won’t be available in the free Gemini app. But much in the same way the free tier’s file analysis features will be enough for the majority of users, I have to think a free version of Deep Research will have most of the Advanced option offers.

There are still plenty of Advanced features you can’t get in the free version of Gemini, like early access to new Gemini models and the ability to create custom chatbots called Gems. Still, paid Gemini features making their way down to free users is part of the deal: it’s happened before and it’ll keep happening. That’s a win for your average free Gemini user, but it doesn’t seem like a great deal for most Advanced subscribers.