Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Google is switching Gemini from fixed daily request limits to a compute-based system that considers prompt complexity, features used, and chat length.
- PCWorld reports this change reflects increasing demands from advanced agentic AI features, with limits refreshing every five hours under a weekly cap.
- Paid plans offer significantly higher usage allowances, with Ultra providing 20x standard limits compared to free tier access.
Google is changing how it calculates your weekly Gemini usage limits, and it’s another reflection of how powerful agentic AI features have broken flat-rate consumer AI plans.
As of now, Google says it’s switching to “compute-based” usage rather than a fixed number of requests per day.
As detailed in a Google support document, the new compute-based usage limits include factors such as the complexity of your prompt, the features you use (like image and video generation, deep research, and the use of Pro and extended-thinking or Deep Think models), and the length of your chat.
Details on the new compute-based usage limits are vague, with Google noting that paid users will have higher limits than free users.
Users on the $8-a-month Google AI Plus plan will get usage limits that are twice as high as the “standard” limits offered to users without a plan, according to the Google support document. Usage limits for those on the $20-a-month AI Pro plan will be four times as high as standard limits, while $250-a-month AI Ultra plans will boast 20 times the standard usage limits.
The compute-based limits for Gemini will refresh every five hours until you reach a weekly limit.
Previously, Gemini usage limits were based on the number of requests per day. For example, Google AI Pro users got up to 100 Gemini Pro 3.1 prompts per day, regardless of how complicated the prompts were.
Google’s move comes less than a month after GitHub overhauled its Copilot plans, switching from its old “premium request units” model to “AI Credits” based on the actual tokens used during AI exchanges.
The changes come as the big AI providers are struggling to keep up with the demands of ever more powerful agentic features, which can spawn sub-agents capable of gobbling up tens of thousands of tokens over multiple turns from a single request.
Bucking the trend, Anthropic recently doubled the Claude Code limits for its Claude Pro and Max plans, but only after inking a deal with SpaceX to boost its compute capacity.
Just last month, an Anthropic exec admitted that the current Claude Pro and Max plans “weren’t built” for features like Claude Code and Cowork, the Claude desktop feature that unleashes AI agents on your PC.