Google’s Gemini Apps help page now says model access for personal accounts changes in October 2026. The page is specific on timing: the shift starts for users without an AI subscription on October 9. AI Plus subscribers are told to wait for an email that sets their date.

PCMag, citing a 9to5Google read of that support note, reports free users lose Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Pro, and keep 3.5 Flash-Lite. AI Plus, listed at $4.99 a month, keeps Flash. AI Pro, listed at $19.99 a month, keeps Pro. Students remain eligible for a year of AI Pro at no charge, PCMag wrote. The support page itself does not reprint those dollar figures. It does say Pro and Ultra subscribers also get a Deep Think option, and that each available model can be set to low, medium, or high effort.

This is a product gate, not a model launch. The weights do not disappear. The free picker does. For a creator stack that was routing drafts through a free Gemini window, the October 9 cut moves that step onto Flash-Lite or onto a paid plan. A separate note on how those tools sit in a workflow is How AI is Reshaping the Content Creator Stack in 2026.

Key takeaways

What does the October 9 Gemini cutoff change for free accounts?

Until the switch, free users could still reach Flash and Pro inside limits. After October 9, the support table leaves that row with Flash-Lite only. Effort levels stay, so a free account can still ask the lighter model to spend more of its quota on a single reply. It cannot select Pro. AI Plus keeps Flash and Flash-Lite, and drops Pro once the emailed date lands. AI Pro and AI Ultra keep Flash-Lite, Flash, and Pro.

Google also tells users to update the Gemini mobile app before the change. That is a client note, not a new model card. No parameter count or benchmark appears on the help page.

What to watch next

The AI Plus email. Google has not published that date on the help page. If the mail slips past October 9, paid Plus accounts and free accounts will not switch on the same morning.