Google Gemini Free in March 2026: Plans, Complete Feature Set, Limits, Workflows, Availability, and more
- 5 hours ago
- 16 min read
Google Gemini free in March 2026 is the Basic tier of Gemini Apps without a Google AI subscription.
This is a defined product layer with its own quotas, context window, upload ceilings, and access boundaries.
The free experience covers the main Gemini web and mobile surfaces for personal Google Accounts, while higher-capacity workflows stay tied to paid Google AI plans.
The useful way to read the free tier is through its operating limits rather than through subscription marketing.
The real questions are simple.
How many prompts are included.
How much context is available.
Which upload types are supported.
How much media can be processed.
Which creative and research features are included before the plan starts to narrow.
Google’s support documentation gives direct answers on all of those points.
That makes the free tier easier to define than many other consumer AI plans, since the boundaries are visible in quotas, file rules, and plan-level caps rather than hidden behind vague language.
The result is a genuinely usable entry tier that can handle everyday prompting, lighter document work, limited media analysis, and some capped research and generation features, while remaining clearly separated from paid plans once the workload grows in scale, depth, or session length.
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The free tier is officially the Basic Gemini Apps experience without a Google AI plan.
Google defines the unpaid consumer experience as a specific tier rather than leaving it as an undefined default mode.
The first point is the plan definition itself.
Google’s own limits documentation labels the free experience as Basic without a Google AI plan.
That means the unpaid tier is a named operating tier with a distinct contract.
It is not just Gemini with billing removed.
It is a version of Gemini Apps with explicit ceilings, plan-gated exclusions, and a narrower technical envelope than the paid plans.
This also makes the upgrade ladder easier to interpret.
Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra are presented as expansions of access, scale, and capability.
The free tier sits underneath them as a bounded consumer access layer.
That is the right starting point for any serious comparison, since the structure of the plan determines everything that follows, from prompt usage to context size to file handling to media length.
Once that structure is clear, the free tier becomes easier to judge on practical terms.
It is a real product tier with real utility, not a vague teaser and not a hidden premium experience.
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· Free Gemini is officially the Basic tier of Gemini Apps.
· The free tier exists without a Google AI subscription.
· Google treats paid plans as expansions of this base tier rather than as purely cosmetic upgrades.
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Free-tier plan definition
Area | Free Gemini status in March 2026 |
Official tier name | Basic |
Subscription status | Without a Google AI plan |
Product category | Gemini Apps consumer access |
Operating logic | Capped feature access with documented limits |
Upgrade path | Google AI Pro or Google AI Ultra |
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Availability depends on account type, geography, and product surface.
Free Gemini is broadly deployed, but access still depends on who the user is, where they are, and which Gemini surface they are using.
The free tier is built primarily around personal Google Accounts.
For personal use, Google states that the user must be at least 13 years old or the applicable age in their country.
That puts an eligibility gate in front of the feature set itself.
Google also separates personal-account use from work or school account use, so the free consumer tier should not be treated as identical to workspace-enabled Gemini access.
Geography introduces another practical boundary.
Google states that the Gemini web app is available in more than 230 countries and territories and in more than 70 languages.
The mobile apps are available in more than 150 countries.
That is broad coverage, but it is still not described as one perfectly uniform surface across all devices and regions.
For article purposes, that distinction needs to stay visible.
A feature can exist within Gemini Apps and still be unavailable to a given user because of region, account type, or rollout position.
The free tier is therefore widespread, but not flatly universal.
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· Free Gemini is centered on personal Google Accounts.
· Age and country rules apply before usage caps even enter the picture.
· Web and mobile coverage are both broad, but they are not documented as one identical global surface.
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Availability boundaries
Dimension | Confirmed free-tier position |
Main account type | Personal Google Account |
Minimum age | 13 or local equivalent age |
Web app footprint | 230+ countries and territories, 70+ languages |
Mobile app footprint | 150+ countries |
Workspace equivalence | Not the same as consumer free access |
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Daily and monthly quotas define the practical ceiling of the free plan.
The free tier is large enough for ordinary consumer use, but the quota design makes it clear where sustained usage starts to run into hard edges.
Google’s current limits page gives a visible quota structure for the Basic tier.
The main allowance is up to 30 prompts per day for core Gemini access.
Google also separates some higher-cost features into their own quota buckets instead of pushing everything into one undifferentiated total.
Audio overviews are capped at up to 20 per day.
Deep Research is capped at 5 reports per month.
Image generation and editing are capped at up to 20 images per day.
Music generation is capped at up to 10 tracks per day.
Dynamic View is capped at up to 25 prompts per day.
This is a practical consumer design.
The free tier stays genuinely usable for normal prompting and limited experimentation, while heavier recurring use, repeated creative generation, and frequent research workflows quickly run into the published caps.
Google also states that limits may change and can be affected by testing, experimentation, and availability.
These are current operating limits for March 2026, not permanent guaranteed entitlements.
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· The main free allowance is up to 30 prompts per day.
· Deep Research, image generation, music generation, audio overviews, and Dynamic View each have separate caps.
· Google explicitly leaves room to change these limits over time.
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Free-tier usage quotas
Feature area | Free Gemini limit in March 2026 |
Main Gemini access | Up to 30 prompts per day |
Audio overviews | Up to 20 per day |
Deep Research | 5 per month |
Image generation and editing | Up to 20 per day |
Music generation | Up to 10 tracks per day |
Dynamic View | Up to 25 prompts per day |
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The 32K context window is one of the clearest technical limits of free Gemini.
Google’s published context size puts the free tier in a normal consumer range rather than in the larger-session category used to distinguish higher plans.
The Basic tier has a 32 thousand token context window.
That number is one of the most important technical lines in the free-versus-paid comparison.
Context size decides how much text, prior conversation, uploaded material, and instruction detail can stay active inside one session.
For lighter use, 32K is still enough to support ordinary prompting, moderate document work, shorter chains of analysis, and standard productivity tasks.
The restriction becomes more visible once the session starts to depend on long reports, multiple files, heavier comparisons, or extended reasoning that must retain many conditions at the same time.
Google’s plan structure makes that separation explicit by placing larger context allowances in paid tiers.
The free plan is therefore positioned for bounded session scale.
It is usable, but it is not the tier Google uses for maximum working memory.
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· Free Gemini has a 32K context window.
· That size is adequate for everyday work and shorter document handling.
· Heavier long-context tasks are one of the clearest upgrade pressures toward paid plans.
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Context position of the free tier
Area | Free Gemini position |
Published context size | 32K |
Suitable for | General prompting, shorter documents, routine analysis |
Weak point | Heavier long-context work |
Upgrade logic | Larger context lives in paid tiers |
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File upload support is broad, but free Gemini still imposes hard limits on size, duration, and repository scale.
The upload surface is more capable than a simple chat product, yet the free tier remains tightly bounded once media and larger code or document workflows are involved.
Google’s file-upload documentation confirms that Gemini Apps support most file types.
Users can upload up to 10 files in the same prompt, subject to availability.
That is a substantial allowance for a free consumer tier.
The size rules are more specific.
Each video can be up to 2 GB.
Other supported file types can be up to 100 MB each.
Google also imposes total media-duration ceilings for the free experience.
Total uploaded video length is capped at five minutes.
Total uploaded audio length is capped at ten minutes.
The same documentation states that Google AI Pro and Ultra extend those totals.
Google also allows one code folder or one GitHub repository in a chat, with a limit of up to 5,000 files and a maximum total size of 100 MB.
That makes free Gemini more than a plain chat interface, since it can work with files, media, and code structures.
At the same time, the free tier is clearly not designed for larger repository analysis or extended multimedia review.
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· Free Gemini supports up to 10 uploaded files in one prompt.
· Video, audio, and repository workflows are allowed, but each has hard ceilings.
· Paid plans expand the scale of media-heavy and upload-driven sessions.
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Upload and file-reading limits
Upload area | Free Gemini limit in March 2026 |
Files per prompt | Up to 10 |
Video file size | Up to 2 GB each |
Other supported files | Up to 100 MB each |
Total uploaded video length | Up to 5 minutes |
Total uploaded audio length | Up to 10 minutes |
Code folder or GitHub repo | One per chat |
Repository ceiling | Up to 5,000 files and 100 MB |
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Free Gemini includes a wider feature mix than plain prompting, but the quotas stay conservative.
The free plan covers several research and creative workflows, though each of them is governed by limits that keep the overall package firmly inside entry-tier boundaries.
Google’s documented free-tier limits show that Gemini free includes more than standard chat.
It includes limited access to Deep Research.
It includes image generation and editing.
It includes music generation.
It includes audio overviews.
It includes Dynamic View.
It also supports file-driven workflows and spreadsheet-related uses such as charting from uploaded material.
This combination is important for accurate positioning.
A description that reduces free Gemini to a basic chatbot misses too much of the actual product.
A description that treats these tools as abundant or production-ready goes too far in the opposite direction.
The cleaner reading is that Google has given the free tier meaningful breadth across conversation, generation, research, and upload-based work, then placed quota walls around each higher-cost workflow so that the tier remains useful without approaching paid-plan scale.
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· Free Gemini includes research, generation, and media-oriented features beyond standard chat.
· The free tier is meaningfully multimodal and multi-workflow.
· The key restriction is scale, not the total absence of feature variety.
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Feature mix in the free tier
Feature type | Free Gemini status |
General prompting | Included |
File upload and analysis | Included |
Deep Research | Included with monthly cap |
Image generation and editing | Included with daily cap |
Music generation | Included with daily cap |
Audio overviews | Included with daily cap |
Dynamic View | Included with daily cap |
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Privacy and governance boundaries are part of the real operating contract of free Gemini.
The free tier is shaped by data-handling rules and visibility conditions in addition to quotas, and those boundaries affect how safely users can treat certain Gemini workflows.
Google’s Gemini Apps privacy notice confirms that Gemini usage can include prompts, shared files, photos, videos, screens, recordings and transcripts for Gemini Live, generated outputs, feedback, saved information or custom instructions, and connected-app data used with Gemini.
This confirms that the product operates inside a broad data-handling environment rather than a narrow text-only assistant model.
A more specific governance boundary appears in Canvas-related scenarios.
Google states that when a user interacts with a user-generated Canvas app, the creator of that app can see the data the user shares and can store it where they choose.
Google also states that anyone with a public link may view and edit saved data in that context.
That is a concrete limitation on how users should think about privacy when using shared or public Gemini experiences.
For users working with drafts, sensitive material, or uploaded documents, this boundary is not secondary.
It directly shapes which workflows are safe to use casually and which ones require caution.
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· Free Gemini operates inside Google’s wider Gemini Apps privacy framework.
· Some Canvas experiences allow the creator to see shared data and decide where it is stored.
· Public-link behavior can expose saved data to viewing and editing by others.
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Governance and data-handling posture
Governance area | Confirmed position |
Covered data types | Prompts, files, photos, videos, outputs, feedback, saved info, connected-app data |
Canvas creator visibility | Creator can see data you share |
Canvas storage control | Creator may store shared data where they choose |
Public-link behavior | Anyone with a public link may view and edit saved data |
Practical implication | Sensitive workflows require caution |
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Usage limits apply across Gemini surfaces for the same account.
Free Gemini should be treated as an account-scoped capacity pool rather than as a set of isolated allowances tied separately to web, mobile, or adjacent Gemini surfaces.
Google’s documentation states that Gemini usage limits apply across Gemini surfaces for the same account.
That means switching between devices or interfaces does not create fresh capacity.
A user moving from the web app to mobile is still consuming from the same account-level quota structure.
This point becomes especially relevant for people trying to stretch the free tier through device switching or mixed-surface use.
The plan is broad in reach, but unified in accounting.
That is consistent with Google’s overall design of Gemini Apps as one product family spread across several surfaces while still governed by shared limits.
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· Free Gemini usage is tracked at the account level across surfaces.
· Changing devices does not create a separate free quota pool.
· The free tier is multi-surface in access and unified in limit accounting.
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Cross-surface limit logic
Surface behavior | Free Gemini rule |
Web usage | Counts toward account limits |
Mobile usage | Counts toward account limits |
Cross-surface switching | Does not reset or isolate quotas |
Operational result | One account-level usage pool |
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Free Gemini in March 2026 is a capable entry tier with clear technical and operational boundaries.
The plan has enough depth to be useful in everyday work, but its ceilings are visible early once sessions become larger, richer, or more repetitive.
Free Gemini is credible as a real consumer AI product.
It offers a meaningful prompt allowance.
It includes a real 32K context window.
It supports uploads, limited Deep Research, limited image and music generation, and several additional capped workflows.
That puts it well above the level of a symbolic free demo.
At the same time, the structure of the plan leaves no ambiguity about where it stops.
The free tier is bounded by daily prompt caps, monthly research limits, media-duration ceilings, repository size limits, and a narrower context window than the paid plans.
Google has designed it to be useful enough for adoption and regular light use, while still reserving larger context, broader quotas, and heavier workflow scale for paying users.
That is the cleanest way to define Google Gemini free in March 2026.
It is a genuine multi-feature entry tier with solid practical value, and it remains clearly separated from the higher-capacity plans once the workload becomes longer, larger, or more demanding.
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EXECUTION CONTRACT AND PLAN POSTURE
Google Gemini free in March 2026 is the Basic tier of Gemini Apps used without a Google AI plan.
This defines the unpaid experience as a bounded product tier rather than as an undefined default mode with a few temporary restrictions.
The contract is broad enough to cover the main Gemini web and mobile surfaces, general prompting, file handling, limited research workflows, and limited creative generation, while staying clearly separate from the higher-capacity posture reserved for Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra.
The free tier is therefore a real operating layer with visible ceilings, visible exclusions, and a narrower technical envelope than the paid plans.
That separation appears immediately in quotas, context size, upload duration limits, and feature-specific caps.
The structure is simple.
The user gets access to a wide consumer Gemini environment, but the plan is kept inside a controlled execution range from the start.
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· The free plan is formally named Basic and exists without a Google AI subscription.
· The contract includes core Gemini access, limited research, limited generation, and bounded upload-based workflows.
· Paid Google AI plans expand scale, context, and higher-capacity usage rather than replacing a missing base product.
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Plan posture and execution scope
Dimension | Free Gemini in March 2026 |
Official tier | Basic |
Subscription state | Without a Google AI plan |
Core product family | Gemini Apps |
Primary use posture | Consumer multi-feature access with fixed caps |
Upgrade direction | Google AI Pro or Google AI Ultra |
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ACCESS SURFACES, ELIGIBILITY, AND AVAILABILITY GEOGRAPHY
The free tier is built primarily around personal Google Accounts, which means eligibility is not purely a matter of opening the app and seeing what appears.
Google states that personal-account users must be at least 13 years old or the equivalent age in their country, so age is part of the access contract before quotas even enter the picture.
Google also separates personal access from work or school access, which prevents the free consumer tier from being treated as interchangeable with workspace-enabled Gemini access.
Availability is broad, though not described as perfectly identical across all surfaces.
The Gemini web app is available in more than 230 countries and territories and in more than 70 languages.
The mobile apps are available in more than 150 countries.
This gives the free tier a very wide consumer footprint, while still leaving room for region, account type, and rollout position to determine what an individual user actually sees.
A feature can belong to Gemini Apps and still remain unavailable in a specific account or country context.
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· Free Gemini is centered on personal Google Accounts rather than on one universal account class.
· Age, country, and surface all affect access before usage limits become relevant.
· Web and mobile coverage are both broad, but Google does not present them as one perfectly uniform global surface.
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Availability and eligibility map
Area | Confirmed position |
Main account type | Personal Google Account |
Age threshold | 13 or local equivalent age |
Web footprint | 230+ countries and territories |
Web languages | 70+ |
Mobile footprint | 150+ countries |
Workspace parity | Not equivalent to consumer free access |
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QUOTA ENVELOPE, FEATURE CAPS, AND WHAT GETS EXHAUSTED FIRST
The free tier is usable because Google did not reduce it to a token sample, but the quota structure makes the ceiling visible very early once the workload becomes repetitive, media-heavy, or research-oriented.
The main allowance is up to 30 prompts per day for core Gemini access.
Several higher-cost functions sit inside separate quota buckets.
Audio overviews are capped at up to 20 per day.
Deep Research is capped at 5 reports per month.
Image generation and editing are capped at up to 20 images per day.
Music generation is capped at up to 10 tracks per day.
Dynamic View is capped at up to 25 prompts per day.
This quota design shows where the free plan narrows first.
General everyday prompting remains available for ordinary use, while the more computationally expensive or media-oriented workflows hit hard edges much sooner.
Google also states that usage limits may change and may be affected by testing, experimentation, and availability, so these numbers are current operating caps rather than permanent guaranteed entitlements.
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· The core daily allowance is up to 30 prompts.
· Research, image, music, audio, and Dynamic View each have their own narrower quota buckets.
· The first pressure points are repeated research runs and repeated generation workflows rather than ordinary light prompting.
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Quota structure of the free tier
Feature area | Published free limit |
Main Gemini access | Up to 30 prompts per day |
Audio overviews | Up to 20 per day |
Deep Research | 5 per month |
Image generation and editing | Up to 20 per day |
Music generation | Up to 10 tracks per day |
Dynamic View | Up to 25 prompts per day |
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CONTEXT HORIZON AND LONG-RUN STABILITY
The free tier has a published 32K context window, and this is one of the clearest technical boundaries in the entire product definition.
That number determines how much instruction detail, prior conversation, uploaded content, and working material can remain active inside a single session before the plan starts to narrow under the weight of the task.
For ordinary use, 32K is still enough to support general prompting, moderate documents, shorter analytical chains, and routine productivity sessions without immediate friction.
The limit becomes visible when the session starts to depend on broader document sets, longer comparisons, or extended reasoning across many simultaneous conditions.
Google’s plan structure makes the distinction explicit by reserving larger context capacities for higher paid tiers.
This means the free plan is not designed as a long-horizon workspace for larger research packets or heavier document stacks.
It is designed as a bounded consumer execution layer that remains useful within shorter and lighter session scales.
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· The free tier includes a 32K context window.
· This is sufficient for general prompting and moderate document handling.
· Larger-session analytical work is one of the clearest upgrade boundaries toward paid plans.
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Context horizon of free Gemini
Dimension | Free-tier position |
Published context size | 32K |
Comfortable workload | Everyday prompting, shorter documents, routine analysis |
Stress point | Long multi-file or long-chain analytical sessions |
Upgrade boundary | Larger context exists in paid tiers |
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FILE, MEDIA, AND REPOSITORY BOUNDARIES
The free tier supports a wider upload surface than a simple text chatbot, but the boundaries around media duration, repository size, and file size make the operating ceiling very explicit.
Google states that users can upload up to 10 files in the same prompt, subject to availability.
Each video can be up to 2 GB.
Other supported file types can be up to 100 MB each.
The free/basic experience also imposes total uploaded media-duration limits.
Total uploaded video length is capped at 5 minutes.
Total uploaded audio length is capped at 10 minutes.
Google states that these totals are extended in Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra, which confirms that heavier media handling belongs to the paid side of the product stack.
The repository rule is also unusually concrete.
One code folder or one GitHub repository can be added to a chat, with a maximum of 5,000 files and 100 MB total size.
This makes the free plan meaningfully broader than plain chat, but still clearly unsuited to larger repositories, longer media review, or heavier upload-driven work.
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· Free Gemini supports up to 10 uploaded files in a single prompt.
· Media workflows are constrained first by total duration rather than only by file count.
· Repository handling exists, but it stays inside a modest ceiling of 5,000 files and 100 MB.
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Upload, media, and repository limits
Upload area | Free-tier limit |
Files per prompt | Up to 10 |
Video file size | Up to 2 GB each |
Other supported file types | Up to 100 MB each |
Total uploaded video length | Up to 5 minutes |
Total uploaded audio length | Up to 10 minutes |
Code folder or GitHub repo | One per chat |
Repository ceiling | Up to 5,000 files and 100 MB |
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DATA-HANDLING POSTURE AND CROSS-SURFACE LIMIT ACCOUNTING
The free tier is governed not only by quotas, but also by Google’s broader Gemini Apps data-handling framework and by shared account-level usage accounting across Gemini surfaces.
Google’s privacy documentation confirms that Gemini usage can include prompts, shared files, photos, videos, screens, recordings and transcripts for Gemini Live, generated outputs, feedback, saved information or custom instructions, and connected-app data used with Gemini.
This means the product should be understood as a broad multi-input environment rather than as a narrow plain-text assistant.
A sharper governance boundary appears in Canvas scenarios.
Google states that when a user interacts with a user-generated Canvas app, the creator of that app can see the data the user shares and can store it where they choose.
Google also states that anyone with a public link may view and edit saved data in that context.
That creates a very specific visibility boundary for shared workflows, drafts, and uploaded content.
The same account-level logic also applies to usage limits.
Google’s documentation states that Gemini usage limits apply across Gemini surfaces for the same account, which means moving between web and mobile does not create separate quota pools.
The plan is therefore multi-surface in access and unified in accounting.
This combination of shared limits and broad data-handling scope defines a large part of the real operating contract of free Gemini.
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· Gemini free operates inside a broad Gemini Apps privacy and data-handling framework.
· Canvas can expose shared data to the creator of the app and to anyone with a public link.
· Usage limits apply across Gemini surfaces for the same account rather than resetting by device or interface.
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Governance and account-scoped limit logic
Governance or limit area | Confirmed position |
Covered data types | Prompts, files, photos, videos, outputs, feedback, saved info, connected-app data |
Canvas creator visibility | Creator can see data you share |
Canvas storage posture | Creator may store shared data where they choose |
Public-link behavior | Anyone with a public link may view and edit saved data |
Cross-surface accounting | Limits apply across Gemini surfaces for the same account |
Operational result | One account-level capacity pool across web and mobile |
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