r/Bard

Google won't tell you how the new limits work - just a percentage bar. So I ran identical prompts in two parallel continuous chats - one in the Gemini app, one in AI Studio. Same model (3.1 Pro), same thinking level (max), same documents, same prompts. One continuous chat in each, never refreshed.

AI Studio shows input tokens, output tokens, and total. It does NOT show thinking tokens. On max thinking, these are likely massive - but completely invisible. Keep that in mind for every number below. The AIStudio tokens are cumulative

Also, keep in mind that the usage limits in the app are FLUID - Google has set out a limited overall pool of daily compute cost for the Pro subs. If too many people use it, they will cut you off after 1 prompt. This gives Google STATIC and PREDICTABLE compute cost - no matter the usage, compute will cost them a preset amount. The entire risk of the usage rate IS ON THE USER. It is you, who is going to be cut off your service if too many people use it today.

If Google decides to give out tens of millions of free Pro subs, guess who is going to pay for it? : ) You are going to pay for it - by being cut off of the service you are paying for.

Prompt 1 - uploaded a 29-page PDF, asked for a 10-page analysis. Input: 16,295 | Output: 4,154 | Total visible: 20,449 | Gemini app: 9% of 5hr window

Prompt 2 - follow-up in the same chat, asked for a personalized take. Input: 16,320 | Output: 6,837 | Total visible: 23,157 | Gemini app: 13% (+4%)

Prompt 3 - attached two large documents (17k + 163k tokens), asked for analysis. Input: 191,636 | Output: 10,531 | Total visible: 202,167 | Gemini app: 33% (+20%)

Three prompts. 202k visible tokens. 33% of my 5hr window. Thinking tokens on top - uncounted, unshown, but clearly eating quota.

The API cost equivalent for all three prompts: $0.51. That means Google gives Pro subscribers roughly $1.50 worth of compute per 5-hour window. For $20/month. And won't even show you what's being counted.

I also checked DevTools on the Gemini web app. Zero token data in the network responses. Google tracks everything server-side and gives you a percentage bar with no numbers.

This method is flawed, and very imperfect I know - the custom instructions in my Gemini app, the 3.1 Pro in app does not equal 3.1 Pro in AIStudio etc etc. But it gives us a picture.

If anyone has a better metric or method, please share it.

The questions asked were: (1) "Was Wagner rich enough to build his theater?", (2) "Explain whats the soul to Plotinus" (with a PDF of the 1000 pages Eneads anexed) and (3) "Whats the theory of mind developed by this author?" (with a 200 pages of anotations written by me). So we have a question without a PDF, one with a already known PDF and one with a PDF new in content.

On question 1, about Wagner, the results were:

3.5 Flash Default - 1% credits used. Good answer.
3.5 Flash Extended - 1% credits used. Great answer.
3.1 Pro Default - 4% credits used. Great answer.
3.1 Pro Extended - 5% credits used. Great answer.

All the ones with a great answer were pretty equal. 3.5 Flash Default just gave a little less information, but not big deal. Would say all of them were equally great. Considering the diference in credits use, 3.5 Flash Extended has a win on this question.

On question 2, about Plotinus, the results were:

3.5 Flash Default - 3% credits used. Mid answer.
3.5 Flash Extended - 6% credits used. Great answer.
3.1 Pro Default - 4% credits used. Good answer.
3.1 Pro Extended - 5% credits used. Great answer.

Notable that 3.5 Flash Extended used more credits than both 3.1 Pro this question. 3.1 Pro Extended had a slightly better answer than 3.5 Flash Extended, so he is really the winner this question. 3.5 Flash Default was a little off-topic, putting more of general facts about Plotinus philosophy than what was asked and not talking about the World Soul. 3.5 Flash Extented aswered about the multiplycity and unity of the soul in the body, something 3.1 Pro Extended didn't touch on. 3.1 Pro Extended aswered about why the Soul came out of the Intellect and created the world, something 3.5 Flash Extended didn't talk about. Despite 3.1 Pro Extended being the clear winner, I would still use 3.5 Flash Extended because the credits use is more variable, so it could use fewer credits depending on the question, while 3.1 Pro Extended uses more than 3% on any question.

Now what really matters.

On question 3, about my own PDF, the results were:

3.5 Flash Default - 1% credits used. Good answer.
3.5 Flash Extended - 3% credits used. Great answer.
3.1 Pro Default - 9% credits used. Mid answer.
3.1 Pro Extended - 12% credits used on a halucination. 22% credits used on the second try. Bad answer.

Thats what got me to post this. 3.1 Pro Extended ate up 34% of my credits for a bad answer, that was totally off-topic. The hallucination on the first try of 3.1 Pro Extended was of the type of asking me back what I want it to answer. Pro Default had some errors of interpretation, and did not was really on the topic asked. Both 3.5 Flash did much better interpreting a new text, and for just 1% and 3% credits used. And losing so many credits for a halucination and a bad answer is just frustrating, it can lead to hours not using Gemini with this new cooldown for credits refresh. It's a gamble if 3.1 Pro Extended will eat up a lot of credits, so it is and automatic no for me.

I am gonna use Flash Extended from now on. It doesn't really uses many credits, and did great on all three questions. Hope it will not disapoint in the near future, and that the credits limit will not be a problem to worry anymore.

I think it would be a more matter of fact naming after the latest usage limits. Peasants who could only afford to give 20$ a month for the intelligent centralized overlord.

I have a pro account and I only use flash model, I spent like 30-40 minutes(include testing time which was about half that ) on a task and that's exactly 10 prompts that I did, none of which is complicated just simple feature, all of sudden my usage on all Gemini models is 0. I gl genuinely thought it is a bug so I tried a free account to see how things are and it just wiped my weekly usage after 3 prompt ?? THE WHOLE WEEKLY what the heck is that ?? all that and the context was still under 100k, is this the new reality of Gemini or there is something problematic with my antigravity ??

UPDATE: just have my pro account session back, it now has 40% usage removed from weekly quota, is there anyone here understands how this works?? this is not reliable at all

1. Massive cuts to usage quotas.

The Gemini subscription quota has been slashed three times now. Originally, $20/month got you what was effectively unlimited Gemini Ultra access. The first cut came during the 2.5 Pro era, when Google waved the "we hear you" and "doubled" the daily limit from 50 to 100 — but in reality, the previous quota had been essentially unlimited. They invented the "50 uses" number out of thin air.

The second cut was completely opaque. They silently introduced a rolling limit of roughly 20 uses per 4–5 hours, with no announcement anywhere. The only way to even confirm it existed was to escalate through Google One support.

The third cut is this developer conference. With model performance in shambles and no Gemini 3.5 Pro in sight, they officially added weekly limits and 5-hour limits. The quota is now arguably worse than Claude Pro — the 5-hour cap is trivially easy to hit. Free users (and anyone who runs out of quota) used to fall back to unlimited Gemini Flash non-thinking. Now you only get Gemini Flash Lite.

Another thing worth flagging that nobody seems to be complaining about: Gemini CLI got merged into Antigravity CLI. The subscription used to have three separate quota pools — Gemini Web, Gemini CLI, and Antigravity. This rollout just nuked the Gemini CLI pool entirely and forces you into Antigravity, which has terrible UX, blatantly copied design, and is riddled with bugs. Gemini CLI gave Pro Plan users 1,000 calls/day. Antigravity gets nowhere close to that.

2. Massive drop in efficiency.

The quota issue can at least be papered over by paying for Ultra. The interaction problems can't.

a) The pinned Gems in the sidebar are gone.

I have a Gem I use to help analyze my diet — one of my most-used Gems on mobile. Previously, one tap from the sidebar. Now I have to:

• Pull out the sidebar
• Tap "Gems" and wait for it to load (slowly)
• Tap the actual Gem I wanted

In an era where ChatGPT lets you summon anything with @, Google is actively making features harder to reach.

b) Model switching.

I'm not sure what Google thinks they learned from ChatGPT here, but whatever it was, they learned it wrong.

Example: open the Gemini app. Default model is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite. You want to switch to Pro with Extended thinking. Here's what that takes:

• Tap the model selector at the top
• Tap "3.1 Pro"
• Tap the model selector again
• Tap "Thinking level"
• Tap "Extended"

And this happens in the Gemini app, Gemini web, and the Gemini Mac app.

In ChatGPT, none of this happens, because:

• It remembers the last model you used. If you used a thinking model last time, that's what's loaded next time.
• It remembers your reasoning level per model. I set Heavy for the thinking model and Extended for Pro once, and that's it. No re-selecting anything.

This is hands-down the update that makes me want to throw my phone.

At this developer conference, we didn't get Gemini 3.5 Pro. We got an expensive Gemini 3.5 Flash. And so many features are either "coming soon," "US only," or "starting with English" — I genuinely don't understand the strategy.

The Gemini model I miss most is Gemini 1.0 Ultra. I've been a Gemini loyalist since then. Google seems to hate the "Ultra" name — 1.0 Ultra got dragged for the faked 2023 demo video, was quietly retired three months after launch, and was never given an API. It feels like Google is just toying with the people who actually root for them.

https://preview.redd.it/4cfwjrdp3b2h1.png?width=740&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5782608dbb3b65b6ed140e656999ab761bd6b08

3.5 Flash is more expensive than GPT-5.5 (medium) yet weaker. The knowledge cutoff is still January 2025 in big 2026, it must be a joke🙏

The new Gemini app UI is buggy as hell, some great features were removed completely (like pinning your gems, Redo with Nano Banana Pro etc.).

The limits are complete garbage now (like Claude's but at least Claude has a solid usable product). You can actually get more value from OpenAI's $20 subscription than from Google's $100.

I won't even speak about Antigravity 2.0, it's just an extremely buggy half-baked copy of Codex and it's barely working.

New era of what bro?😭