I canceled Google AI Plus after the downgrade, but I still use Gemini

I have been a Gemini user for several years now. I mainly use it to learn new skills and summarize concepts. It integrates well with whatever Android smartphone I use, giving me helpful features like Circle to Search and Gemini Live. I have experimented with other AI chatbots, but none of them are as simple and accessible as Gemini.

I decided to subscribe to Google AI Plus earlier this year. It served two purposes: give me a higher usage allowance for Gemini and increase my shared Google One storage to 400GB. For $5 a month, it seemed like a lot at first. It was cheaper than my monthly Netflix subscription and did more than stream reruns on my TV. I maxed out my AI Plus by using Gemini’s Pro model every chance I got. His answers were much more thorough and well researched compared to Flash or Flash-Lite.

Unfortunately, the honeymoon stage has finally come to an end. Google has announced that it is phasing out Gemini Pro from AI Plus subscriptions. This means my account is limited to Flash and Flash-Lite, the very models I’ve been ignoring all this time. I didn’t believe it at first, but I got an email last week about the downgrade. I had the choice of keeping my AI Plus plan, upgrading to Google AI Pro to regain the Pro model, or canceling my subscription altogether. Each option has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

Google AI Plus was once the sweet spot for Gemini users. It was relatively affordable, especially if you paid annually, and it came with a large cloud storage that could be shared with your family group. More importantly, it has access to Gemini Pro with a higher usage limit than the free tier. It made the most sense for people like me who weren’t satisfied with free AI tier but didn’t want to overspend for another subscription.

I was at a crossroads. Upgrading to AI Pro means giving Google more money without promises that its features will remain. Canceling my AI Plus subscription and going back to the free tier would cripple my chatbot usage. Along with the removal of AI Plus from Gemini Pro, Gemini’s free tier has been limited to Flash-Lite. Although fast and useful in a pinch, Flash-Lite is a glorified AI overview that you’ll see at the top of a Google search.

I ended up canceling my AI Plus plan and subscribing to Google One’s 200GB storage tier instead. It doesn’t come with any of the Gemini AI benefits, like Gmail integration, but at least I was able to preserve the files I already backed up to Gmail, Drive, and Photos. I was just looking for ways to maximize Gemini’s free tier and find alternatives for the features I had lost.

To my surprise, Gemini Notebook was still available on the free plan. Formerly known as NotebookLM, Gemini Notebook lets me group chats and sources. It’s useful when I want to consolidate all my PDFs, documents and web URLs into a single notebook. I could then ask questions and create summaries using only what I had uploaded to a specific notebook. This helps to avoid AI hallucinations that happen when the chatbot grabs unreliable sources (eg Reddit posts or satirical websites). However, Gemini Notebook was not enough to fill my chatbot void.

I gave ChatGPT another go. It was my primary chatbot before Gemini became mainstream. Returning to ChatGPT reminded me how good it is at various tasks, even without a paid plan. He is much better at addressing concerns and holding a conversation compared to Gemini. For example, when I asked ChatGPT for travel suggestions for an upcoming trip to Vietnam, the chatbot recommended hotels, appropriate attractions, and things to avoid during the month I’m going. Gemini’s Flash-Lite, in comparison, only gave me links to hotels and attractions via Google Maps, without adding more context. Again, Flash-Lite feels like an AI overview with more steps.

I also signed up for Claude. The Anthropic Chatbot has its advantages over the two AI bots mentioned above. His answers are much more upfront than those of ChatGPT. For the same query regarding my family’s trip to Vietnam, Claude responded with short bullet points and fewer side comments. When I asked Claude to draft responses to some of my emails, his tone was much more serious and his humor more deadpan. Compared to ChatGPT and Gemini, Claude required more editing to match my writing style.

Unfortunately, I ran into two problems with Claude’s free tier. Well, the image generation is limited. Claude can create diagrams and illustrations, but cannot edit existing photos. For someone who likes to edit photos to virtually try out new outfits and remove background distractions, this is a sad omission. Second, Claude has stricter usage limits. Its free tier’s daily limit is tighter than Gemini and ChatGPT, and the Android app doesn’t let me check my actual usage.

As much as I loved using ChatGPT and Claude, I had to stick to their free tiers. Subscribing to their paid plans was not an option. They each cost $20 per month for their updated AI plans. Paying that much defeats the purpose of matching what I used to have with Google’s $5 AI Plus plan. If I had to pay four times as much for an alternative, I’d rather sign up for Google AI Pro at $20 per month and get the bundled 5TB of Google One storage.

I instead decided to use all three free plans of AI services at once. I would get the best of three worlds: the seamless Android integration of Gemini, with the more in-depth answers of ChatGPT and Claude. Think of it as getting second and third opinions from different sources. Rather than relying on one expert, I was able to learn from three respondents and list all their answers.

I learned that no model from Google, OpenAI or Anthropic is the best at everything. Each bot has its own strengths and weaknesses. Gemini has the best research behind its too short Flash-Lite Feedback; ChatGPT’s free tier is the most capable bot with its intelligent writing and image generation, at the expense of higher chances of hallucinating; Claude gets the job done quickly, but due to his strict usage limit, he cannot act alone. Running the prompts through three AI bots exposes mistakes more easily. If an answer differs from the other two, I will ask for further clarification to check for inaccuracies.

Usage limits are another reason to share the workload between three chatbots. If I hit the message cap on one service, I have to turn to another two. While jumping from one app to another is boring and messes with the bot’s memory of all my requests, it’s better than paying for one service and devoting my time to a company that could screw me over in the long run. I blame Google for planting these seeds of doubt.

I should have learned my lesson after being fooled by Google a long time ago. Back when Google offered unlimited backups on photos, I jumped right into uploading thousands of photos dating back to my childhood. His cloud was so fast and reliable that I stopped using competing online storage from Dropbox and Flickr. At some point after I committed to photos, Google pulled the plug on the unlimited backup and counted all successful uploads against my existing storage. It was a classic bait and switch. I was forced to pay for Google One storage to maintain the media library I had already built on photos.

This order eventually led to me purchasing a higher level of Google One storage which includes AI Plus. Again, Google tricked me with the promise of better AI capabilities as long as I pay monthly. As much as I’m letting go of Gemini completely after the recent downgrade, it still serves its purpose as Android’s primary AI assistant. I continue to use Circle to Search and Gemini Live on a daily basis.

Fortunately, I have free alternatives that not only compensate for Gemini’s shortcomings, but also add to my daily usage limits. I’m sticking to my trio of free bots. They work like a team of assistants and don’t cost a cent. Until these AI companies figure out a way to ensure that the features are not taken away from me, I will not subscribe to another paid service.