Google makes Gemini 'Extended' thinking free for everyone

Google opened up Gemini's reasoning tiers, making both 'Standard' and 'Extended' thinking levels available to everyone for free, with no subscription required. Only the most compute-intensive 'Deep Think' mode remains gated to Ultra subscribers. The change effectively gives free users access to multi-step, deliberate reasoning that competitors often reserve for paid plans.

The strategy is distribution-as-moat. By giving away capable reasoning, Google leverages its enormous Search and Android install base to make Gemini the default assistant for hundreds of millions, betting that breadth of usage compounds into data and habit advantages even if it cedes some near-term revenue.

This lands alongside Google's broader Search-AI push — Gemini 3.5 Flash as the default in AI Mode, the Antigravity coding tool, and a 24/7 'Gemini Spark' personal agent — as well as the free local Gemma 4 release. Together they paint a company flooding every tier of the market: free cloud reasoning, free local models, and premium agents.

The competitive pressure is real: OpenAI and Anthropic both meter their strongest reasoning behind Plus/Pro tiers, and a free 'Extended' Gemini reframes the value proposition. The caveat is reliability — a Times of Israel report documented Gemini fabricating quotes and 'admitting' it was unfit for purpose, a reminder that free reasoning at scale also means error at scale.