I canceled Google AI Plus after the downgrade, but I’m still using Gemini

I’ve been a Gemini user for a couple of years now. I use it mainly for learning new skills and summarizing concepts. It’s well-integrated with whatever Android smartphone I use, giving me helpful features like Circle to Search and Gemini Live. I’ve experimented with other AI chatbots, but none of them are as straightforward and accessible as Gemini.

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

Sadly, the honeymoon stage finally came to an end. Google announced that it would cut out Gemini Pro from AI Plus subscriptions. This meant my account being limited to Flash and Flash-Lite, the very models I had been ignoring all this time. I didn’t believe it at first, but I received an email detailing the downgrade last week. I had the choice to retain my AI Plus plan, upgrade to Google AI Pro to regain the Pro model, or cancel my subscription altogether. Each option came with its own set of pros and cons.

Google AI Plus was once the sweet spot for Gemini users. It was relatively affordable, especially if you paid annually, and it came with ample cloud storage that could be shared with your family group. More importantly, it gave 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 tiers but didn’t want to overspend for another subscription.

I was at a crossroads. Upgrading to AI Pro meant giving Google more money with no promise that its features would stay put. Canceling my AI Plus subscription and returning to the free tier would cripple my chatbot usage. Along with AI Plus’s removal of Gemini Pro, Gemini’s free tier became limited to Flash-Lite. Although fast and useful in a pinch, Flash-Lite is a glorified AI Overview you’d 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 Gemini’s AI perks, such as Gmail integration, but I could at least maintain the files I had already backed up on Gmail, Drive, and Photos. I just had to look 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 together chats and sources. It’s useful when I want to consolidate all my PDFs, Docs, and web URLs into a single notebook. I could then ask questions and create summaries using only what I uploaded to a specific notebook. This helps prevent AI hallucinations, which happen when the chatbot digs up unreliable sources (e.g., Reddit posts or satirical websites). However, Gemini Notebook wasn’t 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 of how good it is at certain tasks, even without a paid plan. It’s much better at addressing concerns and keeping a conversation compared to Gemini. For example, when I asked ChatGPT for travel suggestions for an upcoming trip to Vietnam, the chatbot provided 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 any more context. Again, Flash-Lite feels like an AI Overview with more steps.

I also signed up for Claude. Anthropic’s chatbot has its advantages over the two aforementioned AI bots. Its responses are much more upfront than ChatGPT’s. For the same prompt regarding my family outing to Vietnam, Claude replied with short bullet points and fewer side comments. When I asked Claude to draft responses to some of my emails, its tone was a lot more serious and its humor more deadpan. Compared to ChatGPT and Gemini, Claude required more editing to match my style of writing.

Unfortunately, I ran into two issues with Claude’s free tier. One, the image generation is limited. Claude can create diagrams and illustrations, but can’t alter existing photos. For someone who likes to modify photos to virtually try out new outfits and remove background distractions, this is a sad exclusion. Two, Claude has stricter usage limits. Its free tier’s daily limit is tighter than Gemini and ChatGPT’s, and the Android app won’t let me check my current usage.

As much as I enjoyed using ChatGPT and Claude, I had to stick to their free tiers. Subscribing to their paid plans wasn’t an option. They each cost $20 per month for their upgraded AI plans. Paying this much defeats the purpose of matching what I used to have with Google’s $5 AI Plus plan. If I have to pay four times as much for an alternative, then 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 AI services’ free plans simultaneously. I’d get the best of three worlds: the seamless Android integration of Gemini, with the deeper responses of ChatGPT and Claude. Think of it as getting second and third opinions from different sources. Rather than rely on one expert, I could learn from three respondents and add up 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 overly 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 for hallucinating; Claude gets the job done quickly, yet can’t act alone due to its strict usage limit. Running prompts through three AI bots exposes mistakes more easily. If one response is too distinct from the other two, I ask for further clarification to check for inaccuracies.

Usage limits are another reason for sharing the workload among three chatbots. When I hit the message cap on one service, I have another two to turn to. While jumping from one app to another is tedious and messes with each bot’s memory of my queries, it’s better than paying for one service and dedicating my time to one company that might screw me over in the long run. I blame Google for planting these seeds of doubt.

I should’ve learned my lesson after being misled by Google long ago. Back when Google offered unlimited backups on Photos, I jumped right in and uploaded thousands of photos dating back to my childhood. Its cloud was so fast and reliable that I stopped using competing online storage from Dropbox and Flickr. Sometime after I committed to Photos, Google pulled the plug on the unlimited backups and counted every succeeding upload 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.

That ordeal eventually led to me purchasing a higher tier of Google One storage, which included AI Plus. Again, Google tricked me with the promise of better AI capabilities as long as I’d pay monthly. As much as I’d like to let go of Gemini completely after the recent downgrade, it still serves its purpose as Android’s primary AI assistant. I continue using Circle to Search and Gemini Live on a daily basis.

Fortunately, I have free alternatives that don’t just make up 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 features don’t get taken away from me, I’m not subscribing to another paid service.