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Gemini Users Left Frustrated as Google Shifts to Compute Based Usage Limits

Gemini Users Left Frustrated as Google Shifts to Compute-Based Usage Limits

In an email to users, Google said it is introducing compute-based usage limits for the Gemini app.

Written by Akash Dutta, Edited by Ketan Pratap | Updated: 22 May 2026 12:54 IST

Gemini Users Left Frustrated as Google Shifts to Compute-Based Usage Limits

Photo Credit: Google

Google is also rolling out a product-based usage limit model to Flow and Antigravity

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Highlights

The new system accounts for prompt complexity and chat length
Media generation and deep research will require more usage
Many users have claimed they are hitting the 5-hour limit quicker

Google is quietly restructuring the Gemini app's usage limit. After adding a weekly limit and releasing the new usage dashboard earlier this week, the Mountain View-based tech giant is now adopting a compute-based usage limit approach. Ditching the existing message-based count means users' usage will now be measured by the number of tokens they consume, which can significantly reduce their actual usage. Just hours after the change was rolled out, several users took to social media to complain that they hit the rate limit much sooner than before.

Gemini Shifts to a Compute-Based Usage Limit

The tech giant informed users of the change in usage limit measurement by sending them emails, rather than announcing it on its blog or social media. Gadgets 360 staff members also received the email, which mentioned that the Gemini app will now use “compute-based usage limits that factor in the complexity of your prompt, the features you use, and the length of your chat.”

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The email also officially mentioned the addition of a weekly limit. The email, however, did not provide any standardised measure of compute consumption per response or per media generation. In a support page, Google only vaguely refers to the usage for different tiers as standard limit (free tier), 2x standard limit (AI Plus), 4x standard limit (AI Pro), 5x standard limit (AI Ultra $100), and 20x standard limit (AI Ultra $200).

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Since the company is not providing any official measurements to go by, we tried to use the chatbot and find out exactly how much usage is exhausted when using the “premium models and features.” In our testing, we found that generating one Nano Banana Pro image consumed one percent of 5-hour usage, while one deep research using the Gemini 3.1 Pro (Extended) consumed five percent of 5-hour usage. On the other hand, generating a single video using Veo 3 consumed 26 percent of five hourly limit. These usage consumptions were observed on a Gemini account with an AI Pro subscription.

Do note that we used a basic prompt for each of these outputs, and the results may vary with a more complicated request. We also did not include text prompts in this test since they are very subjective and are influenced by factors such as web access, agentic tools, third-party connectors, using Google's data hubs (Gmail, Drive), length of the conversation, and more. Based on the brief test, we believe most users will experience higher usage consumption than before.

Users posting on social media platforms also corroborated our findings. A Reddit user, u/EatandDie001, who is on the Pro plan, said, “Just one single prompt that includes referencing my NotebookLM + Google Doc already ate 47 percent of my current usage. One prompt. Not even a long one.”

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X user @TimJayas shared similar feedback and said, “Google RUINED Gemini with these new rate limits. Just used 5 prompts with Pro 'standard thinking' model and already used 54% of the limit. And if you use Gemini Omni, then you're cooked.”

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Another Reddit user, u/ClumpofCheese, said, “It's like they gamified it with micro transactions. Now you have to keep coming back every five hours to work a little more, wake up in the middle of the night to get the most from your credits.”

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Further reading: Gemini, Google, Gemini usage limit, AI, Artificial Intelligence

Akash Dutta Email Akash Dutta

Akash Dutta is a Chief Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He is particularly interested in the social impact of technological developments and loves reading about emerging fields such as AI, metaverse, and fediverse. In his free time, he can be seen supporting his favourite football club - Chelsea, watching movies and anime, and sharing passionate opinions on food. More