Google lowers how often people can use Gemini 3 Pro and image tools for free

Google recently changed the rules for how often people can use its latest and most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools, Gemini 3 Pro and Nano Banana Pro, without paying. The company explained that this shift is necessary because a very high number of people are trying to use the service, leading to massive user demand.

When the advanced Gemini 3 Pro was first launched, people who were not paying for a Google AI plan could send the tool up to five requests, or ‘prompts,’ every single day. However, Google has now updated this rule to simply guarantee ‘Basic access.’

This means the daily number of times a free user can engage with the powerful 3 Pro model might often change, depending on how busy the service is at the time. Most people believe this new, flexible limit will result in users being able to use the AI less often than the previous fixed amount.

The rules have also become stricter for the Nano Banana Pro tool, which is used for creating and changing pictures with AI. This image service previously allowed users to make or edit up to three images daily.

Now, the fixed limit has been reduced to only two images per day. Google added a note explaining that because generating images is so popular right now, the service is often in high demand, and these limits could change often, though they will reset every day.

The overwhelming demand has also affected another Google service called NotebookLM. Earlier this week, the company had to quickly remove access to some of its newest features, which included making visual summaries (called Infographics) and presentation slides (called Slide Decks) using the Nano Banana Pro model.

Due to this change, free users completely lost the ability to use these features, and even people who pay for the Pro version saw new restrictions put in place for their use.

Google apologized for the inconvenience, saying that because so many people are using the system, they are currently dealing with some capacity limits, but they plan on bringing everything back to normal as soon as possible. It is important to note that these new, lower limits only apply to those using the free services. The usage limits for customers who pay for the Google AI Pro or Ultra subscriptions have not changed.