How to Access Gemini 3.1 Pro Free: Google AI Pro, Ultra, and Free Tier Guide

If you've been hunting for a straight answer on whether Gemini 3.1 Pro is actually free — not the marketing version, the real one — you're in the right place.

I went through all four access paths this week: the free Gemini app, AI Studio, the paid Pro plan, and the API. The honest summary? There is free access. It's just not the same thing as what Pro subscribers get, and most guides skip over that part. Let me break down exactly what you get at each tier so you can stop guessing.

What You Can Access for Free Right Now

Short answer: you can try Gemini 3.1 Pro for free, but with significant constraints depending on which path you take.

Gemini App Free Tier — Limits and Availability

Full, unrestricted Gemini 3.1 Pro access is reserved for higher tiers — Google AI Pro and Ultra — and paid Gemini API users. For free users, the Gemini app provides limited access to some Gemini 3.1 Pro capabilities within the Thinking experience, but usage is subject to daily limits or periodic resets depending on server availability and account status.

In practice: you'll see "Thinking (3 Pro)" as an option in the US free tier, but it's not unlimited. Treat it as "try-before-you-buy" access, not a reliable daily driver. For heavier use, you'll hit a wall — sometimes mid-task.

AI Studio: Free API Access with Rate Limits

This is the more interesting free option for anyone building something or testing seriously.

Google's Gemini 3.x models (including 3.1 Pro, released February 19, 2026) are currently available only on paid tiers as preview models. The API free tier provides access to three stable models — Gemini 2.5 Pro, 2.5 Flash, and 2.5 Flash-Lite — at zero cost, without requiring a credit card.

So here's the real breakdown: AI Studio's free tier doesn't include Gemini 3.1 Pro. It includes Gemini 2.5 Pro (still a strong model) with these limits as of February 2026:

(Source: Gemini API rate limits documentation, updated February 19, 2026)

One important heads-up: Google deprecated the Gemini 2.0 Flash models in February 2026, with both Gemini 2.0 Flash and 2.0 Flash-Lite scheduled to retire on March 3, 2026. Any code still referencing these models will break after that date. If you have projects pointing to 2.0 models, update them now.

Student exception worth knowing: Eligible college students can get one year of free Google AI Pro access — including full Gemini 3.1 Pro — by signing up by April 30, 2026. Students must be 18 or older and actively enrolled at an eligible institution. If that's you, this is the best deal in the space right now.

Google AI Pro and Ultra Plans — What You Get

Pro Plan: Cost and What It Unlocks

Google AI Pro runs $20 per month — specifically $19.99/month. This is what unlocks real, consistent Gemini 3.1 Pro access.

Google AI Pro provides enhanced access to Gemini 3.1 Pro, Deep Research, image generation with Nano Banana Pro, and video creation features including limited access to Veo 3.1 Fast. It also includes expanded file upload capacity and deep integration with Google Workspace apps.

For coding workflows specifically: AI Pro subscribers get 5x higher limits compared to free users for Jules (Google's async coding agent) and higher daily model requests for Gemini Code Assist and Gemini CLI. Google Antigravity gives Pro users "Higher" agent requests.

The storage math is worth noting. Google AI Pro includes 2TB of cloud storage. Standalone 2TB Google storage costs $9.99/month — meaning the actual AI feature cost is closer to $10/month once you factor in the storage you'd be paying for anyway.

Ultra Plan: Higher Limits and NotebookLM Access

Google AI Ultra costs $249.99 per month in the US and provides the "Highest" access to Gemini 3 Pro, Nano Banana Pro, and agentic capabilities.

The Ultra-specific additions that actually matter:

• Gemini 3.1 Pro Deep Think (listed as "coming soon" as of February 2026)
• 20x higher limits for Jules coding agent vs free tier
• 30TB cloud storage
• YouTube Premium individual plan bundled in
• Priority access to new AI experiments (Agent Mode, Project Genie)

Ultra subscribers also get $100 in monthly Google Cloud credits through the Google Developer Program — useful if you're building on Vertex AI or Cloud Run, where those credits offset real API costs.

For most individuals: Ultra is hard to justify at $250/month. The 20x vs 5x limit difference matters mainly for teams running intensive multi-agent workflows at scale.

Free vs Paid — The Practical Comparison

Message and Rate Limits Side by Side

When the Free Tier Is Enough

The free Gemini app tier works for: occasional Q&A, exploratory use, low-volume creative tasks where you're not deadline-dependent. It's genuinely not bad for casual use.

The free API tier (via AI Studio) works for: prototyping, testing integrations, personal projects with low traffic. 100 requests/day on 2.5 Pro is enough to build and validate a working prototype — just not to run one in production.

Where it breaks down: anything time-sensitive, production workloads, complex multi-step reasoning chains where you need consistent throughput. The daily reset and "server availability" caveat make the free tier unreliable for real workflows.

When You Need the Paid API Instead

Building Apps, Automations, or High-Volume Use

If you're building anything that other people will use, the free tier's rate limits become the problem immediately. Even a small app with a few dozen daily active users will blow through 100 requests/day.

Getting started with Gemini 3.1 Pro via the paid API takes minutes. The fastest path for production is through the Gemini API directly or through Vertex AI. Gemini 3.1 Pro is a drop-in replacement for Gemini 3 Pro — same API format, same pricing, same 1-million token context window. Update the model ID and you get the performance upgrade immediately.

Pricing for the paid API (as of February 19, 2026):

(Source: Gemini Developer API pricing, updated February 19, 2026)

At $2/1M input tokens, Gemini 3.1 Pro is significantly cheaper than comparable frontier models. That per-token cost is one of the more compelling reasons to choose Gemini 3.1 Pro for high-volume API workloads — assuming the model fits your use case.

Rate limits in the paid tier are tied to your project's usage tier. As API usage and spending increase, you become eligible to upgrade to higher tiers with increased rate limits. The qualifications for Tiers 2 and 3 are based on total cumulative spending on Google Cloud services.

The practical path for most builders: start with AI Studio free tier on 2.5 Pro → prototype → enable billing → upgrade to Gemini 3.1 Pro → scale up tiers as usage grows.

At Macaron, the model access question comes up constantly — not because people are trying to optimize for benchmarks, but because the model underneath determines whether your planned workflow actually runs reliably. Macaron handles the API layer so you're not manually managing rate limits or model-swapping between tiers. If you want to test a real task — not a demo — and see whether the output is actually useful for your workflow, you can run a trial inside Macaron at low cost. The results are yours to judge.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I use Gemini 3.1 Pro completely for free? A: Limited free access exists in the Gemini app (US), but it comes with daily caps and isn't guaranteed to be available when you need it. Free API access via AI Studio doesn't include 3.1 Pro — it covers 2.5 Pro, 2.5 Flash, and 2.5 Flash-Lite. Truly unlimited access to 3.1 Pro requires AI Pro ($20/month), AI Ultra ($250/month), or paid API.

Q: Is there a free trial for Google AI Pro? A: Not a standard one for regular users. College students can get one free year of AI Pro by verifying enrollment by April 30, 2026. Otherwise, there's no trial period — but you can cancel anytime and retain access through your billing period.

Q: What's the difference between the Gemini app free tier and AI Studio? A: The Gemini app is the consumer product — you chat with it directly. AI Studio is the developer tool where you get API access, test prompts, and build integrations. They have different model availability and rate limits. For most people: use the Gemini app for everyday tasks, AI Studio if you're building something.

Q: Is Google AI Plus worth it over Free? A: Google AI Plus costs $7.99/month in the US and includes Gemini 3 Pro access in the Gemini app, Flow filmmaking tools, NotebookLM research and writing assistance, and 200GB of storage, with family sharing for up to five people. If you're using Gemini regularly and hitting the free tier's daily limits, Plus is a reasonable middle ground before committing to Pro.

Q: Will Gemini 3.1 Pro come to the free API tier eventually? A: Likely yes — Google's pattern is to add new models to the free tier once they exit preview status. But as of February 2026, 3.1 Pro is preview-only on paid tiers. No official timeline for free tier availability has been announced.

Q: What happened to Gemini 2.0 Flash in the free tier? A: Gemini 2.0 Flash and 2.0 Flash-Lite were deprecated by Google in February 2026 and are retiring March 3, 2026. If your project references these models, update to 2.5 Flash before that date.