How to Enable Gemini Personal Intelligence: Step-by-Step Setup Guide

Hey fellow AI tinkerers —

If you’ve ever tried using Gemini for personal tasks, you’ve probably hit the same wall I did: the AI is smart, but your context is scattered everywhere. Gmail here. Photos there. Search history somewhere else. And every time, you end up pasting links, uploading screenshots, and re-explaining your life from scratch.

I’m Hanks. I test AI tools by pushing them into real work until the friction shows. For months, Gemini’s biggest problem wasn’t intelligence — it was setup cost. Two or three minutes of context loading per task adds up fast, and eventually I just stopped using it.

On January 14, 2026, Google introduced Personal Intelligence — their first real attempt to let Gemini pull context directly from your Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history without you pointing at every file.

I’ve been running it for a week inside actual tasks. It works in some places, fails in predictable ways, and has a few traps that’ll waste your time if you don’t know them upfront. Here’s exactly what to expect before you turn it on.

Check Your Eligibility

Before you start clicking around looking for settings, here's what you actually need. Personal Intelligence isn't available to everyone yet—Google's rolling this out in waves with specific requirements.

Subscription Requirements

You need either a Google AI Pro or AI Ultra subscription. Free tier users can't access this yet.

Current pricing (January 2026):

Note: Google ran a 50% discount promotion for new 2026 subscribers on annual plans through mid-January, but that ended January 15, 2026.

Country Availability (US Only)

As of January 2026, Personal Intelligence is only available in the United States. Google says they'll expand to more countries, but no specific timeline yet.

I tested this from a US account. If you're using a VPN or traveling, that won't work—Google checks your account's country setting, not your IP.

Account Type (Personal Only)

This is where I saw people get confused. Personal Intelligence works only with personal Google accounts.

If you're using:

• Google Workspace (business/enterprise)
• Education accounts
• Organization-managed accounts

You won't see the option. Even if you have AI Pro. This is a hard restriction.

Step 1: Open Gemini Settings

There are two ways to access Gemini depending on where you're working.

Web Version

1. Go to gemini.google.com
2. Click your profile icon (top-right corner)
3. Select "Settings"

Mobile App (iOS/Android)

1. Open the Gemini app
2. Tap your profile icon (top-right)
3. Tap "Settings"

The rollout is gradual. When I first checked on January 15, the feature showed up immediately. A colleague with the same subscription plan didn't see it until January 18. Don't panic if it's not there yet—check back daily.

Step 2: Find Personal Intelligence

Once you're in Settings, here's what you're looking for.

Navigate to Settings

Look for a section called "Personal Intelligence" in your settings menu. If the feature has rolled out to your account, you'll see it listed.

Locate the Toggle

When you tap Personal Intelligence, you'll see:

• A description of what it does
• A "Get started" or "Enable" button
• A list of apps you can connect

Some users got a pop-up banner on the Gemini home screen when the feature first became available. If you saw that and dismissed it, you can still access everything through Settings.

Step 3: Connect Your Apps

This is where you decide what Gemini can access. You don't have to connect everything—pick what makes sense for your use case.

Gmail Connection

What it accesses:

• Email content and metadata
• Purchase receipts and confirmations
• Calendar invites embedded in emails

Example use case I tested: I asked Gemini to find my tire size. It pulled a purchase receipt from Gmail that I sent 11 months ago. I'd completely forgotten about that email.

Privacy note: According to Google's documentation, Gemini doesn't train its core models directly on your full inbox. It references emails to answer your specific requests, then trains on the conversation patterns (with personal data filtered).

Photos Connection

What it accesses:

• Photos and videos in your library
• Location data from photos (if you've enabled it)
• Face groupings (requires Face Groups turned on)

Setup requirement: Before Photos works with Personal Intelligence, you need to:

1. Turn on Face Groups in Google Photos
2. Select which face is yours
3. Enable "Estimate missing locations" if it's not already on

I didn't have Face Groups enabled when I first tried this. The connection failed silently—no error message, just didn't work. Once I turned it on and selected my face, connections went through.

YouTube History

What it accesses:

• Watch history
• Search history within YouTube
• Liked videos

Example I ran: Asked for YouTube channels that match my cooking style. It pulled from my watch history (recipe videos), grocery receipts in Gmail, and Search history for recipes. Recommendations were surprisingly specific.

Search History

What it accesses:

• Google Search queries
• Shopping searches
• Maps searches
• Flight and hotel searches

This one felt the most invasive to me. If you search sensitive topics (health conditions, financial issues), Gemini could reference those. You can connect Gmail and Photos without connecting Search—it's granular control.

Step 4: Configure Privacy

Google built Personal Intelligence with opt-in settings, but you still need to understand what's being shared.

Review What's Shared

After you connect apps, Gemini shows a summary screen explaining:

• Which apps are connected
• What types of data it can access
• How it uses that data

Read this. I know it's long, but there's one critical detail: when you enable Personal Intelligence, Gemini can proactively use your data when it thinks it'll be helpful. You're not asked every time.

Disconnect Specific Apps

You can turn off individual apps anytime:

1. Go to Settings > Personal Intelligence > Connected Apps
2. Toggle off any app you want to disconnect

When I tested disconnecting Photos mid-conversation, responses immediately stopped referencing image data. It's instant—no syncing delay.

Use Temporary Chats

If you want to use Gemini without Personal Intelligence for a specific conversation:

1. Start a new chat
2. Enable "Temporary chat" mode (icon next to the model picker)
3. Personal Intelligence won't activate in that session

Your data stays connected for future chats, but this conversation won't use it.

Troubleshooting

Here's where I spent most of my time—not in setup, but in figuring out why things didn't work the first time.

"Personal Intelligence Not Showing"

Issue: You have AI Pro or Ultra, you're in the US, but you don't see Personal Intelligence in Settings.

What I found:

• Rollout happens in waves. Google said "within one week" of January 14, but some users waited longer.
• Check your account type. If you accidentally signed up for AI Pro through a Workspace org, it won't appear.
• Age verification. You must be 18+. If your account birthdate isn't verified, the feature blocks.

Fix that worked: Log out completely from Gemini, clear browser cache, log back in. Sounds basic, but it forced a fresh settings check for two people I helped.

Connection Errors

Issue: You enable Personal Intelligence, connect apps, but Gemini says "I can't access that app" when you ask questions.

What causes this:

• For Photos: Face Groups not enabled, or you haven't selected your face
• For Gmail: Sometimes takes 10-15 minutes after initial connection to index
• For YouTube: If you have watch history paused, connection fails

Verification steps:

1. Go to each app's settings directly (not through Gemini)
2. Confirm sharing settings are enabled
3. Wait 15 minutes after first connection
4. Try a simple test query: "What's in my Photos?" or "Summarize my recent emails"

Waiting for Rollout

Issue: Everything looks right, but the feature just isn't available yet.

Reality check: Google said rollout would complete by January 21, 2026. If you're reading this before that date and it's not showing up, there's nothing you can do except wait.

I saw some users try:

• Switching browsers (didn't work)
• Using VPN to different US states (blocked by account country setting)
• Creating new AI Pro accounts (worked, but you lose existing chat history)

The only thing that reliably worked was patience. Annoying, but accurate.

What Happens After Setup

Once Personal Intelligence is running, Gemini changes how it responds. Instead of generic answers, it pulls your actual context.

Examples I tested:

Known limitations:

• Sometimes over-personalizes. Saw 50 golf photos? It assumes you love golf. Google acknowledges this.
• Struggles with timing. If you divorced last year but have old photos, it might reference outdated relationship context.
• No health assumptions. Gemini avoids proactive health suggestions unless you explicitly ask.

Personal Intelligence gets your context right—that part works. But here's where most people hit the wall: those personalized responses still live in chat windows. You get great answers, then you're stuck manually translating them into calendars, task lists, or actual work you need to do tomorrow. The context is there, but the execution layer isn't.

At Macaron, we built specifically for this gap—turning AI conversations into structured workflows that actually run. If you're setting up Personal Intelligence and want to test whether your AI interactions can move past "useful chat" into "things that happen automatically," you can try your real workflows at macaron.im. It's low-cost to start, you can step out anytime, and you'll know within a few tasks whether it fits your process.