Gemini Usage Cutback Controversy

In February 2026, Google Gemini's usage controversy has entered a new phase. The crisis that began with a 92% slash to AI Studio's free API quota in December 2025 has partially recovered, but the problems have deepened. Paid Tier 1 was cut by 97%, and in the Antigravity coding IDE, 'weekly usage limits' have solidified into official policy, with Pro subscribers locked out for 4-10 days at a stretch. Since a Google employee formally acknowledged 'weekly limits' on February 9, user reactions have escalated from frustration to actual migration.

1. Timeline: November 2025 to February 2026

The controversy began in November 2025. Shortly after the Gemini 3 launch, free access was downgraded to 'Basic access,' and on December 7, AI Studio's free API quotas were slashed without notice. Flash daily calls dropped from 250 to 20 — a 92% cut — and Gemini 2.5 Pro was completely removed from the free tier. On Google's AI Forum, a furious post titled 'Did you think we wouldn't notice a 92% cut?' drew hundreds of reactions.

Logan Kilpatrick, Google's AI lead, offered an explanation that failed to calm the outrage. He said the generous free limits 'were meant for one weekend but were accidentally maintained for months,' and that 'large-scale abuse' necessitated the cuts. For developers who had spent months building side projects and IoT integrations on those limits, 'accidentally maintained' was a hard sell.

AI Studio API Free Quota Timeline

Model	Pre-Cut (Nov)	Post-Cut (Dec)	Current (Feb)	Status
Flash RPD (Daily)	250	20 (92%↓)	250	Recovered
Pro RPD (Daily)	500	100 (80%↓)	100	Maintained
Pro RPM (Per Min)	15	5 (67%↓)	5	Still reduced
2.5 Pro RPD (Daily)	50	0 (100%↓)	0	Still removed

As of February, Flash's free daily calls have recovered to 250. But Pro's per-minute rate remains at 5, and 2.5 Pro is still absent from the free tier. More critically, the paid tiers got hit harder. Tier 1 (the first paid tier) saw Pro daily calls slashed from 10,000 to 300 — a 97% cut. Google gave some free quota back, but paying developers actually got less.

2. Antigravity Weekly Limits Go Official: It Was Policy, Not a Bug

The hottest issue is Google's coding IDE, Antigravity. Since January, Pro subscribers had been locked out for days at a time, but many expected it to be a bug or temporary glitch. That hope died on February 9.

Google's Abhijit Pramanik stated on the forum: 'For fair access and platform stability, we've set weekly usage limits across all models. Currently only some Pro users are affected; Ultra is not.' It wasn't a bug — it was deliberate policy. Yet the exact weekly limit, the criteria, and monitoring tools remain undisclosed.

"For fair access and platform stability, we've set weekly usage limits across all models." — Google's Abhijit Pramanik (February 9, 2026)

The response was immediate. The forum lockout thread now has 288 comments and 11,200 views, and continues to grow. February's latest reports paint a dire picture.

Antigravity February 2026 Lockout Reports

Date	Plan	Symptom	Lockout Duration
2/10	Pro	Suddenly locked mid-use	4 days
2/10	Pro	11 min remaining, woke up to extended wait	5 days 12 hours
2/6	Pro	Weekly limit announced only on X (Twitter)	Days (no monitoring available)
2/3	Pro	Hit limit immediately on first use in February	26 hours
1/22→2/1	Pro	Locked Jan 22, unlocked after 10 days	10 days

The biggest frustration is that the exact weekly limit remains undisclosed. How much quota you have, when it resets, what criteria determine consumption — none of it is known. A February 6 post summed it up perfectly: 'They announced weekly limits only on X (Twitter). There's no way to monitor your usage. It's Russian roulette.'

3. The Paid Subscriber Reality: What Is $20 Pro Worth?

It's not just Antigravity. In the Gemini app itself, Pro subscribers paying $19.99/month are being locked well below official limits. Officially, Pro offers 100 Pro model queries and 300 Thinking model queries per day, separately. At launch, the two models shared a single usage pool — using Thinking would drain Pro too — but Google separated the limits on January 14. Yet the problem persists. Google's documentation states that 'limits are distributed throughout the day,' meaning the daily 100 aren't available all at once but are spread across time slots. On Reddit's r/Bard, a report of 'hitting the limit after just 25 text-only prompts' received 71 upvotes — because complex prompts and long conversations exhaust these time-slotted allocations faster.

Image generation tells the same story — officially 100/day, but reports indicate roughly 18 in practice, with 'Limit Reached' errors after just 3-4 images. When you hit the limit on ChatGPT, you can switch models. Gemini either auto-downgrades to Flash or locks you out entirely — no user choice.

Transparency is the core issue. How much quota remains, when it resets, what criteria determine consumption — nothing is clear. Competing IDEs like Cursor and Windsurf display remaining usage in real-time. With Gemini, you only discover limits exist when you're suddenly locked out. Promising 100 daily queries while time-slotted distribution causes users to hit limits around 25 has raised questions about breach of contract.

4. Real Migration Has Begun

In February, complaints have turned into departures. Posts reporting actual migration to competitors are surging on Google's AI Forum and Reddit.

On February 10, a freelance developer reported: 'Went from JetBrains to Google to Cursor in 2 minutes.' On February 11, another wrote: 'The entire office got locked out. I'd been promoting Antigravity to colleagues — now I'm considering Claude Code and Cursor subscriptions.'

Services Mentioned as Antigravity Alternatives (February 2026)

Service	Monthly	Key Feature
Claude Pro	$20	Anthropic, includes Claude Code agent
Claude Max	$100	Virtually unlimited usage
Cursor	$20	VS Code-based, real-time usage display
GitHub Copilot	$10	MS/OpenAI-based, lowest price

The migration isn't just about low limits. It's about not knowing what the limits are, not knowing when you'll be locked, and not knowing when you'll be unlocked. While competitors offer clear usage displays and predictable pricing, Gemini's 'blind limits' are widely seen as untrustworthy for professional use.

5. Google's Monetization Strategy: More Tiers, Less Trust

Google's solution is a four-tier pricing system, with the newly launched AI Plus ($7.99/month) bridging the gap between free and Pro. But as long as the gap between official numbers and actual experience persists, the pricing table numbers are meaningless.

Gemini Pricing Tiers (February 2026)

Model	Free	AI Plus ($7.99)	AI Pro ($19.99)	AI Ultra ($249.99)
Pro	Basic access (variable)	30/day	100/day	500/day
Thinking	Basic access (variable)	90/day	300/day	1,500/day

Final Thoughts: A Pricing Table Is a Promise

The essence of the subscription economy is simple: 'Pay this much each month, use this much.' Users open their wallets trusting that promise.

Gemini broke its own promise. The pricing table says '100/day' but time-slotted distribution locks you around 25. 'Weekly limits' were imposed with no specific numbers, announced only via X (Twitter). Pro subscribers paying $20 get locked for 4 days, entire offices get shut out, and the only response is 'investigating.' Few users will keep paying for a service where the promised numbers don't match reality.

ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot — alternatives abound. In the AI race, technology is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one. Users don't leave because the model isn't good enough — they leave because they've lost confidence that 'tomorrow will work the same as today.' The numbers on a pricing table are the minimum unit of trust — and that's the lesson Google needs to relearn with Gemini.