Gemini's Gems Discontinued on November 17 | What Happens to Free Users After the Skills Migration?
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The "personalized Gemini" you use every day will take on a different form in about seven weeks. Google has announced that it will discontinue "Gems" in Gemini and switch to a successor feature called "Skills." This article breaks down what is changing and what free users need to watch out for.
Starting around September 27, 2026, Google began displaying a notice inside the Gemini app stating: "Gems will become Skills on November 17, 2026."
Gems are a feature that lets you assign a fixed role to Gemini — for example, "English proofreader" or "nutritionist who plans meals" — so you can call it up without writing instructions from scratch every time.
According to Google, existing Gems will be automatically converted to Skills on November 17. Users generally don't need to do anything. Until the migration is complete, you can continue using Gems as usual.
According to reporting by ITmedia NEWS, the timing of discontinuation varies by account type:
If you use Gems through a work or school account, you still have about six months. Personal account users, on the other hand, should expect the switch to happen before the end of the year.
Like Gems, Skills is a feature that lets you register a set of standing instructions with Gemini. The key difference is in how you invoke them.
With Gems, you selected one from a list in the sidebar and started a dedicated conversation. With Skills, you invoke them by typing "/" followed by the Skill name right inside a regular chat. There are also reports that the invocation method may later change to the "@" symbol.
Another highlight is the ability to use multiple Skills simultaneously. With Gems, each conversation could only have one role.
With Skills, you can stack combinations like "/meeting-summary" and "/plain-language" together. There is also reportedly a feature that lets Gemini automatically apply Skills based on the content of the conversation.
If Gems were like "entering a dedicated room to talk to someone," Skills are more like "calling in helpers during your regular conversation."
That said, Skills still have limitations. According to ITmedia NEWS, the following features are not yet supported:
Skills are also limited to personal accounts for users aged 18 and older. Availability for workplace and school accounts is described as "coming soon." It is still not entirely clear how much of the functionality built into Gems will carry over.
The most talked-about issue right now is how free users will be treated.
Gems was a feature that all Gemini users — including those on the free plan — could create. However, according to TechCrunch and 9to5Google, creating new Skills is limited to subscribers of Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra. Skills are created through a tab in the AI agent "Gemini Spark."
Pricing in Japan starts at ¥2,900/month (tax included) for Google AI Pro and ¥14,500/month (tax included) for Google AI Ultra. Gemini Spark became available to Pro users in Japan at the end of July 2026.
What remains unclear is the fate of Gems created by free users. Google has not yet explained in detail whether those users will be able to continue using their migrated Skills for free. Android Authority also wrote that it hopes Google "won't abandon free users," and concerns have been voiced internationally as well.
The move to "replace custom AIs with Skills" is not unique to Google.
OpenAI stopped allowing the creation of new custom GPTs on individual plans starting August 16, 2026. All custom GPTs are scheduled to stop working on December 11. In the successor "Plugins," GPT instruction prompts will be automatically converted into a "Skill" format.
Anthropic's Claude also introduced "Skills" for organizing workflows early on. In Claude Code, invoking them with "/" has become standard practice.
| Service | Old Feature | New Feature | Key Schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini | Gems | Skills (invoked with /) | Personal accounts migrate from November 17 |
| ChatGPT | Custom GPTs | Skills inside Plugins | Fully discontinued December 11 |
| Claude | — | Skills | Already available |
In short, all three major players have pivoted from "building individual dedicated bots" to "combining modular components." This is likely because being able to use multiple capabilities within a single conversation is better suited to AI agents — AIs that think for themselves and carry out tasks autonomously.
One university student used to open their "English Proofreading Gem" every time they needed to translate a report. They would paste in the translated text, get corrections, then switch back to a Japanese chat — a round trip that happened every single time.
With Skills, all they need to do is type "/english-proofreading" in their regular chat. The entire flow from translation to proofreading can be handled in one conversation, reducing the need to switch screens.
Imagine someone managing social media for a small café. They had created separate Gems — one for "writing posts in the shop's tone" and another for "coming up with hashtags."
With Skills, they can invoke "/shop-tone" and "/hashtags" at the same time. With a single instruction, they get both the post copy and the tags in one go.
One group likely to be affected is families who created an "allergy-friendly meal-planning Gem" on the free plan. It is still unclear whether their migrated Skills can be used for free after the transition.
Additionally, since Skills are limited to personal accounts for users aged 18 and older, it's worth keeping a close eye on what happens to Gems created by children on their own accounts.
In Japan, Gemini has spread as a free AI among students, homemakers, and many others. If Gems — which anyone could create for free — shift toward a paid feature, a significant number of people will be affected.
That said, there's no need to panic and subscribe right away. To be safe, do these three things before November 17:
If you use Gems for work through a Workspace account, you have until March 2027. Go ahead and also save your workflows and procedures somewhere outside of Gems.
A. Google has stated that existing Gems will be automatically converted to Skills starting November 17. They won't simply vanish overnight.
A. Reports indicate that creating new Skills is available only to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. Whether migrated Skills can be used for free has not yet been announced.
A. Type "/" followed by the Skill name in a regular chat input field. The invocation method is reportedly planned to change to "@" in the future.
A. According to ITmedia NEWS, Workspace Business, Enterprise, and Nonprofit accounts are set for discontinuation in March 2027, and educational institution accounts in June 2027.
A. It's recommended to save your Gem instructions and any attached files locally. That way, even if something is missing after the migration, you can quickly recreate it.
Start today by copying and saving the instructions from your most-used Gems.
This article is a cross-post from AI Friends.
