Google has made Gemini Skills available to free users. Anyone over 18 who is signed in to a personal Google account can now use Skills in Gemini chat, according to Google’s support documentation. Until now the feature was limited to paid subscribers.
The change comes ahead of Google’s planned retirement of Gems, the custom assistants users could set up inside the Gemini app. A notice in the Gems manager says the move from Gems to Skills begins on November 17. With Skills now open to free accounts, users who built Gems without a Google AI Pro subscription will keep that functionality at no cost. Google says existing Gems will be recreated as Skills automatically. Users who prefer to do it themselves can rebuild a Gem as a skill manually on the Gemini website, including transferring any uploaded knowledge files.
The rollout appears to be happening in stages, and some free accounts still show Gems with no sign of Skills. The shutdown schedule for Gems also varies by account type:
- Personal accounts: November 2026
- Workspace business, enterprise and non-profit accounts: March 2027
- Education accounts: June 2027
Skills work differently from Gems. A Gem runs in its own dedicated chat, while a skill can be called up in any conversation by typing a slash followed by its name. Google says this trigger will change to the @ symbol soon. Gemini can also apply a skill automatically when it matches the user’s request.
Some Gemini tools do not yet work with Skills:
- Canvas
- Deep Research
- Video and music creation
- Guided Learning
Gems built around any of these features will not work the same way after the migration. Google has not said when support for them will arrive.
OpenAI is taking a different approach with ChatGPT. According to its help documentation, personal accounts on the Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans can no longer create or publish new custom GPTs. The company plans to retire custom GPTs in favour of Plugins, starting with Enterprise workspaces on December 11, 2026, and other plans are expected to follow the same timeline. Free ChatGPT users can still use GPTs built by others but cannot create their own.
The two companies are now on opposite paths for custom assistants. Gemini offers free creation through Skills, while ChatGPT users on every tier face a move to Plugins. How well each transition preserves users’ existing workflows will depend on which tools the new formats support by the time the older systems are switched off.
