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Gemini’s free tier users will now be able to upload and analyse files using the AI tool. It’ll only work with Gemini 2.0 Flash and enables the “Ask AI about this PDF” feature in Google’s File app and the “Talk Like about this” feature in Android.
Support documentation for the feature is yet to be updated, so it’s unclear what the feature’s context window will be. For context, Gemini’s Advanced tier offers 1 million tokens, roughly equivalent to 1,500 pages of text or 30,000 lines of code. At the moment, the following file formats are supported:
- Plain text: TXT
- Documents: DOC, DOCX, PDF, RTF, DOT, DOTX, HWP, HWPX, and documents created in Google Docs
- Data files: CSV, TSV
- Spreadsheets: XLS, XLSX, and spreadsheets created in Google Sheets
- Programming language: C, CPP, PY, JAVA, PHP, SQL, and HTML
Uploading or adding files to Gemini also works the same way. You either upload a local file or import a Google Docs document and Gemini will be able to answer any questions you have. Results often come up as advanced search queries and summaries of the content. Additionally, spreadsheets can also be shared for data analysis and chart creation.
The feature was first announced for Gemini’s paid Advanced tier in May 2024, along with the launch of the 1.5 Pro model. Gemini currently has four models available for free users, but its older 1.5 Flash model is soon to be discontinued. The file upload feature started rolling out for free tier users on February 13; however, it can take a while for worldwide availability. Other popular Gemini futures, such as Deep Research, Saved Info, Recall, and custom Gems, remain exclusive to paid users.
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