Gems, plainly
Gems are custom Gemini personalities you build inside the Gemini chat app — the no-code Custom-GPT analogue. What they are, the five premade Gems Google ships, the Magic Wand instruction-rewriter, knowledge files, what's gated to paid tiers, and how Gems differ from OpenAI Custom GPTs.
The thirty-second version#
Gems are custom AI helpers inside the Gemini chat app — a saved persona / instruction set Gemini applies to every conversation with that Gem. Think of them as the Gemini-app equivalent of Custom GPTs: no-code, chat-only, distributed via private link (no public marketplace).
Three things to know:
- They’re now generally available to most signed-in Gemini users (free, Plus, Pro, Ultra). The original September 2024 launch was Gemini Advanced / Business / Enterprise only — that gate has dropped.
- Five premade Gems ship by default — Brainstormer, Career guide, Coding partner, Learning coach, Writing editor. You can use these or copy them as a starting point for your own.
- Custom Gems get a “Magic Wand” instruction rewriter — write a sentence or two about what you want, click the wand, Gemini expands it into a full structured instruction set (Persona / Task / Context / Format).
How to create one#
- Open gemini.google.com
- Explore Gems in the sidebar
- Click + New Gem
- Fill in:
- Name — what you’ll call it
- Instructions — Persona (who the Gem is), Task (what it does), Context (background it should know), Format (how to respond). Or write rough instructions and click the “Use Gemini to re-write” Magic Wand to expand them.
- Knowledge files (optional) — upload PDFs, Docs, etc. for the Gem to reference. Toggle “Disable knowledge citations” if you don’t want footnotes.
- Preview in the right panel
- Save
Once saved, the Gem appears in your Gem manager and is available in the Gemini mobile app and the Gemini sidebar in Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Sheets).
The five premade Gems#
| Gem | Purpose (per official docs / blog) |
|---|---|
| Brainstormer | ”Inspire and spark creativity… brainstorm ideas for all sorts of things: gifts, party themes, story ideas, weekend activities” |
| Coding partner | ”Help me with tasks like writing code, fixing code, and understanding code” |
| Writing editor | ”Assist me in editing my writing… line-by-line edits and feedback on grammar, spelling, tense consistency, dialect, style, and structure” |
| Career guide | Coaching for job interviews, career decisions |
| Learning coach | General learning support — though the docs note it “doesn’t currently support language learning” |
Some premade Gems can be copied as a starting point for a custom Gem (look for the Make a copy option). Others can’t be copied — Google doesn’t always say which.
Tier matrix — what’s available where (mid-2026)#
The Gemini plan names changed: “Gemini Advanced” was rebranded to Google AI Pro. Current tiers:
| Feature | Basic (Free) | Google AI Plus | Google AI Pro | Google AI Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premade Gems | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom Gems (create) | ✅* | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Gems with knowledge files | ✅ (file limits apply) | ✅ | ✅ higher limits | ✅ highest limits |
| Model in Gems | Fast (Gemini 3 Flash) | Fast + Thinking (90/day) | Fast + Thinking (300/day) + Pro (100/day) | All models, Ultra limits |
| Context window in chats | 32K | 128K | 1M | 1M |
| Deep Research in Gems | 5 reports / month | 12 / day | 20 / day | 120 / day |
| Canvas | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Image gen (Nano Banana 2) | 20 / day | 50 / day | 100 / day | 1,000 / day |
| Video gen in chats | ❌ | 2 / day (Veo 3.1 Lite) | 3 / day (Veo 3.1 Lite) | 5 / day (Veo 3.1 Pro) |
| Screen automation (computer use) | — | 5 / day | 12 / day | 20 / day |
| Scheduled actions | — | Up to 10 active | Up to 10 active | — |
| Agent (Ultra-only multi-step task runner) | — | — | — | 200 req/day, 3 concurrent tasks |
*Custom Gems are described as “generally available to most users” in current docs. The Sept 2024 launch was paid-tier only — that gate has dropped, but verify against your account before assuming.
What Gems can use#
Gems inherit Gemini’s connected tools at your plan tier:
- Google Search
- Google Maps
- Deep Research (multi-step web research; tier limits apply)
- Canvas (collaborative editor)
- Image generation (Nano Banana 2)
- Workspace integration — Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar (when signed in to your Google account)
What Gems cannot do:
- Custom Actions / API calls — there’s no equivalent of Custom GPT Actions where you wire your Gem to a REST API. For programmatic tool use, look at function calling in the Gemini API or ADK in Vertex AI Agents instead.
- Be used with Gemini Live — the live voice mode doesn’t apply your Gem’s instructions. (This is documented limitation.)
How Gems compare to OpenAI Custom GPTs#
| Dimension | Google Gems | OpenAI Custom GPTs |
|---|---|---|
| Host product | Gemini app (gemini.google.com) | ChatGPT (chatgpt.com) |
| Free tier | ✅ Available to signed-in users | ✅ Available (limited) |
| Premium for creation | Mostly no anymore | Plus / Team / Enterprise needed for creation |
| Instructions | Structured (Persona / Task / Context / Format) + Magic Wand expansion | Free-text instructions |
| Knowledge files | ✅ (limit not explicitly published) | ✅ Up to 20 files, 512 MB each |
| Tools available | Google Search, Maps, Deep Research, Canvas, Workspace integration, image gen | Web search, image gen (DALL·E), code interpreter, Custom Actions (REST APIs) |
| Custom Actions / APIs | ❌ Not available | ✅ Yes (OpenAPI-based) |
| Public marketplace | ❌ No public store | ✅ GPT Store |
| Sharing | ✅ Private link (recipient must interact to add) | ✅ Public or link |
| Workspace integration | ✅ Appears in Gmail, Docs sidebar | ❌ |
| Use with voice mode | ❌ Cannot use with Gemini Live | ✅ Custom GPTs work with voice mode |
| Privacy on conversations | May be used to improve Google AI (opt-out via Gemini Apps Activity) | Paid: not used for training; Free: may be used |
| Org-level shared Gems / GPTs | ✅ Workspace plans | ✅ Team / Enterprise GPTs |
The closest equivalent comparison: Gems are simpler and more integrated into Workspace; Custom GPTs expose more builder controls (especially Actions and marketplace distribution). If you live in Google Workspace, Gems land in your existing tools. If you want to wire a chat agent to your CRM via a REST API, Custom GPTs (with Actions) is the path.
Sharing a Gem#
Click Share → get a link. The recipient receives the link; the Gem is not auto-added to their Gem manager until they interact with it. Manage your shared Gems at gemini.google.com/sharing.
There is no public marketplace for Gems — Google has not (as of mid-2026) shipped a “Gem Store” equivalent. Sharing is one-to-one or one-to-team via link.
Privacy — what’s collected#
From Google’s Gemini Apps Privacy Hub (last updated March 2026):
- Collected: Names and custom instructions of your Gems, plus all conversation content
- Used for: Standard Google purposes including “maintain and improve our services” and “develop new services” — extending to “generative AI models and other machine-learning technologies”
- Human review: Some data is reviewed by humans
- Retention: Reviewed data is retained for up to 3 years even after you delete your Gemini Apps Activity
This is materially different from NotebookLM Enterprise (which has stronger no-training, no-review guarantees inside a GCP project). Gems live in the consumer Gemini app and are governed by Gemini Apps privacy.
You can opt out of training via Gemini Apps Activity settings — but human review of feedback may still apply.
Honest take#
For Workspace-heavy users, Gems are useful — the Gem appears in the Gemini sidebar inside Gmail, Docs, and Sheets, so a “summarise client emails into action items” Gem becomes one click away inside Gmail. That cross-app integration is the standout vs Custom GPTs.
The trade-offs are real:
- No Custom Actions is a meaningful limitation if your dream is a Gem that hits your CRM, your project tracker, or your internal API
- No public marketplace means there’s no community-built catalogue of Gems to discover (compared to OpenAI’s GPT Store)
- Privacy on the consumer tier is weaker than the Workspace / Cloud Enterprise tiers of NotebookLM
- Gems can’t be used with Gemini Live — surprising and undocumented unless you go looking
The closest equivalent comparison: Gems are simpler and more integrated into Workspace; Custom GPTs expose more builder controls (especially Actions and marketplace distribution). If you live in Google Workspace, Gems land in your existing tools. If you want to wire a chat agent to your CRM via a REST API, Custom GPTs (with Actions) is the path.
For Sush specifically: a “Plain English explainer” Gem with the Brainstormer-shape instructions and a knowledge file of his own writing samples is the obvious first experiment to try.
What’s next#
- §GEM.1 — you’re here
- §NLM.1 NotebookLM — for source-grounded research instead of persona-shaped chat
- §GAPI.1 Gemini API — for the programmatic equivalent (function calling, system instructions in code)
- Custom GPTs comparison — the OpenAI side of the comparison