What is Google Gemini? Models and app, explained

In plain words

Gemini is one name for two things. First, it is a family of large language models built by Google DeepMind, Google's main AI lab. Second, it is the app where you chat with those models, on the web and on phones.

The app began in March 2023 under the name Bard. In February 2024 Google renamed it Gemini, to match the models inside. In 2026 Google began replacing the older Google Assistant with Gemini on Android phones.

The same models also work behind the scenes in other Google products, such as Search and the Workspace apps. Gemini is multimodal: it was built to handle text, images, audio and video together. Each generation comes as a top model plus faster, cheaper ones for everyday use; the box above shows the newest.

Everyday example

One kitchen, many counters

A big restaurant group has one central kitchen. Its food reaches a dine-in hall, a delivery app and a counter inside a cinema. Customers see different counters, but the cooking happens in one place. Gemini is that kitchen. The Gemini app, Search, Android and Gmail-style work tools are the counters where people receive what it makes.

Where the example breaks: A kitchen sends the same dish everywhere. Google tunes and sizes the Gemini models differently for each product, so the Gemini in a phone feature may be a smaller model than the one in the app.

Latestas of October 2026

Newest top model: Gemini 4 Argon, generally available 13 October 2026; in the Gemini app it launched for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers
Everyday model: Gemini 3.8 Flash, generally available 2 September 2026
On phones: Gemini replaced Google Assistant on Android phones from 4 September 2026; Assistant continues in cars with Google built in
Related rename: Google's research notebook app NotebookLM became Gemini Notebook on 16 July 2026

These details change often. The rest of this page explains what it is, which stays true.

How it actually works

Gemini models follow the same broad recipe as other large language models, with a few choices of their own.

Built to be multimodal from the start

Google trained Gemini on text together with images, audio and video, rather than adding vision later. That is why it can describe a photo, read a chart or follow a video. See multimodal AI and vision language models.

Sizes for different jobs

Each generation comes in tiers. Pro and newer frontier models are the most capable, Flash models are fast and cheap, Flash-Lite is lighter still, and small Nano versions are designed to run on phones. See on-device AI.

Long memory for one conversation

Gemini models are known for very large context windows: some can take in around a million tokens at once, enough for long books or hours of transcripts.

Trained on Google's own chips

Google trains and runs Gemini mostly on its own TPUs, chips designed for AI work, inside Google data centres.

Made by

Google DeepMind, part of Google

App history

Launched as Bard on 21 March 2023, renamed Gemini on 8 February 2024

Models first announced

6 December 2023

Model tiers

Pro and newer top models, Flash, Flash-Lite and on-device Nano

Google also publishes Gemma, a separate family of smaller open-weight models that anyone can download.

Questions people ask

Is Gemini the same as Bard?

Gemini is what Bard became. Google launched its chatbot as Bard in March 2023 and renamed it Gemini in February 2024, so the app and the models behind it share one name.

Is Gemini the same as ChatGPT?

No. Gemini is made by Google; ChatGPT is made by OpenAI and runs on OpenAI's GPT models. Both are chat apps built on large language models, so they work in similar ways.

Which Gemini model is the newest?

Google releases new Gemini versions every few months, so the current names are in the box above. A new top model may reach paying subscribers first, while faster Flash models handle most everyday requests in the app.

Has Gemini replaced Google Assistant?

On phones, yes. Gemini became an optional replacement in February 2024, and on 4 September 2026 Google began removing Google Assistant from Android phones and Wear OS watches, leaving Gemini in its place. Google said Assistant would keep working in cars with Google built in.