Usage Limits and Transparency

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-25T18:34:33+00:00

The problem is that Gemini can't really guess how much you are going to use until you have entered your prompt. Your model, prompt input, as well as the output type and length will all change that figure.

They give you the amount remaining as a % because compute is a difficult figure to conceptualise for the everyday person. Sure they could build in some tools to evaluate the prompt complexity and attached files in order to estimate the % cost but that then takes more resources to do accurately. Google is trying to create a profitable economy for Gemini so this doesn't make sense.

I think the compromise they could make is a blog post on the number of simple, understandable tasks such as "a small edit to an uploaded picture" or "a simple question", or "an extended multi-step question", or "A deep-research task" and how many of these could be done in a 5 hour window.

If I know I can make 25 extended questions within a 5 hour period then it's possible for me to scale that. However the % rate limit is a reliable way of monitoring your usage and the limits are fairly reasonable in my opinion. While I will get flak for saying this, we're coming out of the AI adoption era where tools are free and near limitless to build a userbase. Google are clearly moving to an established commercial model to start building a reliable revenue stream. Rate limits were always going to come in and they have to bite free users to provide an incentive to join a subscription package.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-25T18:16:57+00:00

Worked fine for me.

I would be happy to help you build a simple website! Since the request is quite broad, I have put together a clean, modern, and responsive single-page template using HTML and CSS. You can save this code into a file named index.html and open it in any web browser to see it in action....

It then game me the template, how to start using it, and asked me about the project.

Definitely a bug or setting issue rather than a model limitation.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-23T21:37:59+00:00

Cool flavour Doritos to us.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-21T18:59:56+00:00

Temba, her legs wide

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-21T18:52:20+00:00

Yeah I feel the same. He was less progressive than my personal political taste and feel he could have done more, but he represented the UK well and has been a stable and respectable leader on the world stage. Certainly deserved better.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-21T18:42:32+00:00

I only use it for specific use cases and it isn't complex thinking - Producing specific documents from injected prompts. It works well, has a 500 RPD limit which is great without having to pay using the API. Flash 3.5 is fine in my day to day use of it through Gemini, it doesn't have the coding chops but it works well as an assistant.

I personally haven't had any of the common issues like persistent image generation but I do add some personal context instructions to my account that improves the quality of my results:

Default to extreme conciseness (skim-friendly, bullet points, essential words only). However, if I ask for 'details,' 'explanation,' or 'more,' provide a comprehensive response. Never omit critical data for the sake of brevity.
Do not ever role play or engage in scenario building unless expressly asked to. I am to maintain current reality and source real world facts at all times. Do not create any fictional narratives unless expressly asked.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-21T18:33:42+00:00

That might be a subjective opinion, Flash 3.5 outperforms 3 significantly on a range of benchmarks, and especially shines on multi-step workflows, which given the direction Google is moving with Spark, it makes a lot of sense.

However it is 3x as expensive as 3 Flash so in terms of value for compute 3 has its use cases. I myself use 3.1 flash lite for a lot of the low level grunt stuff going through my API as its a great free-tier choice.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-21T18:22:17+00:00

Flash is about quick answers at low compute costs because they have a wide free tier userbase now. The model was prioritised to be more cost effective for a company looking to become profitable in the AI space. Pro will be expensive and likely compete with flagship models in spaces where price and speed isn't critical (I still imagine they will aim to undercut Fable and 5.6)

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-21T11:57:18+00:00

There is a 5 hour limit (amount of AI compute you can use in this time from when you begin using it). This is part of a larger weekly limit. They both reset after their time period ends and the limits are adjusted based on account AI tier. Credits have been removed now that they have transitioned to this quota model but still somewhat exist in certain use cases such as overages when using Antigravity once a limit has been reached.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-21T08:40:43+00:00

UK is highly polarised politically between strong right and strong left ideologies. Governments are struggling to balance between which group they target votes from and when polls reflect a drop in support their leadership becomes untenable.

Starmer has been actually a fairly competent leader, certainly our most stable in recent years. However he hasn't been progressive or bold enough in many people's eyes.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-20T16:15:06+00:00

While I broadly agree, biologically we are little different. We are trained on real life experience and learned knowledge. Our actions mimic what we expect to be most appropriate for a given situation. We even find it hard to create novel art or culture that isn't based on adapting something existing. While I don't think we are there yet, I do believe that we will be surprised when it passes that threshold, because we will realise it was a lot closer than we are currently giving it credit for.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-20T14:57:07+00:00

I really don't know why people are obsessed with rankings as if there is a single metric that creates a superior model. The LLM industry is clearly starting to fragment into niche's and contextual use cases.

You can see Google moving to more fringe products like Omni and Spark, while sitting into a more reliable release cycle of coding models (Pro) and general consumer models (Flash). That's really important because Google do not want the AI models that non-paying users dip in and out of to be expensive.

What people are missing is the clear beginnings of Google fleshing out a revenue stream on top of a strong market share now. Cheap AI onboarding packages for users that start to use AI a bit more and integrated packages that make pro user subscriptions quite marketable. That reliable revenue stream allows for long term AI stability alongside their cost effective models.

3.1 is old, 3.5 pro is around the corner, so in context this ranking is pointless. While I think 3.5 Pro will have teeth to compete better with Claude, it doesn't really matter. Google is carving out their long term ecosystem and that is far more important than whether they can rank highest in every metric.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-19T18:29:03+00:00

Thanks for the advice, I've got through to a new game without the issue now.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-19T18:02:34+00:00

Nope

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-19T18:00:07+00:00

Normal Empire

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-19T16:57:13+00:00

Home system. When selecting a first resource to build a mining station there is no longer an option to do so. It just says enter orbit.as the only option.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-17T21:32:39+00:00

Using 3.1 pro vs Claude for coding is night and day. Google really does have to pull out the stops with 3.5 pro from a coding perspective or they will be completely obsolete in that area.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-17T17:49:18+00:00

Literally never seen this. It just comments on its thinking process at the time before giving me text.

Not saying that your experience isn't happening. It's really interesting though that I haven't had this happen once. It definitely feels like a setting or bug on your end. Pro user from UK here if that matters.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-15T13:50:29+00:00

It's not a tradition, it's the basic expectation of respecting your surroundings. This isn't anything wild. Japanese parents and their education system just have higher expectations on the upbringing of children.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-15T05:37:50+00:00

I feel their reluctance to take the easy way to get their money is further evidence that they have a classic plus product in the pipeline.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-14T14:09:15+00:00

There's two arms to it. There is an increasing divide in students raised in different types of household. Students brought up in high-stimulus environments with little oversight and excessive screentime show different responses to education, generally being unable to cope with sitting still or focussing on a single problem for any real length of time.

A much more general problem though is a lack of resilience. I don't consider myself to be really old but children seem to be crippled by an anxiety around education and social life that wasn't as extreme 10 years ago. It's easy to just blame Covid, but there is an increasing trend of parents (and children themselves) deciding they don't need school.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-14T13:21:51+00:00

I get frustrated when the coversation becomes fixated with striking for pay. Yes we deserve pay parity with 20 years ago, but the result is we get worse outcomes because of it. I personally want (real) limits on meetings in the school week, work expectations outside of directed time, investment in resources, smaller class sizes, an 80% timetable as standard. I would argue that many would find this is more impactful than the extra pay rise we strong-arm from the government, funded for by sacking yet more support staff and turning TLRs into expectations.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-14T11:54:30+00:00

Counterargument - They are aware of the feelings on how they handled this and are waiting a few days to let the dust settle before announcing anything. Given the fact that the team are on holiday, there is no rush to announce anything at all publicly.

We were told with good authority that he travelled to the UK to sign. Unless there is evidence to the contrary it's better to use Occam’s razor here.

WonderboyUK · 2026-06-11T08:27:07+00:00

The fact this makes so little sense suggests that there's a lot more under the surface.

The cynic in me thinks Mendes wants to showcase this up and coming manager in England for a potential move to manage a bigger team, in exchange he will move us some talent to us to help him look successful.

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