High demand leads Google to cap Gemini 3 Pro and Nano Banana Pro usage

What you need to know

• Gemini 3 Pro and Nano Banana Pro limits are reduced without an official announcement from Google.
• High demand for Gemini 3 Pro causes Google to restrict free access and promote paid upgrades.
• Free users now face instability in access, impacting those relying on tools for daily work.

Google has stealthily slashed access limits for its popular Gemini 3 Pro and Nano Banana Pro tools, adjusting free-tier users' daily prompts amid soaring demand, leaving many to navigate new restrictions without prior warning in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Since its debut, Gemini 3 Pro used to let you make five prompts a day, but now Google only promises “basic access,” meaning the limits can change based on demand. Nano Banana Pro also cut the number of free image creations from three to two per day. Google didn’t make a big announcement about these changes; they just showed up on the updated support page, first noticed by 9to5Google.

More people are using Gemini 3 Pro than Google probably expected. The model offers better reasoning, more features, and clearer visuals thanks to Nano Banana Pro’s improved rendering engine.

This high demand puts a lot of strain on Google’s servers, especially since access is free. To avoid problems, Google is quietly reducing free access so the platform keeps working well for everyone.

The move also nudges heavier users — people who rely on Gemini for research, writing, or content creation — toward paid upgrades like Google's $20/month AI Pro Plan if they want stable performance and consistent access to the top-tier model.

Forced downgrade

Under these new limits, free users aren’t locked out entirely, but hitting the cap now pushes them back to Google’s Fast model.

NotebookLM is also running into some capacity issues, as per Google's post on X, so a few of its smarter tools are getting dialed back for now. Free users can’t access Infographics or Slide Decks at the moment, and even Pro subscribers are seeing new limits to help keep the service stable for everyone.

For casual users, these new limits might not be a problem. If you only ask a question or two each day, you may never reach the cap. But people who use Gemini 3 Pro for daily work will notice the restrictions right away.

The situation is even more frustrating because there’s no clear indicator of how many prompts remain — the system simply switches models when it decides you’ve had enough for the day.