🤯 Google's Gemini 3 Pro: 1M Tokens & Thinking AI Is Now FREE

Hey there! Google just released something really big. Their new AI model, Gemini 3 Pro, is out, and after spending some time testing it, it really delivers on the hype. If you are using ChatGPT or Claude for your work, you might want to pay attention to this new player.

In this article, I will share everything I learned after "messing around" with Gemini 3 Pro for many days. I will cover its most unique features, the huge context window, how you can use it for free right now, and the real-life tests I ran (writing, creating calculation tools, analyzing video, and images).

My goal is to help you, whether you are a total beginner or have used AI for a while - understand why Gemini 3 Pro is important and how you can use it to work better today. Let's start!

Part I: What Is Gemini 3 Pro And Why Is It Special?

1. The Basics Of A "Thinking Model"

Gemini 3 Pro is the first model in Google’s Gemini 3 series. They call it a "thinking model." Sounds a bit strange, right?

What it means is that instead of just giving fast answers like most AIs, Gemini 3 Pro takes time to reason logically through a problem. It’s like when you think carefully about a difficult math problem before writing the answer. This helps the answers and products it creates have much higher quality and accuracy.

I have tested many AI models, but what caught my attention right away were the test scores (benchmarks) of Gemini 3 Pro. It beats all other models (like Claude or ChatGPT) by the biggest gap I have ever seen. But frankly, numbers are just numbers. What really matters is how it performs in your real-life work.

2. The 1 Million Token Context Window: A Super Memory

Before we dive into the fun tests, we need to talk about a technical but very important idea: the Context Window.

You can think of the Context Window as the AI's memory during your conversation. When you talk to the AI, it needs to remember what you said before to give a good reply.

• Most AI models today have a context window of around 256,000 tokens (1 token is almost one word). This is already quite good.

• But Gemini 3 Pro has a context window of up to 1 million tokens!

What does this mean for you?

1 million tokens is about four times bigger than the usual size. This means the AI can:

• Remember much longer conversations.

• Understand thicker documents, contracts, or books without "forgetting" the information at the beginning.

• Handle big, complex projects with many steps without you having to repeat everything all the time.

Simply put, it helps you work on large and complicated projects more smoothly.

3. Where You Can Use It (The Best Part: It’s Free!)

Here is the best news. You can start using Gemini 3 Pro right away.

• Access: Just go to the official website: gemini.google.com.

• Default Model: Gemini 3 Pro is already the default model there, and even free users get to use it. You don't need to pay anything to start using its power.

• How to turn on "thinking": To make sure you are using the "thinking model," you should find and turn on this option (it is usually a toggle switch or a selection in the settings). I used this option for all my tests.

For Developers: Google has also put this model into developer platforms like Google AI Studio and Vertex AI. They even launched a separate platform called Google Anti-gravity to compete with other AI app-building tools like Cursor.

Part II: The Real-Life Tests - What Can Gemini 3 Pro Do?

I spent many days challenging Gemini 3 Pro with different tasks, from writing to complex math and creating interactive tools. Here is what I did.

1. Test 1: Building Interactive Tools (Dashboards)

I wanted to see how good it was at creating complex interactive tools and dashboards.

Real-Life Example: Creating A Real Estate Profit Calculator

Instead of creating a visualizer tool like in the video, I chose something more practical: a financial calculator for a rental property.

Prompt:

"Create a mortgage calculator for a multi-unit investment property. The tool needs to calculate based on these variables: purchase price, down payment amount, loan interest rate, monthly rental income per unit, and monthly operating costs. Most importantly, add an interactive slider so I can change the Vacancy Rate from 0% to 30% and see how the Net Operating Income (NOI) changes over 12 months. Finally, add a 'Generate Report' button to summarize the financial analysis based on the current settings."

The result: Impressive!

It created a full dashboard with:

• An interactive Vacancy Rate slider: When I moved this slider (for example, up to 20%), the numbers instantly showed my profit decreasing significantly or even losing money.

• An interest rate calculator: Everything updated in real-time.

• Assumptions: All calculation assumptions were clearly shown on the side.

• Report Feature: When I clicked the "Generate Report" button, it created a detailed financial analysis. Every time I changed the sliders, the report automatically updated with new recommendations and an overall judgment on the investment's feasibility.

Pro Tip: You can share these interactive tools with others without publishing them anywhere. They just live inside the Gemini platform, and you just send the link.

2. Test 2: Writing Skills - Passing Subtle Difficulty

Most people use AI for writing, so I had to test this seriously.

Real-Life Example: Writing SEO-Optimized Content

I wanted to see if it could follow specific, sometimes "picky," requests from professional content writers.

Prompt:

"Write a 700-word blog post that is SEO-optimized for the term 'AI in Marketing'. The post must introduce the latest trends in using AI for customer data analysis. The article must be suitable for non-technical readers. Use Gemini’s web search feature to pull the most current information. Absolutely do not use m-dashes (the long dashes: —), and must end exactly at the 700-word mark."

The result: Very Good, but...

• Writing Quality: The writing style was excellent, natural, easy to read, and truly helpful for someone not familiar with technology terms. It used the web search tool to include current information.

• Rule Following: It did not use m-dashes.

• Word Count Issue: It gave me about 785 words instead of 700. This is common for most AIs: they work based on tokens (small language units) and do not count words exactly 100%.

Lesson Learned: Even though it is not perfect with word count, the quality and ability of Gemini 3 Pro to follow specific style requirements is a huge step forward. This is a crucial factor because Google is putting it into Gmail, Google Docs, meaning it will become the daily writing tool for billions of people.

3. Test 3: Visual Reasoning Ability (Multimodal Reasoning)

This is the area where Gemini 3 Pro is expected to excel: analyzing and reasoning from images and videos (multimodal reasoning).

Real-Life Example: Counting Blocks And Identifying Views

I challenged it with two tricky visual puzzles:

• Puzzle 1: Counting Blocks: I showed it a photo of colored cubes stacked together and asked: "How many cubes are there in this image?"

  • This puzzle stumped almost all old AI models (they usually gave different answers).

  • Gemini 3 Pro: It took about 10 seconds, showed its reasoning process (for example: counting the blocks on the bottom layer, then counting the hidden blocks), and gave the correct answer.

• Puzzle 2: Identifying the View: I showed it multiple images of a pyramid model from different angles with subtle color differences on the sides. I asked: "Which one of the images A, B, C, D is the top view?"

  • Gemini 3 Pro: It also got this one right. It explained its reasoning for how it identified the top view based on the color patterns and positions.

Real-World Meaning: This is not just a fun puzzle. The ability to analyze spatial relationships in images this accurately can be used in architecture, product design, or even medical image analysis.

4. Test 4: Video Analysis Without Sound

One little-known ability is that Gemini can analyze a video you upload, even if the video has no sound or transcript.

Real-Life Example: Analyzing Screen Activity

I uploaded a screen recording of myself working on a software tool (with no sound).

Prompt:

"What is this video about? Describe in detail the main activities I am performing in this video."

Gemini 3 Pro’s analysis was incredible:

• It recognized the small popup notification that appeared at the beginning.

• It picked up my name shown in the interface.

• It described everything displayed on the screen accurately (e.g., "You are changing parameters in a financial calculator tool")

• It even identified the interface of a small dashboard tool I was creating for the demo.

Another Application: I tried uploading a short video clip (created by Google’s Veo AI) of two people playing Pickleball. I asked it to analyze the game and give suggestions. It watched the clip, understood the rules, and gave detailed feedback on what the players were doing well and what needed improvement.

Added Value: You can use this feature to analyze sports footage, review presentation recordings, check security camera clips, or get feedback on video content—all without needing transcripts or audio.

5. Test 5: Building Simple Apps (Games And Tools)

I wanted to see its ability to create small, fun applications.

Real-Life Example: Creating A Video Game

I decided to create a simple game similar to the classic Galaga.

Step 1: Creating the Prompt with AI

Instead of writing it myself, I asked Gemini to write the prompt for me.

Prompt:

"I want to make a classic arcade game like Galaga. Give me a detailed prompt for that game. Do not include any specific technology or programming language."

Step 2: Using the Generated Prompt and the Canvas Tool

I took that prompt and pasted it into a new chat, remembering to turn on the Canvas tool (Pro tip: Always turn on Canvas when you want to create visual, interactive dashboards, tools, or apps).

The result: A Playable Game

It created a working game called "Neon Swarm." I could control my ship with the keyboard, shoot enemies, and the score tracked everything correctly.

Important Note: In complex projects like this, after many back-and-forths with prompts, the tools (dashboards) can sometimes break. When that happens, my experience is that it is often better to start a fresh chat rather than trying to fix everything in one long conversation.

Part III: Things You Need to Know When Using Gemini 3 Pro Daily

After weeks of testing, I have a few key observations about how this model works and the settings you should know about.

1. The Advantage Of The "Thinking Model"

As I mentioned, thinking models (like Gemini 3 Pro or O1 of ChatGPT) often take longer to respond. Sometimes you wait 10-20 seconds for an answer.

At first, this feels annoying. We are used to instant responses from AI. But here is the truth:

• The thinking model always gives better and deeper answers.

• Whether I am writing a YouTube title, creating a newsletter, building a calculator, or solving a complex problem, the thinking model constantly performs much better than instant models.

The extra few seconds of waiting is absolutely worth it for the quality improvement. You will need to get used to it, but once you experience the difference, it is hard to go back to instant models for important tasks.

2. Two Important Settings You Must Turn On Right Away

If you plan to use Gemini regularly, there are two settings in the Settings menu that you should turn on immediately.

a. Personal Context

• How to turn on: Go to Settings → Personal Context.

• What it does: When you turn this on, Gemini will learn from your past conversations. It will understand more about you, your work, and your style.

• The benefit: This means it can give more personalized responses that fit your specific needs (e.g., always write sales emails in a formal tone, or always summarize meetings using a certain structure).

b. Custom Instructions

• How to turn on: Also in the Settings menu.

• What it does: This is where you tell Gemini how you want it to behave all the time.

• Instruction Examples: You can tell it to always:

  • "Write in a friendly, simple, conversational tone, like a chat."

  • "Avoid using complex jargon; explain everything like you are talking to a middle school student."

  • "Remember I run a website design company and always give advice related to website speed optimization."

With Gemini 3 Pro, these instructions work extremely well, much better than they used to in old versions.

3. AI Mode In Google Search: Not Perfect Yet

Google also rolled out Gemini 3 Pro in their AI mode on Google Search. You can access it by going to Google and selecting "AI mode."

I tried comparing it to Google's regular search function:

• Prompt: "Find me a hotel in Da Lat this weekend, priced between 1 million and 1.5 million VND per night."

• Regular Google Search: Perfect results. It showed the map, all hotels in that price range, and the filters were applied correctly.

• AI Mode: The results were often inconsistent. Sometimes it showed a hotel priced at 800,000 VND, but the description said the price starts at 1.8 million.

Conclusion: AI mode still needs time to improve. To be honest, regular Google search is still better for most simple queries right now.

4. Agent Mode: Coming Soon

Google also announced Agent Mode. This is an AI agent that can actually do things on the web for you, not just answer questions.

• Imagine an AI that can automatically book a restaurant reservation, fill out forms, or research products for you.

• Currently, this mode is only for paid users with the Ultra plan. However, this idea is very exciting and will be a huge breakthrough when widely released.

Part IV: How Gemini 3 Pro Fits Into Your Workflow

I usually do not recommend jumping between many different AI tools (using ChatGPT for this, Claude for that). That gets messy and is not efficient. You should pick one main tool that fits your work best.

So, should Gemini 3 Pro be your main tool?

After all this testing, here is my take:

1. Writing

Gemini 3 Pro is excellent for writing.

• The quality of the text on the first prompt is very good.

• Since it is being put into Gmail, Google Docs, and other Google apps, it will be everywhere you already work.

2. Interactive Tools And Dashboards

This is the biggest strength of Gemini 3 Pro.

• If you need calculators, data visualizers, or small interactive apps, Gemini 3 Pro creates them better than anything I have tested.

3. Reasoning And Analysis

The "thinking model" approach makes it great for complex problems that need careful thought.

• From solving logic puzzles in images to analyzing a long contract, it shows superior reasoning ability.

4. Multimodal Analysis (Image & Video Analysis)

Its ability to understand images and videos is impressive and keeps getting better.

5. Comparison to Competitors

• Main Competitors: ChatGPT and Claude.

• ChatGPT has wider use and more third-party integrations.

• Claude is great for coding and has a clean, user-friendly interface.

• Gemini 3 Pro is now a serious contender, especially if you are already using the Google ecosystem.

The 1 million token context window alone is a big enough reason to try it, especially for projects that require processing large documents or very long conversations.

Part V: Practical Tips For Using It

Here are the quick tips I learned during my testing:

1. Always Turn On Canvas (For Interactive Tools)

Tip: Always turn on Canvas when you want to create interactive visual tools or dashboards. This makes sure the output is correctly formatted and functional.

2. Use the "Ask Gemini Features" Button

Tip: After creating a tool or dashboard, look for the "Ask Gemini Features" button. It often suggests creative improvements you might not have thought of (e.g., "Add the ability to compare two business models side-by-side" or "Add a function to generate a PDF report").

3. Start Fresh Chats For Complex Projects

Tip: If you have gone back and forth many times (more than 10 prompts) and the tool or result starts breaking, start a new chat. This is usually faster and more effective than trying to fix the errors in the old chat thread.

4. The Difference Between Two Modes

Tip: Use the thinking mode for important, complex tasks that need high quality. Use the instant mode for quick, simple questions. The difference in quality is huge.

5. Simple Sharing

Tip: Use the built-in sharing feature to send the dashboards you create. You do not need to export or publish them anywhere else.

Part VI: Should You Switch?

The AI world is moving incredibly fast. In a short time, we have seen new models from OpenAI (GPT 5.1), xAI (Grok 4.1), and now Google (Gemini 3 Pro). This competition is great news for us.

• The tools are getting more powerful.

• They are easier to access.

• And in the case of Gemini 3 Pro, it is free for basic users.

My Advice:

If you are happy with ChatGPT or Claude, you do not need to rush to switch. But you should definitely try Gemini 3 Pro, especially for these tasks:

• Creating interactive tools and personalized calculators.

• Analyzing complex images and videos.

• Writing content that needs web search integration for the newest information.

• Working within the Google ecosystem of apps (Gmail, Docs).

• Large projects that need to process long documents, thanks to the 1 million token context window.

My Final Thought:

After days of testing, I am genuinely impressed with Gemini 3 Pro. It is not perfect (it still counts words incorrectly, the AI search mode needs work), but the reasoning ability, multimodal understanding, and quality of outputs are all top-notch.

The best way to know if it works for you is to try it yourself. Go to gemini.google.com, turn on the thinking model, and test it with your real work. See if it helps you get things done faster or better.

Give it a try and tell me what you create!

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