Gemini Alternatives in 2026: Pick by Why You're Leaving

Gemini comes with a condition that ChatGPT and Claude don't attach. For the Gemini app to read your Gmail, Docs or Drive, you have to leave a setting called Keep Activity switched on. With it on, Google uses your chats to train its AI models, and human reviewers read some of them. Google's help page for the connection says it in one line: "Gemini can't connect to Google Workspace when this setting is off."

That condition is the first of three reasons to look for a Gemini alternative. The second started on 9 October, when Google began moving personal accounts without a paid plan to a setting called Auto that sends most prompts to Flash-Lite, its lightest model. The third is ordinary. There's one job, like writing or research you need to check, that another AI does better.

Each reason has a different best answer. This guide takes them one at a time, with the price of each alternative and what you give up by moving. I read Google's Gemini help centre and plan page, and the pricing pages and help articles of OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, Proton and Microsoft, on 7 November 2026.

The Short Answer

Why you're leaving Gemini	Use instead	What it costs	The catch
You want Gmail and Drive read without training on them	Claude	Free, or Pro at $20, $17 a month yearly	Your chats train its models unless you opt out
The same, with OpenAI's models	ChatGPT	Free, Go $6, Plus $20	The same opt-out, and Go may include ads
You want nothing logged at all	Lumo by Proton	Free, or Plus at $12.99, $9.99 a month yearly	Open-source models only, and no Gmail
The free plan now mostly answers with Flash-Lite	Claude's or ChatGPT's free plan	$0	ChatGPT's instant window is 27K tokens, Claude's free plan has caps
Research with sources you can open	Perplexity	Free, or Pro at $17 a month billed annually	Trains on your searches unless you opt out
AI inside Google Docs and Sheets without Gemini	Claude for Google Workspace	Claude Pro, $20 or $17 a month yearly	Beta, and it covers Docs, Sheets and Slides, not Gmail
AI inside Word and Outlook instead	Microsoft 365 Personal	$9.99 a month, or $99.99 a year	You're changing office apps, not just your AI
Images and video	Stay with Gemini	Free for images, AI Plus $4.99 for video	On Flash-Lite, images come from the lighter Nano Banana 2 Lite

Why Gemini Is Hard to Leave

Gemini's real advantage isn't the model. It's where Google puts it. Google AI Plus at $4.99 a month adds "Gemini in Gmail, Vids, and more," and AI Pro at $19.99 adds Docs. None of the alternatives below is built into Gmail the way Gemini is.

So a Gemini alternative usually means one of two things. Either an AI that reaches into your Google account from the outside, through a connector, or a move away from Google's apps altogether. Most people want the first, and that's where the choices differ most.

One practical point before you cancel a paid plan. Google sells AI and storage together. AI Pro includes 5 TB across Gmail, Drive and Photos and AI Plus includes 400 GB, while a free Google account has 15 GB. If your files have grown into the space, check how much you store before the plan lapses.

If You're Leaving Over What Google Does With Your Chats

Here is what Keep Activity does, in Google's own words. If you're 18 or over, it's on by default. With it on, "Google uses your activity to provide, develop, and improve its services (including training generative AI models)" with the help of human reviewers. Chats a reviewer has seen "are not deleted when you delete your activity. Instead, they are retained for up to three years." Your activity auto-deletes after 18 months unless you change that.

Switch it off and the deal changes. Google keeps new chats for 72 hours, in its words "so Gemini can respond to you, process your feedback, and protect Google, its users, and the public," and doesn't use them to train its models unless you send feedback. But "Some Connected Apps are unavailable when this setting is off," and the Google Workspace connection is one of them. Google's privacy notice also says it uses info from Connected Apps "to provide and improve Gemini Apps."

With a personal account, the Gemini app makes you choose between your inbox and your privacy. The rivals don't.

Personal account	Reads Gmail and Google Drive	Trains on what it reads there	Trains on your chats
Gemini app	Only with Keep Activity on	Uses it to improve Gemini Apps	Yes with Keep Activity on, the default
ChatGPT	Yes, Gmail, Calendar and Drive	Not the raw data, see below	Yes, unless you opt out
Claude	Yes, on every plan including Free	Not the raw data, see below	Yes, unless you opt out
Lumo by Proton	No, it works with Proton Drive	Not applicable	Never

Claude is the swap I'd make. Its Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive connectors "are available for all users," the free plan included. Claude can search and read your email, draft replies, and send or forward them, and by default it asks for your approval before each send. Anthropic's help page says "We do not train our models on your Gmail, Drive, or Calendar connector data." Your chats are another matter. Anthropic's plan table marks model training "Opt-out" on every personal plan, as OpenAI's does, and with training on, anything from your mail that you paste in or that Claude quotes in a reply can be used. Switch it off in Claude's privacy settings and that stops, except for chats flagged for a safety review. Incognito chats are never used. The free plan includes Sonnet and Haiku, web search and memory. Pro is $20 a month, or $17 a month on a yearly plan paid $200 up front.

ChatGPT reaches the same three Google apps. OpenAI's Google data FAQ says "We do not train our generalized models on data directly from connected Google apps," and that this holds even if "Improve the model for everyone" is on. There are exceptions. A conversation you send as feedback, anything you paste in yourself, and anything quoted in ChatGPT's reply can be used. The chats themselves train OpenAI's models too, since its plan table marks "Content is used to train our models" on every plan, with an opt-out. Switch "Improve the model for everyone" off and OpenAI says app data "will not be used to improve our models even if it appears as part of your ChatGPT conversations." Your Gmail stays connected, because app permissions are a separate setting.

Lumo is Proton's assistant and goes furthest on privacy. Proton says Lumo keeps no server-side logs, never uses your chats, files or prompts for training, and protects saved chat history with zero-access encryption, so not even Proton can read it. It's built and hosted in Europe. The trade is reach and model choice. Lumo works with files you add from Proton Drive, not Gmail, and Proton says it uses only open-source models. The free plan has limited messages and image generations. Lumo Plus is $12.99 a month, or $9.99 a month billed at $119.88 a year.

If you use Gemini through work, this may not apply to you. On a paid Google Workspace business account, Google's Workspace privacy hub says your content "is not human reviewed or otherwise used for Generative AI model training outside your domain without permission." The Keep Activity trade-off is a personal-account problem. A small business already paying for Workspace may have less reason to leave than it thinks. The small-business comparison goes through Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude across Gmail, Drive and Notion.

If You're Leaving Because the Free Plan Got Worse

Google's notice of the change reads: "Auto will be the default setting for users without a Google AI plan... Most prompts will go to Flash-Lite, our fastest model. Prompts that need deeper reasoning may go to Flash or Pro." Turn smart model selection off and Flash-Lite writes every answer. The free plan card on Google's plan page now says "Access to our Flash-Lite model."

The window shrank with it. Google's limits page gives the free plan a 32K-token context window, against 128K on AI Plus and 1 million on AI Pro, which Google says is "up to 1,500 pages of text." I went through the rest of what Google holds back in Is Gemini free?.

Here's what the other free plans run instead.

Free plan	What answers you	Context window	Limits
Gemini	Auto, mostly Flash-Lite	32K tokens	Compute-based, refreshing every 5 hours up to a weekly cap
ChatGPT	GPT-6 Luna	27K for instant answers	Unlimited everyday text chats, subject to abuse guardrails
Claude	Sonnet and Haiku	Up to 1M, varies by model	Limited every 5 hours and every week
DeepSeek	The whole app, which has no paid plan	Not published	No published number

Claude's free plan is the strongest swap on paper, because it includes Sonnet, a step up from Anthropic's lightest model, Haiku. ChatGPT's is the most generous on volume, though the window is smaller than Gemini's. DeepSeek costs nothing at all, but its privacy policy says "we directly collect, process and store your Personal Data in People's Republic of China," which rules it out if privacy is why you left Google. Is DeepSeek safe? explains the difference between DeepSeek's app and its open models.

If what you miss is Gemini as it was, the cheapest fix is Google's own. AI Plus at $4.99 a month gives you "Access to our Flash model," twice the free plan's usage and the 128K window. Every Google plan and what it costs is in the Gemini price guide.

If Another AI Does Your Main Job Better

Writing: Claude

For drafting and editing in your own voice, Claude is where I'd go, and its free plan is enough to find out. If you've spent months teaching Gemini how you write, Anthropic has a page called Import Memory for exactly this. You paste a prompt it gives you into your old assistant, then paste the result into Claude's memory settings. The Claude vs Gemini comparison runs the two against the same tasks.

Research You Can Check: Perplexity

Gemini's Deep Research is on its free plan, which is generous. But if you want every claim tied to a source you can open, Perplexity is built for that, with inline citations in every answer. Pro is $17 a month billed annually, and lets you pick between models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI and others. Max is $167 a month billed annually. Note the default. Perplexity's FAQ says "By default, searches may be used to improve our AI," with an opt-out in Account Settings.

Working Inside Docs and Sheets

This is the job Gemini is hardest to replace on, because Google built it in. Gemini in Docs starts at AI Pro, $19.99 a month. Two outside options now come close.

Claude for Google Workspace is a beta add-on that puts a Claude sidebar in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. Claude reads the file you have open and edits it in place, and every change shows up in version history. It needs Claude Pro or above, so $20 a month, or $17 on a yearly plan. It doesn't cover Gmail. For email you'd use the Gmail connector in Claude's own app, which can also open a Google Doc, Sheet or Slides file in a pane beside the chat and edit it live, on the web and in Claude Desktop.

ChatGPT has extensions for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Google Sheets. OpenAI's plan table marks them Limited on Free and Go, and included on Plus at $20.

If you're willing to move your office apps too, Microsoft 365 Personal is $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year and puts Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Family is $12.99 a month, but Microsoft says the AI features are only for the subscription owner. Copilot vs ChatGPT covers what that Copilot does.

Images and Video: Probably Keep Gemini

This is one job I wouldn't move. Gemini's free plan includes image generation and editing, and video starts on AI Plus at $4.99. The catch on the free plan is the model. When the model is set to Flash-Lite, Google says it makes images with Nano Banana 2 Lite, which "isn't designed for multiple image references or for multiple edits," and free downloads are 1K rather than 2K. The Nano Banana price guide has the detail, and Veo vs Kling vs Seedance prices the video models per second.

Before You Switch

A few things are easier to do while you still have the account set up.

1. Download your chats. Go to takeout.google.com and select Deselect all. Tick My Activity, open its options, deselect everything again and tick Gemini Apps. Tick Gemini as well if you want your Gems. If you pick email delivery, Google sends a link that works for 7 days. Downloading doesn't delete anything.
2. Delete what you want gone. You do that in Gemini Apps Activity, at myactivity.google.com/product/gemini. Chats a reviewer has already seen stay with Google for up to three years whatever you delete.
3. Check your storage if you're cancelling AI Plus or AI Pro, as above.
4. Bring your context with you. Claude's Import Memory takes a summary from any other assistant. With any other AI, a few paragraphs about how you work, pasted into its custom instructions, do most of the job.

Which One to Pick

A freelancer who runs everything from Gmail. Claude's free plan with the Gmail connector. It reads, drafts and sends with your approval. Anthropic doesn't train on the raw mail, and if you switch model training off, it doesn't train on your chats about it either. Upgrade to Pro only if you hit the 5-hour limit often.

A consultant who writes proposals in Google Docs. Claude Pro with Claude for Google Workspace, at $20 a month or $200 a year. Google AI Pro costs about the same, $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year, and also gives you 5 TB of storage. If you need the storage, Gemini may still be the better buy.

A small business on paid Google Workspace. Look before you leave. Google doesn't train on Workspace business content outside your domain, so the main privacy reason doesn't apply. You might still add a second AI for writing.

Someone who wants nothing logged. Lumo. You'll give up Gmail, and closed models like GPT, Claude and Gemini.

A student or anyone on no budget. ChatGPT's or Claude's free plan for chat and writing, and Gemini's free plan for images.

Where izzedo Fits

If what you liked about Gemini was the model and what you didn't like was the app, izzedo chat gives you the Gemini models without the Gemini app. They sit in the same picker as Claude, GPT, Grok, DeepSeek and Kimi, and you can switch model in the middle of a thread. The new model reads the whole thread above it.

The free plan has Gemini 3.8 Flash, which you choose in the picker, and every answer is labelled with the model that wrote it. Claude Haiku, GPT-6 Luna, Grok 4.7 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash are on the free plan too. The $6 Hobby plan adds Gemini 3.1 Pro and Gemini 4 Argon, along with Claude Sonnet and Opus, GPT-6.1 Sol and every other chat model. Each plan has a usage allowance, listed on the pricing page.

izzedo reaches Gemini through Google's paid API. Google's terms for it say "Google doesn't use your prompts... or responses to improve our products," and its abuse-monitoring page says it keeps them for 55 days to catch misuse. There's no Keep Activity setting to trade against your inbox.

It also connects to Gmail, Google Drive and more than 1,400 apps in all, on every plan, the free one included. Sign-in and tool calls pass through Composio, and the connect screen says so. By default izzedo asks before every tool call, reads included.

Here's a thread with two free-plan models. I asked Gemini 3.8 Flash to price a rush job for a freelance translator, then switched to Claude Haiku 5.5 and asked it for the client reply. Haiku took the $897 and $780 figures from Gemini's answer without my pasting anything, though it ran one sentence over the four I asked for.

If you've never asked two models the same question, this is how it works in practice.

The Bottom Line

Gemini is a good assistant tied to a condition. On a personal account, the Gemini app reads your Gmail only if Google can train on your chats and a reviewer can read some of them. Claude and ChatGPT both read Gmail and Drive without training on the raw data, and with model training switched off, on none of it. Claude does it on its free plan. Lumo goes further and logs nothing, at the cost of Gmail and the closed models.

If the 9 October change is your reason, Claude's free plan includes Sonnet where free Gemini now mostly answers with Google's lightest model, and Google's own AI Plus at $4.99 brings Flash back. If it's one job, move that job. Writing to Claude, research to Perplexity, and keep Gemini for images.

Google changed Gemini's limits in May and its free plan in October, and its Gemini privacy hub was last updated on 26 October. Check the date on anything you read about Gemini, this post included.

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Want Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT in one thread, without the Gemini app? Try izzedo chat free, no credit card required.