Gemini File Upload Limit for PDFs, Video and Audio

BEBlogs Byte Editorial·Nov 10, 2026·18 min read

Gemini file upload limit by plan: 10 files a prompt, 100 MB a file, 2 GB video, how many pages each plan reads and the API's 1,000-page PDF cap.

Last verified against Google's own help pages and API documentation on 9 November 2026.

You drag a 300-page report into Gemini, the upload bar fills, and Gemini answers your question with total confidence. What nobody tells you is that on a free account, Gemini may have read only the first part of it. The Gemini file upload limit is really two limits stacked on top of each other: how big a file Google lets you attach, and how much of that file the model can actually hold in mind at once.

This guide puts both in one place, with every number traced to Google's own pages. It is the detail we could not pin down when we tested editing a PDF in Gemini, where Google promised the feature to everyone but said nothing about how far a free account stretches. Here are the answers, plan by plan, plus the developer side for anyone sending files through the Gemini API.

What is the Gemini file upload limit?

In the Gemini app, you can attach up to 10 files to one prompt. Each video can be up to 2 GB, and every other supported file, including documents, spreadsheets and images, can be up to 100 MB. If a photo or scan is over that, our free bulk image converter can resize and convert it in your browser first. On top of size, video and audio have length limits that depend on your plan.

Length matters for media. On a free account, the total video length is 5 minutes and the total audio length is 10 minutes. Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra raise those to 1 hour of video and 3 hours of audio.

Archives and code have their own rules. A ZIP file can be up to 100 MB and hold up to 10 files, but it cannot contain video or audio. You can also add one code folder or one GitHub repository to a chat, with up to 5,000 files and 100 MB in total.

Two details on that page are easy to miss. When you upload a folder, every file inside it counts toward the 10-file limit, so a folder of 12 PDFs is already over. And the 10-file figure carries the phrase "subject to availability", which means Google can lower it when demand is high.

How many files can you upload to Gemini at once?

Ten per prompt is the ceiling on every plan. Google does not offer a higher per-prompt number for paid subscribers in its upload help page; what paid plans change is how long your video and audio can be and how much of your files the model can read.

If you have more than ten PDFs about the same subject, one practical way around the count is to combine them into one file first, because Gemini counts files, not pages. Our free merge PDF files tool does this in your browser without uploading anything. Keep the merged file under 100 MB, and remember the reading limit in the next section still applies to the combined page count.

Gemini PDF upload limit, and how many pages Gemini actually reads

Here is the part that changes how you should use Gemini with long documents. In the app, Google gives no page limit for PDFs. The real ceiling is the context window, the amount of text the model can work with at one time, measured in tokens (our explainer covers what a token is), and that window depends on your plan.

Google's limits page lists the context window for each plan:

No AI plan: 32k tokens
Google AI Plus: 128k tokens
Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra: 1 million tokens
Deep Think: a 192 thousand token window

Google also gives one conversion that makes those numbers readable: "with a 1M token context window, Gemini can understand up to 1,500 pages of text or 30,000 lines of code." That works out to roughly 667 tokens per page of text (1,000,000 ÷ 1,500).

Using Google's own ratio, we can work out roughly how many pages of text fit in each window. These page counts are our arithmetic, not limits Google publishes, and a page dense with tables or small print will use more tokens than a page of plain prose.

Without an AI plan, the 32,000-token window holds about 48 pages (32,000 ÷ 667). Google AI Plus, at 128,000 tokens, holds about 192 pages (128,000 ÷ 667). Deep Think's 192,000-token window comes to about 288 pages (192,000 ÷ 667). Google AI Pro and Ultra, with 1,000,000 tokens, reach the full 1,500 pages in Google's own example.

So a free account can accept a 100 MB, 600-page PDF, because the file is under the size limit, yet the model can only work with something like 48 pages of it at a time. Google's page is direct about what happens then: "If you exceed the context window, this could lead to responses that don't take into account all the content provided." The upload succeeds. The answer may quietly leave things out, and it will not warn you, because these models aim for answers that sound right rather than answers checked against every page. Our explainer on why AI makes things up covers that habit in plain words.

The practical takeaway: on a free account, ask about one part of a long document at a time, or upload only the chapter you need. The larger windows on paid plans are what let Gemini take in a whole report or book.

Gemini video and audio upload limits on free and paid plans

Video and audio are limited by length, not only by size. On a free account, the total video length you can upload is 5 minutes and the total audio length is 10 minutes. Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra extend those to 1 hour of video and 3 hours of audio.

Each video file can be up to 2 GB, so file size is rarely the problem. A 20-minute screen recording will usually be well under 2 GB and still be rejected on a free plan, because the length rule comes first. If a video upload keeps failing, check the duration before you check the file size. A one-hour meeting recording is far beyond the free plan's 10 minutes of audio, so for meetings a separate tool may fit better, such as Google's AI Edge Foresight note taker, which processes audio on your own computer without a meeting bot.

Google's upload page does not list separate video or audio lengths for Google AI Plus. It names only Pro and Ultra as the plans that extend them, so we would not assume Plus raises them until Google says so.

Is there a Gemini upload limit per day?

There is a time-based limit, but Google does not publish a daily number for file uploads. Its help page says: "There are rolling limits for how much you can upload and analyze files in a period of time." It gives no figure for that period or that amount.

What Google does publish is how overall usage works. Gemini Apps have "compute-based usage limits", and Google says they "factor in the complexity of your prompt, the models and features you use, and the length of your chat." Then: "Your limit refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit." Google lists analyzing large files as a "Medium" usage cost, with "Analyze this 100-page PDF financial report" as its example. In plain terms, long files use up your allowance faster than short questions do. The five-hour cycle is not unique to Google either: Claude's free plan also resets every five hours and every week, as we noted in our roundup of AI tools that save hours.

The same is true for images. People search for a daily image upload limit, but Google's upload page has none. Images fall under the general rules: up to 10 files per prompt and up to 100 MB each, inside the same rolling limits. If you have more than ten photos or scanned pages, an image to PDF converter can turn them into one file, which counts as one of your ten.

Do Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra raise the upload limit?

They raise some limits and not others. The per-prompt file count and the per-file sizes are the same on Google's upload page whatever you pay. What changes is usage, reading room and media length.

Without an AI plan, you get what Google calls "Standard limits", a 32k-token context window, 5 minutes of video and 10 minutes of audio.

Google AI Plus gives usage "2x higher than standard limits" and a 128k-token window. Google's upload page does not list separate video and audio lengths for Plus.

Google AI Pro gives usage "4x higher than standard limits", a 1 million token window, 1 hour of video and 3 hours of audio.

Google AI Ultra gives usage "5x or 20x higher than AI Pro limits depending on your subscription", with the same 1 million token window and the same 1 hour of video and 3 hours of audio as Pro.

If you mainly work with long PDFs, such as the reports and papers behind many real world applications of AI, the context window is the number that matters most, and the jump from 32k to 128k tokens is the biggest practical change for a reader on a budget. Google also warns that "Limits may change without notice, including due to capacity constraints", which is why this page carries a verification date at the top.

Gemini Gems and skills file limits

If you use Gems, the custom versions of Gemini with their own instructions and files, a change is already under way. Google says Gems are being replaced by skills for personal Google Accounts. For adult personal accounts, Gems become read-only on November 17, 2026 and are removed from Gemini Apps on December 17, 2026. Workspace business and enterprise accounts follow in March 2027, and education accounts in June 2027.

The file rules for skills are stricter than the chat rules above:

"Skills have a 100 MB total size limit for files." That is 100 MB for all of a skill's files together, not per file. When a Gem moves over and is too big, Google removes its largest files first until it fits.
Skills do not support GitHub files, audio, video, older Office formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt) or archives such as .zip, .tar, .7z, .rar, .gz and .tgz.
You can create as many skills as you want, but only 100 can be active at once.

If a Gem of yours holds a long video, an old .doc file or a ZIP of reference material, those files will not carry over. Save them somewhere else before November 17. Saved instructions plus reference files are not unique to Gemini: developers keep similar standing instructions for coding assistants in rules files, which our CLAUDE.md generator helps write.

That leaves personal accounts about a month between read-only and removal. Developers went through a similar countdown this autumn, when Deno Deploy was given six months to close after the Deno team joined Cloudflare, a story we covered in is Deno dead, and the open question of its exact closing date in Deno Deploy shutdown date. When a company changes a tool you rely on, the export window is the part to watch.

Gemini API file limits for developers

The API has its own rules, and they are more precise than the app's. Google's document guide says: "Gemini supports PDF files up to 50MB or 1000 pages." That limit applies whether you send the PDF inline with your request or upload it first through the Files API.

The Files API itself has a "per-file maximum size of 2 GB" for other media and lets you "store up to 20 GB of files per project". Uploaded files are kept for 48 hours, and Google says the Files API is "available at no cost". The 2 GB figure does not lift the PDF cap; a 60 MB PDF is still over the 50 MB PDF limit.

Google also states how a PDF is counted: "Each document page is equivalent to 258 tokens." That is the number you need to estimate cost, and it is a different measure from the app's pages-of-text ratio above, so use each figure only for its own product.

What one long PDF costs on the Gemini API

A full 1,000-page PDF comes to 258,000 input tokens (1,000 × 258). Here is what that costs as input for a single request on Google's standard paid tier (the dates behind these prices are in our Gemini API pricing changes report), using the prices on Google's pricing page on 9 November 2026. Output tokens and your own question are extra.

On Gemini 3.8 Flash, the standard input price is $0.75 per million tokens until December 31, 2026, so the PDF costs about $0.19 (258,000 × 0.75 ÷ 1,000,000). From January 1, 2027, the price becomes $1.50, and the same PDF costs about $0.39.

On Gemini 4 Argon, the input price is $2.00 per million tokens until November 30, 2026, which puts the PDF at about $0.52. From December 1, 2026, the price becomes $4.00, and the PDF costs about $1.03.

Two things stand out. First, the same document costs twice as much on both models within the next eight weeks, the change we covered in detail in the Gemini API price increase. Second, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview charges a higher rate once a prompt goes over 200,000 tokens ($4.00 instead of $2.00 per million input tokens). At 258 tokens a page, that line falls at about 775 pages (200,000 ÷ 258). A 760-page PDF stays on the lower rate; an 800-page one does not.

Price is only one part of picking a model. If you are still choosing, our comparison of Gemini 4 Argon vs GPT-6 and Muse Spark Open looks at what each one is built for.

To price your own workload, with your real page counts and request volume, our AI API cost calculator compares Claude, GPT and Gemini side by side and already knows about the December and January price dates.

Why can't I upload files to Gemini?

Most failed uploads trace back to one of the published limits. Check them in this order:

More than 10 files. Remember that each file inside a folder counts on its own. You can combine PDFs into one file before uploading.
A file over 100 MB, or a video over 2 GB.
Video or audio too long for your plan. 5 minutes of video or 10 minutes of audio on a free account, in total.
A ZIP that breaks the rules. Over 100 MB, more than 10 files inside, or video or audio inside it.
A code folder that is too large. Over 5,000 files or 100 MB.
Rolling limits. If you have analyzed a lot of files recently, you may have hit the time-based limit. Google says usage refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit.
Saved activity storage. Google says Gemini Apps have a storage limit for data saved from previous activity, separate from your Google Drive storage. It does not publish how large that limit is.

If a file uploads but the answer seems to ignore half of it, that is not an upload failure. It is the context window from earlier in this guide.

What happens to the files you upload to Gemini

Read this part before you attach a bank statement or a contract. According to Google's Gemini Apps Privacy Hub:

With Gemini Apps Activity on, "Your activity is auto-deleted after 18 months." You can change that to 3 or 36 months, or turn auto-delete off.
With activity off, chats are still kept for 72 hours.
Some chats are reviewed by people to improve Google's services. "Reviewed chats are retained for up to three years", and they are not deleted when you delete your activity.
For images you add to a prompt, Google says it "uses this information just like any other prompt."

Gemini Notebook, the product many people still know as NotebookLM, is handled differently: Google says files added as notebook sources "are not used directly for training our generative AI models." Its limits are also different, at 500,000 words per source and up to 200 MB for a local upload, with no page limit. If your work is mostly reading your own documents, our comparison of NotebookLM vs ChatGPT for studying and research explains when a source-grounded notebook is the better fit.

For anything sensitive, the safest habit is the one we suggested in our Gemini PDF test: try features with a harmless sample file first. How public websites, rather than individual users, opt out of AI training is a separate topic, covered in our robots.txt AI training opt-out report.

What we could not confirm

Being clear about the gaps is part of giving a straight answer:

No daily upload number. Google confirms rolling limits but does not say how many files or how much data they allow.
No daily image limit for uploads. Nothing on Google's upload page sets one.
No page limit in the app. Only the API has a stated cap (1,000 pages). In the app, the context window sets the practical limit.
No Google AI Plus figures for video and audio length. Google names only Pro and Ultra.
No update date on Google's help pages. That is why the date at the top of this guide matters; check it before relying on a number.

Frequently asked questions

Can Gemini read ZIP files?

Yes. In the Gemini app, a ZIP can be up to 100 MB and hold up to 10 files, but it cannot contain video or audio. Skills, which replace Gems, do not accept ZIP or other archive files at all.

Can Gemini read Excel files?

Yes. Google lists spreadsheets among the supported uploads, with the same 100 MB per-file limit as documents. Older .xls files are not supported inside skills, so convert them to .xlsx if you plan to use them there.

Does the Gemini file upload limit reset every day?

Google does not describe it as a daily reset. It describes rolling limits on uploads and a usage limit that refreshes every 5 hours until you reach a weekly limit. Claude's free plan works on a similar cycle, as our notes on free AI plan limits show.

Is the Gemini file upload limit higher on Pro?

The file count (10 per prompt) and file sizes (100 MB, or 2 GB for video) are the same on Google's upload page. Google AI Pro raises video length to 1 hour, audio to 3 hours, usage to 4x the standard limit, and the context window to 1 million tokens, which is about 1,500 pages of text.

Can Gemini read a 1,000-page PDF?

Through the API, yes, if the file is also under 50 MB, since both limits apply. To estimate what one request costs, you can estimate the cost of a long PDF with 258 tokens per page. In the app, a 1,000-page PDF under 100 MB will upload, but only Google AI Pro and Ultra have a context window large enough to work with roughly that many pages of text at once.

Do files uploaded to Gemini count against Google Drive storage?

Google says Gemini Apps have their own storage limit for saved activity, separate from Google Drive storage.

The short version

Gemini lets you attach a lot: ten files at a time, 100 MB each, up to 2 GB of video. What it can read is the real limit, and that depends far more on your plan than on the file. On a free account, think in chapters, not books. On Google AI Plus, think in long reports. On Pro and Ultra, most books fit. And if you are building on the API, count 258 tokens a page and watch the December and January price dates.