This edition leads with a correction: a Google cut that took effect on October 9 was missed by our October 18 edition. Everything else is labeled as verified, unconfirmed, or context, and linked inline.
The Gemini Cut We Missed: Free Accounts Drop to One Model (Oct 9)
Free Gemini accounts were limited to Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite from October 9, 2026. Gemini 3.6 Flash and Gemini 3.1 Pro left the free model picker in the Gemini app. Per Tech Insider, which cites a 9to5Google report and Google’s support documentation, the change covers personal Gemini accounts in the app. Paid tiers keep full access. Reporting frames it as an eligibility restriction rather than a shutdown of Gemini Pro.
Our October 18 edition missed it. That is a miss, stated plainly: the change had been live for nine days by then.
What remains and what is gone
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is still free, so retest your prompts against it first. Flash and Pro are gone from the free app picker. The coverage we fetched does not describe any change to API pricing or free API quotas, and we found no source for one either way, so this post makes no API claim. If your project depends on Flash or Pro, the realistic paths are Flash-Lite, a paid Gemini plan, or lower model usage.
Paid-Plan Watch Item: Google AI Plus Pro Models Leave Nov 13
This is a paid-plan change, not a free-tier cut, and it stays out of our cut count. Per the same Tech Insider report, Google told AI Plus subscribers on October 16 that selectable Pro models leave the plan on November 13, 2026. That is 19 days from this post. We have not read Google’s notice directly.
Verified Cuts in the Oct 18–25 Window: None Beyond the Gemini Correction
Between October 18 and October 25, our verification pass found no free-tier cut other than the Gemini change above, which took effect October 9. We would rather publish a short, accurate edition than pad it with rumors. If you have a source for another change this week, send it and we will verify it for the next edition.
Unconfirmed: Socket.dev “Reduced” Listing
AgentDeals lists Socket.dev as “Reduced,” with the free plan shown as one developer seat, effective by October 19, 2026. We could not confirm what the free plan offered before that date, so this post gives no before-and-after numbers. Socket’s pricing page shows a Free plan at $0 per dev seat with 1,000 scans per month. Its comparison table lists the Free plan’s API quota as 500 requests per hour. The “Reduced” label comes only from the AgentDeals free-tier tracker, a listing, not a vendor statement. If your team uses the free plan, keep your own usage record.
Context: The October 18 Edition’s Three Cuts
- Tugboat removed its free plan. AgentDeals records the removal, effective between August 24 and October 16. Tugboat’s pricing page now lists Intro at $39 per month, Plus at $119 and Premium from $599, with no free plan (Tugboat pricing).
- Lensdump requires new accounts to be paid. Its Terms of Service carry an effective date of 26 October 2026 and supersede the 10 October version. They say new accounts “are created with a Paid Plan” and that the Free plan “cannot be selected at sign-up” (Lensdump Terms).
- Browser Use now offers a “$1 free credit” once per person (Browser Use pricing). AgentDeals records the earlier sign-up credit as $15. We could not verify that prior figure.
The Longer Arc: Q3 Cuts and a Hard Deadline
- Pipedream Workflows has closed to new signups and is in maintenance mode. Pipedream’s docs say Workflows and String shut down on March 31, 2027, and all Workflows data, including connected-account credentials, is deleted by April 30, 2027. Pipedream Connect is not affected. The docs point to an export tool that downloads workflow structure as JSON (Pipedream docs).
- CockroachDB’s pricing page says the free-allowance pricing (50 million request units and 10 GiB storage per month) “is no longer available for purchase” for clusters created after September 15, 2026, and points new deployments to a different pricing page. The same page still shows a $0 Basic tile with “first 50 million RUs free per month.” Check the page before relying on a free allowance (Cockroach Labs pricing).
- Algolia: AgentDeals records its Build plan as replaced by a Free plan in August. An archived pricing page dated August 13, 2026 shows a “Build for free” sign-up and a Free plan (archived pricing page). We did not verify the prior Build terms.
- Cloudflare Workers AI moved Kimi K2.6, Kimi K2.7 Code and GLM-5.2 to the paid Workers plan on July 28, 2026. On the Free plan those models return a 403, and the Workers Paid plan starts at $5 per month (Cloudflare changelog).
Two older items frame all of it. Fly.io removed its free tier for new customers, and legacy Hobby accounts keep three machines. Netlify doubled the credit cost of bandwidth and compute on April 14, 2026, so the unchanged 300-credit headline buys about half the usage (WebHosting.Today).
Comparison Table: Free-Tier Status at a Glance
Cells come from the sources linked in the sections above. Entries marked unconfirmed or unclear need a check before they break a build.
| Service | Change | Date | Status per source | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Gemini (free app accounts) | Cut to one model; Flash and Pro removed from free picker | Oct 9, 2026 | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite only | Tech Insider |
| Google AI Plus | Selectable Pro models leave the paid plan (watch item) | Nov 13, 2026 | Paid plan; not a free-tier cut | Tech Insider |
| Socket.dev | Listed “Reduced”; prior limits unconfirmed | By Oct 19, 2026 (listing) | Current: Free $0 per dev seat, 1,000 scans/mo, 500 API requests/hour | AgentDeals, Socket pricing |
| Tugboat | Free plan removed (per AgentDeals) | Aug 24 to Oct 16 (listing) | Intro $39/mo; no free plan on pricing page | Tugboat pricing |
| Lensdump | New accounts must be paid | ToS effective 26 Oct 2026 | Free plan cannot be selected at sign-up | Lensdump Terms |
| Browser Use | Sign-up credit (AgentDeals: cut from $15) | Oct 4, 2026 (per AgentDeals) | $1 free credit once per person | Browser Use pricing |
| Pipedream Workflows | Signups closed; shutdown | Shutdown Mar 31, 2027 | Maintenance mode; deletion by Apr 30, 2027 | Pipedream docs |
| CockroachDB | Free-allowance pricing no longer sold for clusters created after Sep 15, 2026 | Sep 15, 2026 | Unclear: page still shows a $0 Basic tile | Cockroach Labs pricing |
| Algolia | Build plan replaced by Free (per AgentDeals) | Aug 2026 | Free plan on Aug 13 archive | Archived Algolia pricing |
| Cloudflare Workers AI | Kimi K2.6, K2.7 Code, GLM-5.2 need Workers Paid | Jul 28, 2026 | Free plan returns 403 for these models | Cloudflare changelog |
| Fly.io | Free tier removed for new customers | Undated in our sources | Legacy Hobby keeps 3 machines | WebHosting.Today |
| Netlify | Bandwidth and compute credit cost doubled | Apr 14, 2026 | Same 300 credits buys about half the usage | WebHosting.Today |
Migration Paths for Each Cut
- Gemini (free app accounts): Retest your prompts on Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite. If it is not good enough, the free picker has no upgrade path, so the choices are a paid Gemini plan or lower model usage.
- Google AI Plus (paid): Decide before November 13 whether the plan works without selectable Pro models.
- Tugboat: The cheapest listed plan is Intro at $39 per month. The free alternative is running preview environments yourself, which is a project, not a vendor swap.
- Lensdump: New accounts must be paid. Check whether you need third-party image hosting at all before paying for it.
- Browser Use: Treat the $1 credit as a trial. Budget for paid usage from the first real task.
- Pipedream Workflows: Export your workflow JSON now, and plan a move before March 31, 2027.
- CockroachDB: Confirm which plan a new deployment gets on the pricing page before you start. If the free allowance is not there, price the database in from day one.
- Algolia: Check which plan your account landed on and read its limits before assuming anything got worse.
- Cloudflare Workers AI: Kimi K2.6, K2.7 Code and GLM-5.2 return a 403 on the Free plan. Check the model catalog before deploying.
- Fly.io: New customers have no free tier. Legacy Hobby accounts can stay put. New projects should price paid capacity from the start.
- Netlify: Credits cost twice as much since April 14. Caching, trimming bandwidth and auditing usage are the levers. A vendor swap is a bigger decision than this post can support.
FAQ
Is Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite still free?
Yes. Reporting describes the October 9 change as a reduction to one free model in the Gemini app, and Flash-Lite is that model.
Did Google also change a free Gemini API allowance?
We found no source for an API change, so this post makes no claim either way. The verified change covers the free app model picker.
Is the Google AI Plus change a free-tier cut?
No. It affects the paid AI Plus plan, where selectable Pro models leave on November 13, 2026.
What actually changed at Socket.dev?
An aggregator listing says “Reduced,” with one free developer seat by October 19, 2026, but the prior limits are unconfirmed. Socket’s current pricing page shows Free at $0 per dev seat with 1,000 scans per month.
Was anything else cut this week?
No other October 18–25 free-tier cut was verified for this edition.
The Bottom Line
Our October 18 edition missed the Gemini cut, so this week’s correction matters more than any new item. The verdict for the window: no new verified cut beyond Gemini, which took effect October 9 and is recorded here as a correction. The two dates to plan around are Google AI Plus on November 13, 2026 (paid) and the Pipedream Workflows shutdown on March 31, 2027. Socket.dev stays unconfirmed.
How This Guide Was Built
This edition was compiled from vendor pricing and terms pages, published reporting, archived pricing snapshots and one aggregator listing, all linked inline. AgentDeals is cited only as a listing source, never as confirmation of a vendor’s terms. The author did not run any tool hands-on, did not sign up for any plan, and did not measure any service’s performance. Where a figure could not be checked against the vendor’s own page, the post says so.