Gemini 3: you need to actually make the hype transfer

This is a list of grievances written in rage about how I can't use what's been hyped for the last month. Not sure if you want to read this.

I don't know if I'm using Gemini 3 on the official website

On Gemini 3 day, the day when it should be very clear about how to use it, Google decides to stop labeling their models. They just have "Thinking: Thinks through complex topics" now.

You can't even ask it if it's Gemini 3 because they didn't prompt it with context about what it is.

I can't use Gemini 3 via AI Studio

Google is many times more restrictive with AI Studio than with core products like Google. In fact 40-50% of humanity can't use AI Studio.

I can't use Gemini 3 via the free API

They just decided to not allow this. No reason given. (It's also hard to find this out; see the second-last 2 sections)

I + most people can't use Gemini 3 via Gemini CLI

I can't log in for the same reason as not being able to use AI Studio, although the error is very bad (will get to that in a moment). But even if I could, it sounds like (as of writing) only Ultra subscribers can use Gemini 3! For context, Gemini 2.5 was accessible to free users!

Other people can't use Gemini 3 via the Antigravity IDE

I haven't downloaded it but it sounds like the limits are so harsh the agent can't even complete one task without hitting them.

I can't use Gemini 3 via GitHub Copilot

Is it supposed to be rolling out? Yes. Has it yet? No.

Server downtime

Even home pages and doc pages have been erroring.

Unclear about limitations

It's between hard and impossible to see that you can't use Gemini 3 via the API or via Gemini CLI for free from the articles blowing up on HN. They just don't note that.

And when those limitations hit, the error messages are bad

When text should be selectable and clickable, it isn't. When Google should be saying "your account doesn't let you use Gemini directly", they say "This account requires setting the GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT or GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT_ID env var.". When Google should be saying "https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/blob/main/docs/get-started/authentication.md#optional-set-your-google-cloud-project", they say "https://goo.gle/gemini-cli-auth-docs#workspace-gca". When Google should be saying "Gemini 3 Pro isn't available on the free tier", they say "Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-3-pro" and "Enter a new quota value between 0 and 0".

"It doesn't matter if the product's good"

You can say this about startups where they clearly have room for growth and you can understand having a terrible and laggy sign up process. But not Google! The same Google that's been going crazy with AI, spinning up incubators and poaching devrel folks! We expect a lot from Google, and having to access their models via third party platforms isn't it.