Gemini memory
Gemini's built-in memory: it learns from your chats, keeps your instructions, and can draw on your Google apps if you connect them.
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In short
Gemini remembers you in a few ways, managed in its settings. With Memory on (the default), it learns from your past chats over time, keeping key details and preferences so later answers fit you. You can also set your own instructions and ask it to remember your interests and preferences. If you choose, it can connect to Gmail, Photos, Search and YouTube and draw on them when they help. You correct it by telling it in a chat, and Temporary Chats leave memory out altogether.
Who it’s for
Anyone using the Gemini app, on the web, Android and iOS. Connecting Google apps (Personal Intelligence) is for people over 18 with a personal Google account, not Workspace business, enterprise or education users. Some extras depend on plan and country.
What it remembers
Key details and preferences from past chats, such as your work, hobbies and life goals; the instructions you give it; things you ask it to keep; and, if you connect them, what's in your Gmail, Photos, searches and YouTube history.
- Memory lives
- Google's cloud
- API keys
- None: sign in with a personal Google account
- Works with
- Gemini on the web, Android & iOS apps
- License
- Closed sourceProprietary
- Price
- Free; more with Google AI Plus, Pro ($19.99/mo) and Ultra
Under the hood
- Who writes memories
- Gemini itself, learning from your chats when Memory is on; you, by writing instructions or asking it to remember something; and your connected Google apps, which it reads as needed.
- Where they're kept
- On Google's servers, tied to your saved chats in Gemini Apps Activity. The details aren't published.
- How they're found
- For each prompt, Gemini judges whether your instructions, past chats or connected apps would help, and tries to say what it used.
- Extra AI calls
- Not published.
How it works
- 1You chatOr write instructions, or ask it to remember something.
- 2It learnsWith Memory on, it keeps key details and preferences from your chats.
- 3Your appsIf you connect them, Gmail, Photos, Search and YouTube add context.
- 4Next answerIt uses what helps, tries to say what it used, and takes corrections in the chat.
What stands out
- It can draw on your other Google apps (Gmail, Photos, Search and YouTube) if you connect them, app by app.
- A Daily Brief (US, paid plans), in the side menu, gathers each morning's priorities from your Gmail, Calendar and Gemini chats.
- Memory import: a ready-made prompt pulls your memory out of another assistant, and you can upload another app's chat history as a ZIP file.
- Temporary Chats and a per-chat switch let you talk without personalization, and connected apps are off until you turn them on.
What it doesn’t do
- It lives inside Google's Gemini apps. There's no documented way to use it from other AI tools, or to run it yourself.
- How memories are chosen, stored, linked or weighted isn't published. Nothing documented fades with time or gets stronger with use.
- Connecting your Google apps isn't available in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, the UK or Nigeria, or for Workspace business, enterprise or education users.
Measured against human memory
0 built, 6 partly, 5 not known of the Field Guide’s 11 mechanisms
Encoding
Salience
Decides what's worth keeping, and how much, as a memory is written.
Gemini keeps the key details and preferences you've shared in chats, but Google states no rules for what it keeps or skips, and there's no documented importance score. source
Emotion
Gives memories written with feeling more weight.
Not documented. Steering clear of sensitive topics is a privacy guardrail, not extra weight for feelings.
Storage
Forgetting
Lets unused memories fade over time on its own.
Fading isn't documented.
Interference
When a new memory closely matches an old one, notices and lets the newer one win.
When it gets something wrong you tell it in the chat (“I don't like golf”). Nothing documented spots a conflict on its own. source
Retrieval
Retrieval
Remembering something makes that memory stronger.
Whether using a memory makes it stronger isn't documented.
Association
Links memories, so recalling one brings its neighbours.
It connects facts across your apps to answer a question, but whether memories are linked to each other isn't documented.
Prospective
Brings a memory back at the right time without being asked.
Daily Brief brings you priorities and next steps each morning, drawn from your email, calendar and Gemini chats, without being asked. Outside it, memories come back only when a prompt calls for them. source
Transformation
Consolidation
Reworks memories between sessions: strengthening, merging, reorganising.
Memory learns from your chats over time, but any reworking between sessions isn't documented.
Reconsolidation
Corrects a memory when it's contradicted, and keeps what it used to say.
You correct it on the spot (“Remember, I prefer window seats”). Whether it keeps what it used to say isn't documented. source
Gist
Turns many specific moments into general knowledge.
Memory learns from your past conversations over time and keeps key details and preferences, as a side effect of chatting rather than a step that draws lessons. source
Schemas
Forms beliefs about people and projects, and weighs new facts against them.
With connected apps it forms ideas about you, your interests and your relationships, and Google says it can still get them wrong (seeing golf photos, it may decide you love golf), but Google's pages cited here don't show a kept profile. source
Not every system is trying to be a human memory, so a hollow dot isn’t a flaw. It just says what the system doesn’t do. What the mechanisms are.
Gemini memory’s makers haven’t shared what they’re building next, so only today shows here. Makers can add their roadmap the same way they correct an entry.
Compare Gemini memory with the others, side by sideQuestions
- Who is Gemini memory for?
Anyone using the Gemini app, on the web, Android and iOS. Connecting Google apps (Personal Intelligence) is for people over 18 with a personal Google account, not Workspace business, enterprise or education users. Some extras depend on plan and country.
- Where does Gemini memory keep its memories?
Google's cloud. On Google's servers, tied to your saved chats in Gemini Apps Activity. The details aren't published.
- Does Gemini memory forget?
Forgetting: not known. Fading isn't documented.
- Does Gemini memory correct a memory when it turns out to be wrong?
Reconsolidation: a little. You correct it on the spot (“Remember, I prefer window seats”). Whether it keeps what it used to say isn't documented. source
- Is Gemini memory open source?
No, it's closed source. License: Proprietary.
- Does Gemini memory need an API key?
API keys: None: sign in with a personal Google account.
- How much does Gemini memory cost?
Price: Free; more with Google AI Plus, Pro ($19.99/mo) and Ultra.