High-Level Summary
There is a severe and misleading disconnect between the “Google One AI Pro” subscription and the developer-facing gemini-cli tool.
Paying subscribers (who get near-unlimited gemini-2.5-pro access on the web) are discovering that the gemini-cli tool—which is built for power users—completely ignores their subscription. Instead, it places them in a highly-limited free developer tier with a tiny, hidden quota (est. ~100 requests/day) for the gemini-2.5-pro model.
This policy actively handicaps your most engaged power users, devalues your “AI Pro” subscription, and feels like a bait-and-switch.
The Core Problem: Two Conflicting Products
The Consumer Product: A user pays for a “Google One AI Pro” plan and is marketed generous, flagship access to gemini-2.5-pro in the gemini.google.com web interface.
The Developer Tool: That same user downloads the Google-built gemini-cli to use the advanced features (custom prompts, state memory, version control).
When they authenticate with their paying Google account (via OAuth), they logically expect their subscription benefits to apply. Instead, they are silently downgraded to the “Gemini Code Assist for individuals” free tier.
They are then blocked almost immediately by the gemini-2.5-pro quota limit, while the gemini-2.5-flash model (a downgrade) remains available. This forces users to choose between the best model (on the web) or the best features (in the CLI). They can never have both.
Why This is a Strategic Failure
The gemini-cli is a “power user” tool. Its advanced features are useless without a “power user” quota. By throttling your most advanced model on your most advanced tool, you are sending a clear message: the gemini-cli is not a serious tool for professional developers, and the “AI Pro” subscription is not a unified-service-pass, but a single-app feature.
The only “fix” offered—switching to a pay-as-you-go API key—is perceived as a penalty. It forces the user to pay again for a model they already pay for, simply to use it in a different Google-provided interface.
Requested Change
The gemini-cli (when authenticated via OAuth) should recognize a user’s “Google One AI Pro” subscription status and grant them the same high-limit access to the gemini-2.5-pro model that they receive on the web.