Google Is Replacing Gemini Gems With Skills: What Happens to Your Gems? (September 2026)

TL;DR: Google announced on September 30, 2026 that skills are replacing Gems in the Gemini app. Personal Google accounts lose Gems in November 2026 (the in-app banner says automatic migration starts November 17); Workspace accounts follow in March and June 2027. Google will convert your Gems to skills automatically, so you don't need to rebuild them. But a few things don't carry over yet, including Canvas and Deep Research inside skills, and Gems by Google Labs won't migrate at all. Save your instructions and files now.

If you built a Gem for weekly reports, client emails, or lesson plans, it isn't going to vanish. It is going to change shape. This post covers what a skill is, what happens to your Gems and when, what doesn't carry over, and what to do before the switch.

What is a Gemini skill?

A skill is a saved set of instructions, plus optional reference files, that tells Gemini how to handle a recurring task. Google describes skills as a way to "save your most-used instructions once and run them endlessly."

The main differences from Gems:

• No separate chat. A Gem was a custom assistant you opened from the side panel. A skill works inside any chat: type / and the skill's name in the prompt box.
• You can stack them. Google's example is combining a writing-style skill with a brand-guidelines skill in one chat. A Gem was one assistant at a time.
• Gemini can use them on its own. When your prompt matches a skill's description, Gemini can apply it automatically. You can switch that off per skill.
• Gemini can build them for you. You can create a skill from a chat, with Gemini's help, from a template, or by uploading a folder.

Skills already existed inside Gemini Spark, Google's agent for Google AI subscribers. The September 30 change brings them into regular Gemini chat.

When do Gems go away?

Account type	Gems removed	Can use skills now?
Personal Google account	November 2026 (in-app banner: migration starts November 17)	Yes, rolling out gradually
Workspace business, enterprise, nonprofit	March 2027	Not yet; Google says "in the coming weeks"
Workspace education	June 2027	Not yet; Google says "in the coming weeks"

Opal, Google's experiment for building mini apps, and Gems by Google Labs also end in November.

What happens to your Gems?

Google says it will automatically recreate your Gems as skills when Gems go away, along with any supported knowledge files. You can keep using your Gems until then. If you want to switch early, the help center walks through recreating a Gem by hand: open the Gem, copy its instructions, download its knowledge files one by one, then upload them together to a new skill.

Two things will not come across cleanly:

1. Gems by Google Labs don't migrate. Google's announcement says these experimental premade Gems "will not migrate into skills." If you rely on one, note what it does now.
2. Some Gem tools don't work in skills yet. Google's help center lists Create video, Create music, Canvas, Deep Research, and Guided Learning as tools that "do not work with skills" for now. If your Gem was built around Deep Research or Canvas, the skill version may behave differently.

Also missing for now: sharing skills with other people, adding Google Drive files, and adding Gemini Notebook notebooks. Google says all three are coming "in the coming weeks." GitHub files aren't supported in skills. You can create as many skills as you want, but only 100 can be active at once.

One more practical change: Gems had their own page listing past chats. Skills don't. Chats that used a skill appear in your regular chat history.

Do you need to pay for skills?

Probably not, but check your own account. Google's help center says "skills are available without a Google AI subscription and can be used in your chats." The footnote on Google's announcement says skills are available to "all Google AI subscription tiers."

You may have read otherwise. Several outlets reported in late September that skills were limited to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. That matched how skills worked before September 30, when they only existed inside Gemini Spark. Google has not published a per-plan table for skills in chat, and the rollout is gradual, so if you don't see Skills under Settings in the Gemini app, it may not have reached you yet.

To create and use skills today, Google says you must:

• be 18 or older (under-18 access is "coming soon");
• sign in with a personal Google account, not a work or school one;
• have Keep Activity turned on;
• use the Gemini web app, the Mac app, or the mobile app.

Can you bring skills from Claude or ChatGPT?

Often, yes. Gemini skills use the same structure as Anthropic's Agent Skills: a folder containing a SKILL.md file plus optional reference files. Google's help center says you can import skills made on other platforms by uploading their SKILL.md files (web and Mac app only for now). Skills that run scripts needing internet access won't work.

That makes skills more portable than Gems were. If you already use Claude skills or ChatGPT Skills, a well-written skill can now work in more than one assistant with little change.

What to do before November 17

1. List the Gems you actually use. Most people have a few they rely on and several they don't.
2. Copy each Gem's instructions into a document. Automatic migration should handle this, but a copy costs nothing and protects the work you put in.
3. Download knowledge files. Especially anything you no longer have elsewhere.
4. Note which Gems use Deep Research, Canvas, or Guided Learning. Rebuild one as a skill now and test it, so you find gaps before the deadline.
5. Record what any Google Labs Gem does for you. Those won't migrate.
6. On a work account, check with your admin. You have until March 2027, but your admin may have plans for when skills arrive in Workspace.

Sources

• Google, Let skills in Gemini tackle your most repetitive tasks (September 30, 2026)
• Gemini Apps Help, About the transition from Gems to skills
• Gemini Apps Help, Create & manage skills for Gemini Apps
• Android Authority, Google is officially killing Gemini Gems (September 2026)
• Notebookcheck, Google Gemini starts turning your Gems into skills on November 17 (September 2026)
• The Decoder, Google drops Gems for Skills, joining OpenAI and Anthropic in the shift to agent-ready prompt formats (September 30, 2026)