Google Gemini is the latest large language model (LLM) created by Alphabet’s Brain Team and DeepMind, and offers a major upgrade over its predecessor. The new LLM has a lot of potential, built from the ground up to be multimodal. Previously, there was a lot of tinkering and stitching to create multimodal models, whereas Google’s solution is designed to accommodate different modes tailored to specific use cases.

There are three different versions of Gemini, all designed with different pros and cons. Let’s dive right in and take a closer look at Gemini Ultra vs Gemini Pro vs Gemini Nano.

Gemini used to simply be the name of Google’s new LLM that replaced PaLM2 on Bard, but in February 2024 things got a bit more complicated thanks to the announcement that Google Bard would be rebranded as Google Gemini. Since then, we’ve seen Gemini arrive on Android as a full replacement for Google Assistant, at least for those with a compatible device who want to upgrade. These days, Gemini represents the LLM as a whole, as well as the chatbot experience. However, there are actually three different versions of the Gemini engine.

So what’s the difference between Gemini Ultra vs Gemini Pro vs Gemini Nano? All three versions are built from the same code and operate in the same way, but they have different use cases. You wouldn’t equip a small Honda hatchback with a V10 engine, right? The same general idea applies to the different versions of the Gemini. The Google Gemini Nano is your trusty 4-cylinder engine, capable of getting you where you need to go while being lightweight and efficient. The Google Gemini Pro is essentially your V6, a standard engine size that’s applicable for a wide variety of tasks. Finally, we have the Google Gemini Ultra, which is the equivalent of a V10 with tons of capability, but at the cost of efficiency, as it needs a lot of power to move.

If you have the free version of Gemini Assistant, your experience is powered by Gemini Pro. If you have the more expensive version of Gemini Advanced, you’ll have an even more powerful experience thanks to Gemini Ultra.

How do Google Gemini’s three modes compare to GPT? Google Gemini Nano doesn’t have a direct comparison, but Gemini Pro and Ultra are effectively Google’s answer to GPT 3.5 and GPT 4, respectively. Not only does Gemini have the power of Google Search, allowing it to retrieve more up-to-date information, but it is also ahead of both engines in the vast majority of metrics. For example, Gemini Ultra outperformed GPT 4 in both the MATH and GSM8K benchmarks, and is worlds above GPT for Python code generation.

In the following section, we’ll discuss each version of Google Gemini and go into some more detail about how each version compares to their GPT equivalent.

Google Gemini is the lightest and most efficient model, designed to run directly on mobile devices. Google was not satisfied with just three versions of Gemini, as Nano has two variants of its own: Nano-1 and Nano-2. The former can handle 1.8 billion parameters, while the latter can handle 3.25 billion.

While both are designed to run directly on lower-powered hardware, Nano-1 is intended for low-memory devices and Nano-2 is aimed at high-memory products. Gemini Nano has also been used on devices like the Pixel 9 to power certain AI features, such as conversation notes, that don’t actually use cloud servers due to the sensitive nature of the data involved.

Gemini Pro is the middle tier mode and is currently the driving force behind Google Gemini. The good news is that Gemini should be able to compete better with ChatGPT now that it is running on Gemini Pro, at least if Google’s claims are true.

Pro is reportedly more capable than GPT-3.5 in six different benchmarks and is specifically optimized for tasks like brainstorming, summarizing content, and writing. While this isn’t the latest version of GPT, it is the most front-facing, as it powers the popular ChatGPT service.

Google Gemini Ultra

Google Gemini Ultra represents the highest tier and is the LLM model that puts GPT-4 through its paces, as noted above. The Ultra surpasses 30 of the 32 academic benchmarks for current state-of-the-art results used for LLMs, and beats GPT-4 in every category outside of common sense reasoning for everyday tasks.

While GPT-4 can understand the context of only words and images, Gemini goes a step further and can understand nuanced information for words, images, audio, coding, and even more complicated topics related to mathematics and physics. It can also respond to your queries quickly, essentially in real time. Unfortunately, it is also not available in any form yet, so it remains more of a promise than anything else.

There are a few ways to use the Gemini Assistant, including downloading the app on a compatible device or purchasing a newer device like the Google Pixel 9, which has Gemini built in from day one. You can also just head over to gemini.google.com . You’ll need to sign in to your Google account if you aren’t already. And that’s it! It’s also worth noting that Gemini also has a great new feature for Gemini Advanced users called Gemini Live, which lets you have live, direct conversations with your digital assistant.