Gemini Skills Are Replacing Gems: What's New, Key Dates, and Alternatives (2026)
Gemini skills are saved instructions that you can reuse in any Gemini chat by typing a slash and the skill's name. On September 30, 2026, Google said skills will "eventually replace Gems as the tool for tailoring instructions for specific tasks."
This guide covers what Gemini skills do, how they differ from Gems, and the dates that matter for each type of account. It also shows how to move a Gem to a skill and which alternatives to compare. Every detail comes from Google's own pages and other vendors' pages, read on October 12, 2026.
What Google announced on September 30
Google posted the news in two places on the same day. The Google Workspace Updates blog ran "Introducing skills in the Gemini app and Workspace, plus what's next for Gems." Google's main blog ran "Let skills in Gemini tackle your most repetitive tasks."
The main blog post states the goal in one line: "With skills, you can save your most-used instructions once and run them endlessly." It also said skills were rolling out "directly into Gemini chat globally" that day for personal accounts.
Workspace got its own announcement about two weeks earlier, in a Google Workspace blog post from mid-September. It describes skills as "reusable prompts that guide Gemini in Workspace to use your team's rules, templates, and reference files to automate processes."
The bigger change is what happens to Gems. Google says it will "gradually remove support for Gems across all surfaces." Any Gems left in the Gemini app will move over automatically, landing as draft skills in the Gemini app.
So this is not a small feature update. Anyone who built Gems for daily work now has a deadline, and the right date depends on the account type.
What Gemini skills are and how they work
Google's help center gives the plain definition. "You can use skills to create and save custom instructions that can be used across your chats and tasks in Gemini Apps."
There are three ways Gemini skills come into play:
- You call it. Type a slash, or the @ symbol with the updated shortcut, then pick the skill from the list.
- Gemini picks it. The help center says "Gemini automatically recognizes when a skill is relevant to your current prompt and applies it for you."
- You stack several. You can use more than one skill in the same task, and a skill can reference other skills.
You can build Gemini skills in four ways. You can ask Gemini to write one in a chat, start from a template, fill in a blank form, or upload a file. The upload option accepts a SKILL.md file, or a folder or .zip file with a SKILL.md file in its main folder.
Skills can carry their own reference files. The main blog post says you can include "reference files like plain text documents, PDFs, or images." The help center adds a few rules. The total upload must stay within 100 MB, and the skill name must use lowercase words joined by hyphens.
There is also a cap on how many Gemini skills work at once. Google's FAQ says "only 100 can be active at a time." You can keep more, but you have to switch some off.
One practical detail stands out. The help center notes that "Skills are available without a Google AI subscription and can be used in your chats." Gemini skills are not a paid add-on for personal accounts.
Gemini skills vs. Gems
Gems were custom versions of Gemini that you opened as a separate chat. Gemini skills work inside the chat you already have open.
| Gems | Gemini skills | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Its own Gem chat | Inline in any Gemini chat |
| How many at once | One Gem, in its own chat | Several skills stacked in one prompt |
| Workspace apps | Google's admin help says "Gems can't be used in Workspace apps" | Gemini side panel in Gmail, Docs, Slides, Drive, and Chat |
| File format | Settings stored inside Gemini | The open, Markdown-based SKILL.md format |
| Finding past chats | A Gem page lists recent chats | Chats appear in the main side panel |
Google explains the stacking benefit with an example. An educator can combine a "weekly newsletter" skill with an "institutional brand guidelines" skill. A business user can pair a "vendor evaluator" skill with an "executive email drafter" skill.
The file format matters most for people who use several AI tools. Google says skills are "built entirely on the open, Markdown-native SKILL.md standard." In its words, "This allows you to copy skills you've created on other platforms into the Gemini app and Workspace apps."
Key dates for the move from Gems to skills
Google gives different dates for personal, business, and education accounts. The table combines the Workspace Updates post, the admin help page, and the Gemini Apps help center.
| Date | What happens | Who it affects |
|---|---|---|
| September 30, 2026 | Skills start rolling out in Gemini chat | Personal Google accounts, age 18 and over |
| October 5, 2026 | Skills start rolling out in Workspace apps; Rapid Release domains finish by October 12 | Workspace business and enterprise |
| October 13, 2026 | Skills start rolling out in the Gemini app for Workspace users | Workspace customers |
| October 19, 2026 | Scheduled Release domains start getting skills in Workspace apps | Workspace customers |
| November 2026 | Google removes support for Gems on personal accounts | Personal Google accounts |
| November 17, 2026 | Gems move to the Settings panel of the Gemini app, but still work | Gemini app users |
| No sooner than March 1, 2027 | Gems stop working, Ask a Gem flows stop, and remaining Gems migrate to draft skills | Workspace business, enterprise, and nonprofit |
| No sooner than June 1, 2027 | The same changes, plus removal from Google Classroom and supported learning systems | Workspace education |
Two details are easy to miss. First, the 2027 dates say "no sooner than," so they may move later. Google also promises to share auto-migration details with admins "at least 30 days in advance."
Second, not everything carries over. The main blog post says Opal, Google's experiment for building mini apps, will turn down in November. A footnote adds that Gems by Google Labs "will also turn down, though these will not migrate into skills."
Who can use Gemini skills today
Access to Gemini skills depends on how you sign in.
Personal Google accounts. The help center lists three conditions. You must be 18 or over, sign in with a personal Google Account, and have Keep Activity on. Skills work in the Gemini mobile app, the Gemini app on Mac, and the Gemini web app. Uploading a SKILL.md file works only on the Mac app and the web app for now.
Workspace accounts. Google's admin help says skills in the Gemini app are available to all Google Workspace editions. Skills inside Workspace apps need a business or enterprise edition, Google AI Pro for Education, or the AI Expanded Access add-on. They are limited to users age 18 and older.
There is one catch for people who use both. The Workspace Updates post says "Currently, skills do not sync between the Gemini app and Workspace apps." A skill you build in the Gemini app has to be built again in Workspace.
Skills in Google Docs and Workspace Studio
Workspace adds a team layer on top of the basics. The September Workspace post describes a skill builder in Google Docs. Anyone can draft a skill in a doc, then invite teammates "to comment and iterate on it together."
The Workspace Studio help page walks through that flow. You open a doc, click Ask Gemini, then choose Tools and Skill builder. When the team agrees, you click Make this skill in Studio, and the skill opens in Workspace Studio.
Inside Google Workspace Studio, you can also build a skill from scratch. The help page lets you choose where Gemini searches, including Drive, Gmail, Chat, Calendar, and the web. You can test the skill in a chat window before you turn it on.
Once a skill is on, you can use it in three places:
- The Gemini side panel. You @-mention the skill in Gmail, Docs, Slides, Drive, or Ask Gemini in Chat.
- Workspace Studio flows. You add the skill to an Ask Gemini step.
- Drive. The September post says you can upload "popular external skills from the web into Drive" and make your own copy.
Workspace Studio flows need attention now. Its help page says "You can no longer add 'Ask a Gem' steps to newly created or existing flows." Existing Ask a Gem steps keep working until March 2027, then stop. Google's advice is to replace them with an Ask Gemini step before then.
For larger teams, Google also lists a coming Admin console view. It says admins "will be able to manage their organization's skills across both Gemini Enterprise and Workspace in Agent Registry." Our explainer on the Gemini agent for work covers the Gemini Enterprise side.
How to move a Gem to a skill
Google will migrate Gems automatically when they go away. If you want to switch sooner, the help center describes a manual route in three parts:
- Back up what the Gem knows. Open the Gem's edit view and download each knowledge file. Put the files in a new folder named after your skill, in lowercase with hyphens.
- Recreate the instructions. In a new tab, go to Settings, then Skills, then Create manually. Copy the Gem's name, description, and instructions into the new skill, then click Create.
- Add the files back. Download the new skill as a .zip file and move its SKILL.md file into your folder. Then use Replace skill to upload the whole folder.
The folder name must match the skill name, or the upload fails. If you also use the Gem in Workspace, rebuild it in Workspace Studio as well.
Google's FAQ gives three tips for writing good skills. "Define when to use it," "Keep it concise," and "Provide examples." The first tip also helps automatic use, because a clear trigger tells Gemini when to apply the skill.
Education teams have a separate path. Google recommends Gemini Notebook and Guided Learning for teachers who used Gems in Classroom. Our guide to Gemini Notebook explains how notebooks work.
What Google says skills don't do yet
Google's help center lists the current gaps in Gemini skills itself. Reading them before you migrate saves surprises.
- Some Gem tools are missing. The FAQ says skills "do not yet work with features like Canvas and Deep Research." It also lists Create video, Create music, and Guided learning among the tools that do not work with skills yet.
- Some file types are left out. Skill uploads accept plain-text files, PDFs, and images. The help center lists .docx and .xlsx files as not supported.
- Scripts stay offline. "Scripts that require access to the internet are not supported."
- GitHub files are out for now. The FAQ says "For now, GitHub files aren't supported in skills."
- Sharing in the Gemini app is still coming. Google says skills will gain Gem features "in the coming weeks," including sharing and adding files from Google Drive. Workspace Studio already lets you share a skill by link.
Google frames several of these as temporary, with words like "yet" and "for now." Expect the list to shrink before the 2027 deadlines.
Gemini skills alternatives worth comparing
Gemini is not the only assistant built around reusable skills. Several tools now support them, and some use the same SKILL.md format. The table compares what each vendor's pages describe.
| Option | Where skills run | Skill type | Plans the vendor lists |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini skills | Gemini app and Workspace apps | SKILL.md files | Personal accounts 18+; Workspace editions |
| Claude Skills | Claude apps, Claude Code, and the API in beta | Agent Skills open standard | Free, Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise |
| Copilot custom skills | The Copilot pane in PowerPoint | User-defined commands and workflows | Microsoft 365 Copilot |
| Powerdrill Bloom | Its own AI workspace | Built-in and custom agent skills, plus Claude Skills | Built-in skills on Free; custom skills on paid plans |
Claude Skills. Anthropic's help center describes skills as "folders of instructions, scripts, and resources that Claude loads dynamically to improve performance on specialized tasks." It says skills need code execution turned on. It also notes the Agent Skills specification "is published as an open standard at agentskills.io." Our roundup of Claude Skills alternatives covers more tools in this space.
Copilot custom skills in PowerPoint. Microsoft's release notes list user-defined custom skills in Copilot in PowerPoint. The web version appears in the notes for August 26 to September 22. The Windows version appears in the notes for September 22 to October 6. The notes say "Previously, Copilot operated only with built-in skills and predefined functions in PowerPoint."
Portability. The shared format is the real story here. The Agent Skills site says "a skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file." A skill written once can move between tools that adopt the standard. Our guide on how to run Claude Skills outside Claude shows how that works in practice.
Where a data-first workspace fits
Gemini skills shape how an assistant follows your instructions. Some repeat jobs are about the data itself: a monthly sales export, a survey CSV, or a quarterly report in PDF.
That is the job Powerdrill Bloom is built around. Its homepage describes it as "The AI data analyst that shows its work." It also promises that "Every number comes back with the page, the row and the figure behind it."
Skills are part of its plans too. The Powerdrill Bloom pricing page lists "Use built-in agent skills" on the Free plan. Its paid plans list "Run built-in and custom agent skills" and "Use Claude Skills to run specialized AI workflows for research, analysis, automation, and execution."
Repeat timing is covered as well. The homepage introduces a Scheduled Agent, described as "your recurring analysis runs itself." The Free plan lists 1 scheduled task, and each paid individual plan lists 20.
How to prepare for the switch
A little planning now avoids a rush in 2027. Work through this list in order:
- List your Gems. Note which ones you use weekly, and which ones sit inside Workspace Studio flows.
- Rebuild the important ones early. Start with any Gem that a team or a flow depends on.
- Write a clear trigger. Describe when Gemini should use the skill, so automatic use works well.
- Keep a copy of the SKILL.md file. Download each skill, so you can reuse it in other tools later.
- Test stacking. Try two skills together, such as a brand voice skill plus a report format skill.
Some repeat tasks start from a spreadsheet or a report. For those, you can try Powerdrill Bloom with the same instructions and compare the results.
Frequently asked questions
What are Gemini skills?
Gemini skills are reusable instructions saved in the Gemini app or in Google Workspace. You call one by typing a slash and its name, or Gemini applies it when your prompt matches. You can stack several skills in one prompt, and each skill can include reference files.
Are Gemini Gems going away?
Yes. Google is replacing Gems with skills. Its help center lists November 2026 for personal accounts, March 2027 for business, enterprise, and nonprofit accounts, and June 2027 for education. Google says remaining Gems will migrate to draft skills automatically.
How do I turn a Gem into a skill?
Copy the Gem's name, description, and instructions into a new skill on the Skills page, using Create manually. Download any knowledge files first. Then download the skill, add the files to its folder, and use Replace skill to upload everything.
How do I use a skill in Gemini?
Type a slash, or the @ symbol with the updated shortcut, in any Gemini chat and pick the skill. Gemini can also apply a skill on its own when your prompt matches the skill's description. In Workspace apps, you @-mention the skill in the Gemini side panel.
Are Gemini skills the same as Claude Skills?
They share a format. Google says Gemini skills are built on the open SKILL.md standard, and Anthropic's Claude Skills follow the Agent Skills open standard. Google says you can copy skills made on other platforms into Gemini, though each tool supports different file types and features.
Sources: Google Workspace Updates, Introducing skills in the Gemini app and Workspace, plus what's next for Gems · Google, Let skills in Gemini tackle your most repetitive tasks · Google Workspace Blog, Teach Gemini your team's know-hows with skills in Google Workspace · Gemini Apps Help, Create and manage skills for Gemini Apps · Gemini Apps Help, About the transition from Gems to skills · Google Workspace Admin Help, About the transition from Gems to skills · Workspace Studio Help, Learn how skills work in Google Workspace · Workspace Studio Help, How Gems transition to skills impacts Workspace Studio flows · Claude Help Center, What are skills? · Agent Skills, Overview · Microsoft Learn, Release Notes for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Details read from vendor pages on October 12, 2026.