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What Are Gemini Skills? Google’s Replacement for Gems, Explained
Gemini skills are reusable instructions you run with a slash in any Gemini chat. They replace Gems starting November 2026. How they work and what changes.
If you open the Gems manager in the Gemini app right now, you will see a notice: your Gems are about to become skills. Google is swapping one feature for another, and a lot of people want to know what Gemini skills are, what happens to the Gems they spent time building, and whether anything gets worse.
Here is the short, plain version, with the dates for each kind of Google account and a side-by-side look at Gemini skills vs Gems.
What are Gemini skills?
A Gemini skill is a reusable instruction set. You write it once, for example "edit my writing in a friendly, short style" or "turn meeting notes into a task list with owners and dates," and then call it up whenever you need it.
Google introduced skills in a post on its official blog on September 30, 2026, written by Deven Tokuno, a senior product manager for the Gemini app. Skills first showed up in a part of the app called Gemini Spark, and Google is now bringing them into regular Gemini chat for everyone. Google’s help page says they are available to people over 18 with a personal Google Account, with work and school accounts coming later.
Three things make skills different from what came before:
- You use them in the chat you are already in. Type
/and the skill name in the prompt bar. Google says the slash will later change to@. - You can stack them. Google’s example: combine a writing-style skill with a brand-guidelines skill, and Gemini follows both.
- Gemini can use them on its own. If a skill matches what you asked for, Gemini can apply it without you calling it.
Gemini skills vs Gems: what changes?
Gems arrived in 2024 as "custom versions of Gemini." To use one, you opened the side panel, scrolled to your Gems and started a separate chat with it. Skills do the same basic job, custom instructions, but they live inside any conversation. Here is how they compare today, based on Google’s help page:
| Gems | Skills | |
|---|---|---|
| How you start one | Open it from the side panel, in its own chat | Type / plus its name in any chat |
| Use more than one at once | No | Yes, you can stack them |
| Gemini picks it for you | No | Yes, when it fits your prompt |
| Files | Knowledge files | Text files, PDFs and images; Drive files and Gemini Notebook notebooks "in the next few weeks" |
| Sharing with others | Yes, by link | Not yet, coming soon |
| Canvas, Deep Research, video, music | Could be set as a default tool | Not supported yet |
| How many | No published cap | Unlimited, but only 100 turned on at a time |
The honest summary: skills are easier to reach and more flexible, but for now they lose a few things Gems could do, mainly sharing and tools like Canvas and Deep Research. Google says sharing and Drive files are coming soon. It has not given a date for the tools.
When do Gems go away?
It depends on the kind of account you use. Google’s help page lists this timeline:
| Account | When Gems are removed and become skills |
|---|---|
| Personal Google Account | November 2026 (the Gems manager notice says starting November 17) |
| Workspace business, enterprise and nonprofit | March 2027 |
| Workspace education | June 2027 |
You do not have to do anything. When your account’s date arrives, each Gem is converted into a skill, and its knowledge files move with it. Some coverage says the converted versions start as draft skills, so check them once they appear. One catch from Google’s help page: GitHub files attached to a Gem are not supported in skills.
How to create Gemini skills
If you would rather move a favorite Gem now, or start fresh, Google’s help page describes these steps:
- In Gemini, go to Settings > Skills and choose Create manually.
- Give the skill a name and a short description of when Gemini should use it.
- Paste in your instructions. To move a Gem, copy its name, description and instructions over.
- To add files, download the skill as a .zip. It contains a file called
SKILL.md. Put that file in a folder with your files, name the folder after the skill (lowercase with hyphens, liketrip-planner), and upload it with Replace skill.
Google’s own tips for a good skill: say clearly when it should be used, keep the instructions to what is special about the task, and include an example of the output you want.
Does Gemini have skills like Claude?
Yes, and that is not a coincidence. Gemini skills are built around a SKILL.md file, the same idea Anthropic uses for skills in Claude. Google’s help page says you can import skills from other platforms by uploading their SKILL.md files, for now only in the Gemini web app and the Mac app. A skill you wrote for another assistant can come along with you.
One thing to know if you search for "Gemini skills GitHub": Google also has a developer repository called gemini-skills. That is aimed at people building with Gemini’s coding tools, not at the everyday Gemini app this post covers.
What this means for you
Skills are a small change with a big idea behind it: AI assistants are moving from "a chatbot you talk to" toward a set of trained helpers you can call on by name. It is the same shift behind agentic AI, where each helper has a clear job and they can work together, a bit like Google’s stacking of skills.
The cost is setup time. You still have to write each skill, test it and keep it up to date. If you want that kind of help without building it yourself, an app that ships with the experts already made is the shortcut. That is how Agentic AI works: a Writing Coach, Research Analyst, Life Planner and other expert agents are ready on day one, and you can put a team of up to 4 on a single task. It is free to start with 3 tasks, with no account needed.
For more on how teams of agents split up work, see why two AI agents beat one. Google’s other recent Gemini change is a business hub: Gemini for small business.
Quick answers
What is Gemini skills? A feature in the Gemini app that saves instructions you use often. You run a skill by typing / and its name in any chat, or Gemini uses it on its own when it fits.
Are Gemini Gems going away? Yes. For personal accounts, Gems are removed and turned into skills starting in November 2026. Workspace business accounts follow in March 2027 and school accounts in June 2027.
Will I lose my Gems? No. Google converts them to skills automatically, with their knowledge files. GitHub files are the exception. You can also move them by hand before then.
Can I share Gemini skills? Not yet. Google says sharing is coming in the next few weeks, along with adding files from Google Drive.
Do Gemini skills cost money? Google’s help page lists skills for personal Google Accounts in Gemini chat without naming a paid plan. Early on, 9to5Google reported that creating skills in the Gemini Spark tab was limited to AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers, so what you see may depend on your plan and the rollout.
How many Gemini skills can I have? As many as you like, but only 100 can be turned on at the same time.
Sources: Google Gemini Help: Gems to skills · Google Blog: Skills in Gemini · 9to5Google · Android Central · Thurrott
