Google releases Gemini 3 to compete directly with OpenAI’s ChatGPT

Google on Tuesday released its newest artificial intelligence model, Gemini 3, going straight after OpenAI’s ChatGPT as the arms race between the two tech giants gets louder.

The announcement, shared through multiple blog posts by Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, marks another direct attempt by the company to fight for control in a space OpenAI first dominated in 2022.

The model begins rolling out today to a limited number of paying users and will spread more widely over the next few weeks. Gemini 3 has been fully embedded into the Gemini app, AI Overviews, AI Mode, and enterprise software.

Sundar said Gemini 3 helps users “get what you need with less prompting,” adding that it can now better understand context, depth, and intent. The goal? Reduce friction and outmaneuver OpenAI’s newer GPT-5 upgrades.

Gemini 3 arrives as OpenAI updates GPT-5 and pushes user numbers

Google said Gemini 3 is now running at “Google scale,” which translates to 650 million monthly users in the Gemini app and 2 billion users engaging monthly with AI Overviews. That still trails behind OpenAI’s own numbers from August, when it said ChatGPT had 700 million weekly users.

Sundar, in another post, wrote, “It’s amazing to think that in just two years, AI has evolved from simply reading text and images to reading the room.”

Gemini 3 replaces Gemini 2.5, which launched eight months ago. Gemini 2.0 came just eleven months before that.

Meanwhile, OpenAI rolled out two updates to GPT-5 just last week, calling one “warmer, more intelligent, and better at following your instructions,” and the other “faster on simple tasks, more persistent on complex ones.”

Demis Hassabis, the head of Google DeepMind, said Gemini 3 avoids the usual chatbot fluff: “trading cliché and flattery for genuine insight — telling you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.” That’s a clear swipe at competing bots that have been criticized for being overly agreeable.

Google is also dropping Antigravity, a new agent platform that helps developers write code “at a higher, task-oriented level.” This feature aims to cut the number of prompts needed and focus on task execution, not just conversation. Antigravity drops alongside Gemini 3 and will target coders who are already playing with tools like OpenAI’s Codex.

Josh Woodward, the vice president of Google Labs and Gemini, called Gemini 3 the company’s “best vibe coding model ever.” Vibe coding tools let developers skip the boilerplate and generate entire blocks of code with a prompt. These tools are spreading fast, and Google wants to grab the developers already hooked on using AI to write code.

Google expands Gemini 3 into enterprise, visuals, and developer tools

Inside AI Mode, Gemini 3 can build layouts using tables, images, and grids. Google said users will be able to ask the AI to generate tools like a loan calculator or build a physics simulation with visuals.

When the company asked Gemini to explain the Van Gogh Gallery, the response came as an image-rich interactive interface, giving background for each painting.

This visual-first design is what Google calls generative interfaces, part of its strategy to move beyond walls of text and into more engaging, web-like experiences. For now, this will only be available to paid subscribers, but the plan is to roll it out to more users soon.

Developers will be able to plug into Gemini 3 via the Gemini API, and enterprise customers can run the model through Vertex AI, Google’s cloud platform for building and managing AI tools.

Businesses can use the model to automate real tasks, from creating onboarding materials and corporate training programs to analyzing factory floor images, interpreting videos, and even managing procurement workflows.

Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon all increased their capital spending forecasts last month. Together, they’re now planning to burn through over $380 billion this year, building out infrastructure for AI, including chips, servers, and entire data centers. That includes Google’s own buildout to support Gemini 3.

Gemini 3 is available now for those subscribed to premium plans, and the full expansion will continue over the coming weeks.

The entire launch and all product details were reported on Tuesday, according to official blog posts from Google and statements from its executives.

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