Gemini
Google's family of AI models and chatbot assistant, available on web, mobile and API.
HN commenters like Gemini for fast, search-style everyday questions123, non-coding research and learning456, and OCR or data extraction.789 The most common complaints are confidently wrong or hallucinated answers10111213 and weak coding and agentic performance.14151617
Why people recommend it
Non-coding tasks · 3
Several commenters use it for research, learning and general questions outside of coding.
“Gemini is also IMO excellent for everything that is not coding.”
“I use gemini for everything not-coding”
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“I find myself using it more than Claude.”
Search replacement · 3
Some use it instead of regular Google searches for basic information and lighter research.
“I've been using gemini personally instead of what I used regular google searches for the better part.”
“it's my go-to for just searching basic information (replacing google search) because it's so darn fast”
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“Gemini is really good about surfacing summaries and overviews and answering thorny questions”
OCR and extraction · 3
Praised for OCR, data extraction and video transcription.
“Gemini has and does absolutely dominate for this.”
“Gemini web which had the best OCR + context window combo at the time”
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“you can plug it into any gemini and have it transcribe and diarize the video.”
Daily driver · 3
Some commenters use it all day and call it solid or a fine workhorse.
“I use Gemini all day at work via the chat interface. It's rock solid.”
“I use Gemini more than any other model at the moment”
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“It was a fine workhorse IMO, no complaints from me.”
Speed · 3
Commenters note that it responds quickly, especially the Flash models.
“it's my go-to for just searching basic information (replacing google search) because it's so darn fast”
“I enjoy the speed of Gemini”
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“I use their models and for my niche they are the best for good quality at great speeds.”
In-car use · 3
Users like it in Google Maps and Android Auto on drives.
“I love Gemini in Google Maps for long drives.”
“I use Gemini frequently, with Google Auto, and whenever I make that sort of query, which I do often, it displays "Searching on Google Maps...", and comes up with correct results.”
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“But other than that I actually like Gemini, I check stuff against it all the time”
Caveats and dissent
Coding and agents · 3
Several commenters say it lags for coding and agentic work.
“3.1 Gemini was amazing for anything non-agentic. I switched to it for my primary chatbot purposes.”
“I've been using gemini personally instead of what I used regular google searches for the better part.”
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“I have found Gemini models to be exclusively good for data extraction, and absolutely terrible at everything else.”
Hallucinations · 3
Users report confident misremembering, invented details and stubborn wrong answers.
“Please note that Gemini has a habit of "confident slight misremembering".”
“Google's Gemini hallucinated spots or imagined details”
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“It is one thing to avoid sycophancy, but Gemini often seems to go well beyond that.”
Forced integration · 3
Some dislike Gemini being pushed into Android, Classroom and other Google products.
“Google keeps shoving Gemini down everyone's throats”
“the amount of AI forced down our throats is on another level”
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“after the Gemini update it started refusing to set a timer for me, so I churned.”
App and rollout · 3
Some say the apps work worse than the API, and paid users report delayed access to new models.
“the problem with the Gemini apps is the harness, not the model itself”
“Clearly this product is an afterthought”
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“Nope, fails twice "Please try again" then suggests just trash formatting.”
Memory wipes · 1
One heavy user reports repeated unannounced loss of conversation history.
“After eight consecutive memory wipes, I mostly stopped using Gemini.”
Account risk · 1
One commenter avoids it for fear of being locked out of their Google account.
“That's why I stay away from trying Gemini or doing anything much with Google”
Often compared with
3 moved from Claude to Gemini
1 moved from Gemini to Claude
10 moved from ChatGPT to Gemini
5 moved from Gemini to ChatGPT
2 moved from Gemini to Codex
1 moved from Gemini to Claude Code
1 moved from Gemini to Claude Opus
1 moved from GPT-5 to Gemini
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking 10 mentions
- Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber 9 mentions
- Gemini 4 Argon 7 mentions
- Gemini 3.7 Flash 7 mentions
- Ask HN: What default model do you use and why? 6 mentions
- Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber 6 mentions
Also written as Gemini 3, Google Gemini, Gemini 3.0, Gemini 3.1. Data: gemini.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 48
“Further debugging of the protocol was done in collaboration with Gemini”
“Yes I used the tool Gemini to write my review of Gemini Code”
“I’m a $20/paid user for both Gemini and Claude.”
“it was best choice for daily usage. Nice, clear answers, never nonsense.”
“Gemini is also IMO excellent for everything that is not coding.”
“Gemini has and does absolutely dominate for this.”
“I find myself using it more than Claude.”
“my little pocket friend (an AI called Gemini, perhaps you know him?)”
“I use their models and for my niche they are the best for good quality at great speeds.”
“3.8 medium is my daily driver. This gets me pretty far.”
“When I use the Gemini app for iOS, it says that I’m on “Ultra” in the left sidebar near the bottom.”
“I used Google Search with Gemini summaries and got the same answer.”
“I gave it some real problems for which I used Gemini.”
“Gemini models are actually fine for me as an amateur+”
“Gemini web which had the best OCR + context window combo at the time”
“I recommend comparing what it rewrites to something that Gemini models output.”
“Nope, fails twice "Please try again" then suggests just trash formatting.”
“I haven't used it as much because it was performing quite poor for what I was doing”
“I use Gemini within the Gmail suite”
“I had been using Gemini to build OpenScad models.”
“if you use mostly flash models, it goes on forever”
“gemini says I can get it to repower itself.”
“After eight consecutive memory wipes, I mostly stopped using Gemini.”
“That's why I stay away from trying Gemini or doing anything much with Google”
“you can plug it into any gemini and have it transcribe and diarize the video.”
“I used to use gemini til google banned my 20+ year email for "bot-like behavior".”
“Just gemini as antigravity requires Ultra subscription to use it in that IDE”
“I use Gemini all day at work via the chat interface. It's rock solid.”
“the problem with the Gemini apps is the harness, not the model itself”
“3.1 Gemini was amazing for anything non-agentic. I switched to it for my primary chatbot purposes.”
“I never touch 3.8, it's awful.”
“Gemini, for a consumer of the google ecosystem, is also maddeningly, bafflingly worthless.”
“Please note that Gemini has a habit of "confident slight misremembering".”
“Gemini is really good about surfacing summaries and overviews and answering thorny questions”
“I've had middling success with models like DS V4.1 Flash and free Gemini.”
“My organization provides free Gemini access”
“I use Gemini more than any other model at the moment”
“It is one thing to avoid sycophancy, but Gemini often seems to go well beyond that.”
“Gemini video understanding as a developer API”
“the amount of AI forced down our throats is on another level”
“Google's Gemini hallucinated spots or imagined details”
“I have found Gemini models to be exclusively good for data extraction, and absolutely terrible at everything else.”
“Literally every experience I've had with Gemini / Google Search AI answers followed this exact pattern”
“The code they supplied to me has NEVER worked or was so convoluted that I threw it away and did it myself.”
“I use gemini for everything not-coding”
“I've been using gemini personally instead of what I used regular google searches for the better part.”
“it's my go-to for just searching basic information (replacing google search) because it's so darn fast”
“Gemini for academic work to encyclopedia and know-how discussions”