Google Gemini 1.5 just announced — and it could blow away ChatGPT

Google Gemini 1.5 logo
(Image credit: Google)

Google launched a preview of a major new version of its Gemini large language model this week to make it available for early testing, and if the company's claims are true this could be the most capable LLM we've seen yet.

I say that because Google claims this new version, Google Gemini 1.5, is more efficient than its predecessor and more capable of "long-context understanding", with a potential context window of up to 1 million tokens. 

That's a technical way of measuring how much a model can understand before it hits a limit, and it's a big deal that Google is claiming Gemini 1.5 can handle up to 1 million tokens — to put that in perspective, Gemini 1.0 had a context window of 32,000 tokens.

In this diagram Google charts how the 1M token context window of Gemini 1.5 compares against contemporary LLMs like Anthropic's Claude 2.1 and OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 Turbo. (Image credit: Google)

Competitors like ChatGPT Plus and Microsoft Copilot, which currently run on OpenAI's GPT-4 Turbo LLM, have context windows of up to 128,000 tokens. So the fact that Google claims Gemini 1.5 can understand up to 1 million tokens is a significant upgrade.

According to Google, a 1 million token context window allows Gemini 1.5 to understand up to one hour of video, 11 hours of audio, over 700,000 words (so it could read, digest and answer questions about Tolstoy's War & Peace) or over 30,000 lines of code. In short, it's a big upgrade.

However, it's important to note that not everyone who uses Google Gemini 1.5 will have access to the full 1 million token context window, now or at release. 

According to a Google blog post published today (February 15), the company is giving a limited group of developers and business customers early access to Gemini 1.5 and the full 1M token window (via its AI Studio and Vertex AI dev platforms) so they can hammer on it and see what's possible. 

But Google says the rest of us will have to wait a bit for the official release of Gemini 1.5 Pro. And when it does arrive, the entry-level tier will be limited to the more market-standard 128,000 token window. Google says it plans to "introduce pricing tiers" that will scale up to the 1M token limit, so if you want to play with an AI that can watch and understand an entire Buster Keaton film (see clip above) be prepared to pay up.

More from Tom's Guide

Category
Arrow
Arrow
Back to Mobile Cell Phones
Brand
Arrow
Storage Size
Arrow
Colour
Arrow
Condition
Arrow
Price
Arrow
Any Price
Showing 10 of 107 deals
Filters
Arrow
Our Review
1
Google Pixel 8 Pro - 128 GB
Verizon
Our Review
2
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 512...
Samsung
Our Review
4
OnePlus 12,16GB...
Amazon
(512GB)
Our Review
5
OnePlus - 12 512GB (Unlocked)...
Best Buy
Our Review
6
Google Pixel 8 Pro 128 GB in...
Visible
Our Review
8
Google Pixel 8 Pro - 128 GB
AT&T Mobility
Low Stock
(Yellow)
Our Review
10
New Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra...
Walmart
Show more
Alex Wawro
Senior Editor Computing

Alex Wawro is a lifelong tech and games enthusiast with more than a decade of experience covering both for outlets like Game Developer, Black Hat, and PC World magazine. A lifelong PC builder, he currently serves as a senior editor at Tom's Guide covering all things computing, from laptops and desktops to keyboards and mice. 

Read more
Gemini logo shown on a phone's screen.
Gemini 2.0 'Experimental Advanced' is now available to paying subscribers
Google Gemini
Google Gemini — everything you need to know
Gemini 2
Google Gemini 2.0 is now free for users — here’s how to access it now
Gemini Live
Gemini Live major upgrade just revealed by Google
Gemini 2
Google unveils Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking — its answer to OpenAI's o1
Gemini logo on smartphone
Google is giving away Gemini's best paid features for free — here's the tools you can try now
Latest in AI
Siri
Siri 2.0 features reportedly only working ‘two-thirds to 80% of the time’
Apple Intelligence on an iPhone screen
Apple analysts sound alarm on Siri delay — here’s why
Manus vs. DeepSeek logos
I just tested Manus vs. DeepSeek with 7 prompts from Gemini — here's the winner
AI Madness logo
AI Madness: The ultimate chatbot showdown
Manus and ChatGPT
I just tested Manus vs ChatGPT with 5 prompts — here's the winner
Sam Altman
OpenAI takes aim at authors with a new AI model that's 'good at creative writing'
Latest in News
A person on a laptop converting a PDF to a DOC
FBI issues warning over free online file converters that infect your PC with malware
The Find my People feature
Android Find My can now track your friends and family — here's how to use it
Foldable iPhone concept image
Are you sitting down? Here’s what the foldable iPhone could cost
Samsung HW-Q990D soundbar
Samsung’s flagship 2024 soundbar just got bricked by a new firmware update — don’t update
A hacker typing quickly on a keyboard
New MassJacker malware is hijacking digital wallets to steal large sums from users
Owen Cooper as Jamie Miller in Adolescence
'Adolescence' is a gripping new Netflix show that's already hit No. 1 — and it’s 100% on Rotten Tomatoes