Gemini Skills: How to Use Them and Move Your Gems in Time

Gemini skills are saved instructions that you call by typing ”/” in any Gemini chat, and Google is using them to replace Gems. On personal Google accounts, Gems convert to draft skills automatically on 17 November 2026, according to Google’s transition guide, which also says personal accounts have not been able to create or edit Gems since 13 October. Work accounts keep Gems until no sooner than 1 March 2027, and education accounts until no sooner than 1 June 2027. This guide gives Google’s timeline for each account type, the menu steps to create a skill, the manual way to move a Gem, and Google’s own rules for writing a skill that Gemini actually picks up. Everything here comes from Google’s help pages and blogs, at the time of writing (October 2026).

What are Gemini skills?

A skill is a small package with a name, a description and a set of instructions, plus optional reference files. Google’s launch post (30 September 2026) says you can attach plain text documents, PDFs or images, and you can “stack multiple skills together at the same time”.

Gemini checks only a skill’s name and description to decide if it is relevant, reads the full instructions if it is, and opens files only when needed. That is how a skill can run automatically when your prompt matches. You can also call a skill yourself with ”/” (or ”@” if your account has the updated shortcut).

Skills use the open, Markdown-based SKILL.md format, so you can bring in a skill written for another tool. Claude uses the same idea, which we cover in our Claude review.

Gems vs skills: what changes

	Gems	Skills
Where you use them	Open the Gem, then chat inside it	Type ”/” in any chat, or let Gemini apply them automatically
More than one at once	No	Yes, several skills in one task
Automatic use	No	Yes, when the description matches (you can deactivate this)
Files	Knowledge files	Reference files, added only by uploading them with the skill (100 MB total)
Sharing	Shareable	“In the coming weeks”, per Google
Gem tools	Canvas, Deep Research, Create video, Create music, Guided Learning	Not supported yet
Limit	n/a	No cap on how many you create; 100 active at once

Skills travel into any chat and combine, but for now you lose sharing and several Gem tools.

When do Gems go away? Timeline by account type

Date	Personal accounts	Workspace business, enterprise, non-profit	Education
30 Sep 2026	Skills launch in the Gemini app	n/a	n/a
13 Oct 2026	You can no longer create or edit Gems (per Google’s guide)	Skills start a gradual rollout in the Gemini app, due to finish by mid-November	Same as Workspace; Gems still work
17 Nov 2026	Gems auto-migrate to draft skills	Gems move to the Settings panel and still work	Gems move to the Settings menu and still work
No sooner than 1 Mar 2027	n/a	Gems stop; remaining Gems become draft skills; “Ask a Gem” flows in Workspace Studio stop	n/a
No sooner than 1 Jun 2027	n/a	n/a	Gems auto-migrate and are removed from the Gemini app, Classroom and Gemini LTI

Skills inside Workspace apps (Docs, Gmail and the rest) were due from 5 October for Rapid Release and 19 October for Scheduled Release. On 13 October Google put both on hold “until further notice”. Workspace admins will get at least 30 days’ notice before Gems auto-migrate. Workspace Studio no longer lets you add new “Ask a Gem” steps, although existing flows keep working. Gems created in Classroom or through Gemini LTI will not migrate. Opal and Gems by Google Labs shut down in November 2026 and do not move to skills.

Who can use skills, and does it cost anything?

Google’s help page lists three requirements: be 18 or over, sign in to the Gemini app, and have Keep Activity on. It no longer says work and school accounts are unsupported, in line with the 13 October Workspace rollout (whose post says Gemini-app skills will be open to all ages). Skills work on gemini.google.com, the Mac app and the mobile app. You can upload a skill only on the web and the Mac app.

On cost, Google’s help page says: “Skills are available without a Google AI subscription.” The launch blog says they are available to “all Google AI subscription tiers”. Some press coverage calls skills paywalled. We found no Google statement that puts skills behind a paid plan.

How to create a skill in Gemini: 4 ways

On the web, open the left sidebar and click Customize, then Skills. If you do not see Customize, click More first. Older help text and screenshots still say Settings > Skills.

1. Create with Gemini

Click Create > Create with Gemini and Gemini drafts the skill with you in a chat. Easiest if you have never written one.

2. Start from a recommended template

Under Recommended, pick a template, edit its name, description and instructions, then click Create.

3. Create manually

Click Create > Create manually, fill in the name, description and instructions, and click Create.

4. Upload a SKILL.md file or folder

1. Click Upload and choose a SKILL.md file, or a folder or .zip that has SKILL.md at its root.
2. Click Open, review the result, then click Create.

The skill name must be lowercase with hyphens, for example my-new-skill. The whole upload can be up to 100 MB. Plain-text files are fine: Google’s rule of thumb is that anything you can read in a basic text editor is likely supported. PDFs and images also work. Word and Excel files (.docx, .doc, .xlsx) do not. Delete hidden files such as .DS_Store or .pyc first. Scripts cannot reach the internet or act on websites.

Shortcut: in any chat, ask Gemini to “create a skill that…”, and it saves the result to your Skills page.

How to move a Gem to a skill yourself

Doing it by hand lets you check the result before the deadline. Google’s steps:

1. Open the Gem, click Edit, and download every Knowledge file.
2. Create a folder named after your new skill, in lowercase with hyphens (for example review-client-proposals), and move the files into it.
3. Go to Customize > Skills > Create > Create manually. Paste in the Gem’s name, description and instructions, then click Create.
4. If the Gem had files, open the new skill, click More > Download to get its .zip, and move its SKILL.md into your folder.
5. Click More > Replace skill and upload the folder. The folder name must match the skill name. Replace skill always uploads the whole skill again, including its files.

If you use Gemini in both the Gemini app and Workspace apps, you will have to make the skill twice. Google says skills “do not sync” between the two.

If you let the migration run instead, your Gems arrive as draft skills. You review them and activate them before they work. Past chats with a Gem stay in your main chat history.

How to use skills in a chat

Type ”/” in the prompt bar, pick a skill and write your request. Active skills also kick in on their own when relevant. You can combine skills in one task, such as a skill that holds your writing style and one that holds your company’s brand rules, and Gemini applies both to the same draft. If the result is an interactive app, you can share it: since 19 October, Export > Google Sites turns it into a private Sites draft that you can edit and publish.

To stop a skill from running automatically, go to Customize > Skills, open it and choose More > Deactivate. You can still call it with ”/”. Only 100 skills can be active at once. Activating, deactivating, editing (More > Edit with Gemini, or edit the fields and Save) and deleting all happen on the Skills page, not in a chat. Delete is permanent, so download a .zip first.

How to write a skill that Gemini actually uses

A skill’s instructions are a prompt, so everything in our guide to writing better prompts applies. What is new is the trigger. Gemini uses only the name and description to decide whether to load a skill. Google’s help page sets these rules:

• Name: lowercase words joined by hyphens, starting with a verb. Avoid vague words such as “helper”, “tools” and “data”.
• Description: one or two sentences in the third person. Do not write “I can help you” or “You can use this to”. Stay within the 1,024-character limit and add “Use when…” followed by concrete examples of requests.
• Instructions: write for a type of task, not a single case. Include an output template, a “common mistakes” section and, for long jobs, a checklist. Tell Gemini to ask when information is missing instead of guessing.

Google’s education guide adds a warning: avoid skills with overlapping descriptions, because Gemini can only pick between them on name and description. Here is an example we wrote to Google’s rules:

---
name: summarise-meeting-notes
description: Turns raw meeting notes or transcripts into a short summary with decisions, owners and deadlines. Use when the user pastes meeting notes, a call transcript, or asks to "write up the meeting" or "list the action items".
---
Output, in this order:
1. Three-sentence summary of what the meeting was for and what changed.
2. Decisions: bullet list, one decision per line.
3. Action items: table with Owner | Task | Due date.

Common mistakes to avoid:
- Do not invent owners or dates. If either is missing, write "unassigned" or "no date" and ask me at the end.
- Do not repeat discussion that led to no decision.

Checklist before replying: every action item has an owner column, every date came from the notes, the summary is under 80 words.

Google also says to skip skills for one-off jobs, tasks Gemini already handles well, and processes that change constantly.

What skills can’t do yet

• The Gem tools in the table above do not work with skills.
• GitHub files, .docx and .xlsx are not supported.
• Scripts in a skill cannot use the internet.
• Sharing, files from Google Drive and Gemini Notebook notebooks are promised “in the coming weeks”.
• There is no page that lists the past chats that used a skill.
• Skills do not sync between the Gemini app and Workspace apps, and skills inside Workspace apps are on hold for now.
• Connected Apps such as the Workspace apps do work with skills.

Should you rebuild your Gems now?

Rebuild by hand now if:

• the Gem uses Knowledge files and you want to check that they carry over;
• other people rely on the Gem, because skill sharing has not shipped and you need a plan for them;
• the Gem relies on Canvas or Deep Research, so you know what you have to replace.

You can wait for the 17 November auto-migration if the Gem is a simple, instructions-only Gem on a personal account. Either way, copy the instructions of every Gem you care about into a document before 17 November.

For how Gemini fits against the alternatives, see our Gemini review, the Claude vs Gemini comparison and ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini. Our news posts cover Gemini 4 Argon and Gemini in Gmail. More how-tos are in our guides section.

For how skills fit into Gemini’s plans and features overall, see our Gemini review.