Gemini Skills replace Gems: how to create yours and what you lose

Gemini Skills are reusable instructions you save once and use inside any conversation; Google announced them on September 30, 2026 in the Gemini app and Workspace, and they replace Gems. Gems convert automatically into skills: November 17 for personal accounts, March 2027 for business and June 2027 for education. What changes is where they live: a Gem was a separate chat; a skill lives inside any chat.

What changes: from Gem to skill

It looks like a rename and it isn't. A Gem was a separate chat you had to go into. A skill lives inside any conversation: you type a slash, pick its name and Gemini works with those rules. You can also use several skills at once in the same message.

What a skill looks like inside

A skill is a folder with a file called SKILL.md, text in Markdown format and an open standard: a skill written on another platform can be brought into Gemini without redoing it. It carries three things: a name, a description and the instructions. The description matters more than it seems, because Gemini uses it to decide whether to apply the skill on its own when your message matches. If you don't want to leave it to chance, you invoke it yourself with the slash or the at sign.

How to create a skill, step by step

You go to the skills page. There are four paths: ask Gemini to create it with you, start from a recommended template, fill in a blank one, or upload a folder or zip that already has its SKILL.md. The manual path:

1. Name, lowercase with hyphens, for example propuesta-comercial.
2. Description: one sentence saying when to use it.
3. Instructions: your steps.
4. Save it, open any chat, type a slash, pick the skill, paste the meeting notes and review what comes back. If it drifts, you don't start from scratch: you edit one line of the instructions.

The math: how much time it saves

This math is ours, not Google's. Suppose a proposals skill saves you 15 minutes of formatting and tone each time, and you do four proposals a week: that's 60 minutes a week, 52 hours a year, more than a full work week. The math doesn't depend on the model being smarter, but on you no longer explaining the same thing every morning.

Three use cases

• Two-person agency (our proposal): one skill with the brand voice and another with the proposal format. They type /voz-de-marca and /propuesta, paste the call notes and a draft comes out for review. It's a draft: you're still responsible for what you promise.
• Teacher (inspired by a Google example): a lesson-planning skill and a weekly-newsletter skill with her school's guidelines. The guidelines stop being text to paste. In Workspace, skills are only for people 18 and older.
• Supplier evaluator (inspired by a Google example): you upload three quotes, one skill compares them against your criteria and another drafts the email with the recommendation. Whether it works with your real quotes depends on how clear your criteria are.

When you get it and when Gems migrate

In Workspace it starts October 5, and Google says it finishes in mid-November. In the Gemini app, October 13. Gems move like this: November 17 for personal accounts, March 2027 for business and June 2027 for education. Gems convert automatically into skills and knowledge files travel with them. If any Gem matters to you, recreate it beforehand.

When does a skill win and when a Gem?

A skill wins when you want an instruction in the middle of any conversation, to combine several, or to take your work to another platform. A Gem won when you wanted an assistant with its own chat and default tools, like Canvas, and that's exactly what you lose. Before migrating, make a list: of your Gems, which were an instruction and which a workspace? The first kind pass painlessly; the second need a plan.

What it costs to set up a skill

In money, nothing extra that Google has announced: it's a feature of your account. The cost is your time. The first takes an afternoon, because the hard part is deciding clearly what you want; the next ones, half an hour (editorial estimate). And there's a hidden cost: maintaining them. When your pricing or tone changes, you have to edit the skill or it will keep working with the old rules.

Who it isn't for and the objection

If you use Gemini twice a month for one-off questions, or your work changes every time, a skill saves you nothing. If you want an assistant with its own chat and separate history, the Gem was closer to that. The objection is that a skill is a saved prompt. True, but it applies itself when your message matches its description, it stacks with others and it's an open standard that moves between platforms. If you use a single prompt once a month, the objection wins.

Failure modes

• Skills don't work with Create video, Create music, Canvas, Deep Research or Guided learning.
• There's no page showing which chats you used each skill in.
• GitHub files aren't supported.
• App skills and Workspace skills don't sync: you have to create them twice.
• Scripts can't access external sites.
• You can create as many as you like, but only 100 active at a time.

How to apply it in your business?

Use this template for your first skill: a lowercase hyphenated name; a one-sentence description starting with when to use it; the role, who Gemini is when working with this skill; numbered steps in the order you'd do them; the output format; and what it must never do. Create first the skill for the task you repeat most, test it three times with real work and only then create the second.

For the quick version, read the full breakdown of Gemini Gems becoming Skills.

Frequently asked questions

What are Gemini Skills?

Reusable instructions you save once and use in any conversation, built on the open SKILL.md standard.

When do Gems go away?

November 17 for personal accounts, March 2027 for business and June 2027 for education. They convert automatically into skills.

Can I use several skills at once?

Yes, in the same message.

What doesn't work with skills?

Create video, Create music, Canvas, Deep Research and Guided learning.

How many skills can I have?

As many as you like, but only 100 active at a time.

Conclusion

Gemini Skills aren't a rename: they're reusable pieces that stack and move between platforms, at the cost of losing the default tools Gems had. Your value isn't how much the model knows, but how much of your way of working you can leave written down for it.