Gemini

Google Takeout exports Gemini chats, uploads and Gems as an archive delivered in hours to days, but no import exists and no runtime outside Google can restore the export into a working agent.

• Download your Gemini Apps data

The Takeout export covers Gemini Apps Activity (chats, generated media, uploads) and Gems. It does not list Instructions for Gemini, memory derived from past chats, scheduled actions, or connected and custom app configuration, so two or more classes of state stay with Google.

• Download your Gemini Apps data
• Schedule actions in Gemini Apps

Gemini runs only as a Google-hosted service that needs a Google Account, and nothing can be exported to run on its own. With Google unreachable, no agent runs.

• Google Terms of Service

The Gemini app offers only Google's Gemini models through its model picker. There is no documented way to use another vendor's model or a local model.

• Gemini Apps release notes

Google says users of disabled accounts 'may' be able to download their data, excluding some violation categories and valid legal requests, and its Terms promise a Takeout opportunity when a service is discontinued. There is no binding post-termination export window of at least 30 days that also covers bans.

• Download data from a disabled Google Account
• Google Terms of Service

Chats, uploads and Gems can be exported via Takeout and read with general tools. Google-supplied instructions and the memory Gemini derives from past chats are not readable outside Google's service.

• Download your Gemini Apps data
• Get personalization with memory of your past Gemini chats

The base system prompt and any context Google adds are not visible to the owner, and for past-chat memory the documented check is to ask Gemini whether it used past chats. Server-side behaviour switches cannot be determined from public documentation (G12), which makes two shortfalls.

• Get personalization with memory of your past Gemini chats
• Gemini Apps release notes

Chats selected for human review are kept 'for up to three years', are disconnected from the account and are not visible to the owner. Some data is kept 'until you delete your Google Account', and Google's retention page allows unspecified 'extended' retention for business and legal purposes.

• Gemini Apps Privacy Hub
• How Google retains data

Google states that Gemini Apps chats are not used to show ads, but this is a help-centre statement, not a binding commitment. Gemini automatically uses Google's own Search, Maps, YouTube, Flights and Hotels; this is disclosed, but the documentation does not show that these defaults can be switched off.

• Gemini Apps Privacy Hub
• Use and manage Connected Apps in Gemini

Gemini Apps Activity records prompts, responses and connected-app actions, but auto-deletes after 18 months by default. Public documentation does not show that every path (for example scheduled or provider-side work) is recorded, or that failed recording is reported to the owner (G12).

• Manage & delete your Gemini Apps activity

Gemini Apps Activity is held by Google and no integrity data or verifier is documented, so the owner cannot detect edits or deletions.

• Manage & delete your Gemini Apps activity

The activity record is written on Google's side, and no Gemini tool that edits Gemini Apps Activity is documented. However, no protection against the agent altering or suppressing its record is documented either, so the pass is withheld (G12).

• Manage & delete your Gemini Apps activity

Gemini's service, runtime and models are closed source and hosted by Google.

• Google Terms of Service

The agent's only identity is the owner's Google Account, which Google issues and can suspend.

• Download data from a disabled Google Account

No change history or rollback is documented for instructions, Gems, memory, connected apps or model version. The activity log records chats, not changes to agent state.

• Customize Gemini's responses with your instructions
• Use Gems in Gemini Apps

Owners can add, edit and delete Instructions for Gemini and create and edit their own Gems. Google's base system prompt cannot be replaced, and the documentation does not say premade Gems can be edited.

• Customize Gemini's responses with your instructions
• Use Gems in Gemini Apps

Instructions for Gemini are itemised, editable and deletable. Memory of past chats is not itemised: to remove something, the owner must delete the chats containing it, or correct Gemini in a chat. This memory feature is documented for Google AI plan subscribers.

• Get personalization with memory of your past Gemini chats
• Customize Gemini's responses with your instructions

Owners who are 18+ in the US with a personal account can add custom MCP servers without Google review and remove them, and can disconnect Connected Apps. Gemini automatically uses public information from Google services such as Search, Maps and YouTube, and the documentation does not show a way to remove these or the other built-in tools.

• Connect & manage custom apps for Gemini Apps
• Use and manage Connected Apps in Gemini

Some protections can be changed by the owner (for example, Keep Activity logging can be turned off). Others are locked: manual confirmation of write actions by custom apps is required, and no owner switch for it is documented.

• Connect & manage custom apps for Gemini Apps
• Manage & delete your Gemini Apps activity

Google changes the default model server-side (for example, 3.6 Flash 'introduced as default', 2026.07.21) and announces it only in release notes. The owner cannot decline the change or pin a version.

• Gemini Apps release notes

Limits are on/off per connected app. No per-recipient, per-domain, per-path or per-tool allow or deny lists are documented, and no limit is documented to hold against model output or injected instructions.

• Use and manage Connected Apps in Gemini

Google imposes manual confirmation for custom-app write actions, but the documentation shows no approval gate the owner can set or choose.

• Connect & manage custom apps for Gemini Apps

A reply can be stopped in the chat. Scheduled actions must be turned off one at a time in settings, and no single global stop is documented.

• Schedule actions in Gemini Apps

Keep Activity is on by default for adults, and while it is on, chats are used to 'develop, and improve its services (including training generative AI models)' and a subset is reviewed by human reviewers. Both are opt-out, not opt-in.

• Gemini Apps Privacy Hub
• Manage & delete your Gemini Apps activity

Connected Apps and custom MCP apps are listed and can be disconnected or removed one by one. The documentation does not say how quickly revocation takes effect or that Google keeps no copy afterwards, so the pass is withheld (G12).

• Use and manage Connected Apps in Gemini
• Connect & manage custom apps for Gemini Apps

Deleting Gemini activity or the Google Account does not remove human-reviewed chats, which are kept for up to three years. Backups can persist for up to 6 months, and some data can be retained for extended periods.

• Gemini Apps Privacy Hub
• How Google retains data
• Delete your Google Account