Uninstall Google Gemini on Mac

This guide covers Google Gemini, not MacPaw’s Gemini 2 duplicate-file tool. Save local files you need and verify access to required content on the website, then quit Gemini and move it from Applications to the Trash. Removing the app does not delete your Google account or cancel a Google subscription. The steps cover Google’s disk image and the Homebrew cask google-gemini.

Quit and remove the app

1. Quit Gemini, then check Activity Monitor for Gemini processes; the app also runs a launcher helper, com.google.GeminiMacOS.launcher.
2. After Gemini and its launcher have stopped, use Finder’s Shift + Command + G to copy the complete ~/Library/Application Support/com.google.GeminiMacOS and ~/Library/Application Support/com.google.GeminiMacOS.launcher folders you want to keep to an independent private backup and inspect the copies. Move only confirmed, unwanted app-owned data individually to Trash, then move Gemini from Applications to the Trash. Leave the shared Google folder, CLI data and shared groups alone.
3. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. In the recorded test, two entries were still listed after the app had gone to the Trash: the launcher (com.google.GeminiMacOS.launcher) and a background item for com.google.gemini.backupmanager. Identify entries belonging to this Google desktop app before turning them off; keep other or unidentified Gemini items.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The google-gemini cask’s zap step does more than remove Gemini’s own folders. It also unloads Google’s shared updater jobs (com.google.keystone.* and com.google.GoogleUpdater.wake.system) and removes the installed files tracked by the com.google.pkg.Keystone package receipt before forgetting that receipt, which Chrome and other Google apps rely on for updates. It also moves ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.google.gemini to the Trash. If you run brew uninstall --cask --zap google-gemini yourself, the zap step does not follow Mole’s checkboxes. If any other Google app is installed, remove only the app (Homebrew’s google-gemini cask):

brew uninstall --cask google-gemini

Inspect desktop data separately

Use Shift + Command + G in Finder to open these locations. App data is not all cache: preserve settings you want before deleting it.

Do not treat Gemini CLI as a desktop remnant

If a Gemini-related command still runs in Terminal, identify the separate tool that owns it before deciding whether to keep it. This page concerns Google's desktop app and its launcher. Continued access to Gemini on the web does not mean the Mac app failed to uninstall.

Check the result

Run these read-only commands after the app is in the Trash:

pgrep -lf Gemini.app
launchctl list | grep -i gemini
ls -d "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.google.GeminiMacOS" ~/.gemini

• No output from pgrep means only that no full command line matched the Gemini.app regular expression; it does not cover GeminiAppLauncher.app, and the dot is a regex wildcard. Identify a listed process’s executable and owner before treating it as Google’s desktop app; keep MacPaw or CLI processes belonging to separate tools.
• This filtered launchctl check covers matching rows in the current user session only; after a successful command without errors, no output means only that no row matched gemini. A match does not establish that System Settings can toggle that job: inspect Login Items & Extensions and turn off only an entry confirmed as this app’s, keeping other owners’ jobs.
• ls -d prints each folder that still exists. A surviving ~/.gemini belongs to Gemini CLI or another tool and is expected.

What Mole lists

For Google’s disk image:

• ~/Library/Application Support/com.google.GeminiMacOS and ~/Library/Application Support/com.google.GeminiMacOS.launcher are selected by default, along with Gemini’s caches, preferences and web data.
• An empty ~/Library/Application Support/Google and ~/.gemini are not listed. Mole also skips the Google SDK caches CCTClearcutLogger, GIPPseudonymousID, and PHTPhenotype.
• Login items and background items are not edited; turn them off in System Settings.

What this test covered

On September 19, 2026, the Gemini app was copied from Google’s disk image into Applications, without the nested GeminiAppLauncher.app, and uninstalled with a Preview build of Mole 1.15. Its 14 listed items, including both support folders, were selected by default and removed. The launcher login item and the com.google.gemini.backupmanager background item were still listed afterwards, pointing at the app in the Trash. ~/.gemini was not touched. Signed-in sync and the Homebrew cask were not tested.