Difference between activation energy and free energy of activation

[Julie Tran 3C]

On the syllabus, it says that we have to know the difference between activation energy and free energy of activation. What is free energy of activation? Is this the same thing as free energy, the change in free energy, or something else?

[Charmaine Ho 2G]

I believe free energy of activation is Gibbs free energy.
Free energy is the available energy in the system that is able to do work.
Activation energy is the amount of energy required to overcome the energy barrier for the reaction to occur.

[Irene Kim 3E]

Free energy of activation refers to Gibbs free energy, which we can derive by subtracting the energy of the reactants from the energy of the products. This gives us the amount of energy available to do work (total free energy in the system). The activation energy is derived by subtracting the maximum energy of the reaction (during the transition state) from the energy of the reactants. This gives us the minimum amount of energy needed for that particular reaction to occur.

[Prachi Roy 2K]

Also, I would keep in mind that activation energy must always be positive, whereas free energy (referring to Gibb's free energy) can be either negative (pertaining to a spontaneous reaction) or positive.

[James Yu 3C]

I think something else to consider is that the gibb's free energy doesn't always indicate whether the reactants can exceed the activation energy, since gibb's energy only depends on final and initial states and does not depend on the pathway (which is affected by activation energy).