- Google’s AI Plus plan is now available in the U.S. for $8 a month
- AI Plus includes access to Gemini Pro and AI video tools
- Subscription includes 200GB of shared storage
Google has a new option if you’re interested in playing with its advanced AI tools but don’t want to break the bank. The company has opened access to its AI Plus subscription to 35 new countries, including the United States. Google is pitching it as an entry-level upgrade for anyone who wants more out of Gemini without going all-in on premium pricing.
The new plan costs $8, and only $4 a month for the first two months, for a limited time. That’s significantly cheaper than the $20 AI Pro subscription, but its feature list makes a solid case for being more than just a compromise plan. For many everyday users, it may hit the sweet spot of enough power for the budget, a space that Google seems eager to occupy as generative AI becomes more deeply embedded into daily tasks.
AI Plus includes 200 GB of shared Google One storage, but it’s really about the AI experience. AI Plus unlocks what Google calls “enhanced access” to Gemini 3 Pro, the company’s most advanced AI chatbot model, along with the image-generating Nano Banana Pro, Deep Research for complex questions, and limited access to the AI video-making Veo 3.1 Fast model.
Users also get 200 AI credits each month for Flow and Whisk, Google’s video-creation platforms. Flow is designed for cinematic-style generation using Gemini and Veo, while Whisk takes static images and animates them using Veo’s video engine. By comparison, the free tier throttles AI usage and doesn’t include some of the other features.
Even more significant for many users is how the subscription threads AI into Google’s core apps. AI Plus provides Gemini features for Gmail, Docs, and Google Vids. It also expands capacity in NotebookLM.
Gemini all over
For anyone already paying for a Google One Premium plan at $9.99/month, there’s even better news: AI Plus is being added automatically at no extra cost. That means if you’re on the 2 TB tier for photo and file storage, you’ll soon get all the AI bells and whistles bundled in. It’s clearly also a move to get more people into the Gemini ecosystem without making them think twice about another subscription.
With AI Plus, Google seems to be targeting the casual creator who might want to animate a birthday card or the student summarizing ten PDFs into one study guide. AI Plus gives users enough AI firepower to start thinking of these tools as companions rather than gimmicks. The addition of Gemini into apps like Chrome and the promise of early access to new features are all about how Google wants to make AI synonymous with Gemini.
Of course, there’s the question of whether most people are ready to pay for any AI yet. Unlike music or movies, AI subscriptions are still a relatively new concept for mainstream users. Most people are used to Google being free, except maybe for cloud storage. Convincing them that AI belongs in the same tier as Netflix or Disney+ might take time.
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ESchwartzwrites@gmail.com (Eric Hal Schwartz)
