GoKawiilFor a lot of my close family and friends, Google One is perhaps the most popular subscription, right behind Netflix. The amount of high-res photos and 4K videos we store on Google Photos, combined with the fact that we use Google Drive as our primary storage space, makes Google One a critical component of our cloud storage system.
While it might be Google’s idea to offer multiple plans to suit everyone’s needs, mixing AI into these plans has already made the tiers far more complicated than they should be. Despite complaints, Google doesn’t seem in any hurry to stop anytime soon — and is instead adding fuel to the fire by further complicating these plans to nobody’s benefit.
What do you primarily use Google One for? 45 votes Google Photos backups 44 % Google Drive storage 27 % Gemini AI features 4 % A mix of everything 24 %
The cheaper Ultra
Joe Maring / Android Authority
Among the AI-enabled plans under Google One, the AI Ultra tier was the most expensive until now, priced at $250. But at Google I/O 2026, Google not only sliced that price to $200, but it also introduced a new $100 Ultra tier to sit between the AI Pro and the old AI Ultra slabs. This move might seem like an act of generosity from Google, but it’s really just a response to Claude and ChatGPT introducing similar mid-tier AI plans over the last couple of months at the same $100 price.
The only difference between the two Google AI Ultra plans seems to be more limited AI allowances on the $100 plan, along with slightly less Google Drive storage — 20TB instead of 30TB. Everything else remains unchanged, and that’s the critical bit.
The new cheaper Ultra tier is really just a response to Claude and ChatGPT introducing similar, $100 mid-tier AI plans recently.
Google is going after Perplexity Computer with its own version called Gemini Spark, which lets AI agents work for you in the background even when your laptop is closed. Then there’s Gemini Omni for customized video production, along with Daily Brief, which gives you a personalized summary of your day every morning. These features are either exclusive to the Google AI Ultra plan or will first debut there before trickling down to other tiers.
Despite being priced similarly to other AI tools, Google already offers by far the best value among AI plans — 5TB of storage on the $20 AI Pro plan is actually insane. These new features and lower Ultra pricing only sweeten the deal further.
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