What you need to know
- Google released Gemini Advanced earlier this week, a more capable version of its AI chatbot powered by the Ultra 1.0 model.
- Gemini Advanced is available through the Google One AI Premium plan, which is a subscription service that costs $20 per month.
- Though most benefits of the Google One AI Premium plan can be shared with up to 5 others, a notable exception is Gemini Advanced.
Google completely overhauled its AI efforts Thursday, rebranding Bard to Gemini. Alongside the change, the company released Gemini Advanced. It's an advanced version of its standard Gemini chatbot powered by Ultra 1.0, the most powerful AI model from Google yet. The catch is that Gemini Advanced is locked behind a paywall.
Google added a new plan to its subscription offerings called Google One AI Premium. Essentially, the subscription includes everything from the previous high-end tier, Google One Premium. On top of that, Google One AI Premium users get access to Gemini Advanced and a slew of other AI features. These subscribers will get first access to upcoming AI features, such as Gemini in Workspace.
However, users who subscribed to the Google One AI Premium plan are now finding out that their Gemini Advanced access can't be shared with others. Most benefits in the plan can be shared with up to five others, but not Gemini Advanced. If you look at Google's breakdown of the Google One plans and pricing, that isn't explicitly made clear.
Google explains that detail in a Google One Help article instead. Here, the company says that only the family plan manager can use Gemini Advanced. Considering this is the primary selling point of Google One AI Premium over the standard premium plan, this is significant.
This development complicates Google's pricing model. Google One AI Premium costs $20 per month, which is $10 more than the regular Google One Premium plan. The highest-end AI plan includes everything in the Google One Premium subscription, so it was originally considered a great value. However, if you hoped to share Gemini Advanced access with up to five others, you're going to be out of luck.
This isn't exactly surprising, though. Competing AI subscription services also do not allow their benefits to be shared with others. For example, OpenAI's ChatGPT Plus and Microsoft's Copilot Pro both cost $20 per month and cannot be shared with family members. So, Google One AI Premium is still a better value than those plans.
However, it seems that some Google One AI Premium users expected Gemini Advanced access to be shared with a family plan. In a Reddit post, multiple users were confused to find out Gemini Advanced wasn't shareable.
We're curious to see whether other AI-related benefits, such as Gemini in Workspace, will be shareable or not. For now, Google doesn't explain this in its support article because it is not yet available.
