Google One, the company's all-in-one subscription service for extra cloud storage across Gmail, Google Photos, Drive, and more, recently crossed 100 million subscribers. The major milestone came just a day after the tech giant unveiled Gemini Advanced, the artificial intelligence (AI) assistant backed by its most powerful foundational model, Gemini Ultra. Its subscription plan is being bundled with Google One, and it is said to have contributed to the accelerated growth of Google One subscribers. The search engine maker had announced that the Gemini Advanced plan will also bring AI capabilities to its other services.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, revealed the milestone via a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) and said, “We just crossed 100M Google One subscribers! Looking forward to building on that momentum with our new AI Premium Plan (launched yesterday) offering AI features like Gemini Advanced.” Additionally, he also revealed that Gmail, Docs, and other services that are part of the Google One subscription will also get AI-based features.
The number is significant for the tech giant, given it removed its free unlimited storage offer for Google Photos in 2021 and has been pushing users to opt for the paid subscription ever since. Back then, the move was not popular, especially for users who had backed more than 15GB of data, which exceeded the free limit. However, gaining more than 100 million subscribers in less than four years highlights the value proposition of Google One.
The impact of the achievement becomes clearer when compared to the company's YouTube paid subscriptions. Google also recently hit 100 million subscribers on the platform, comprising both YouTube Premium subscribers and YouTube Music subscribers. The milestone came nine years after a paid tier was first announced for YouTube (YouTube Red was launched in October 2015).
In India, Google One monthly subscriptions start at the price of Rs. 130 for 100GB of combined storage space. This also includes some AI-based photo editing features, but none are powered by Gemini. The premium plan with 2TB of storage space is priced at Rs. 650 a month, whereas the Gemini Advanced subscription plan, named Google One AI Premium, is set at Rs. 1,950 per month.
