Google Expands Affordable AI Plus Plan to 40+ Countries, Challenging OpenAI's ChatGPT Go

Google's cheaper AI Plus plan is now available in over 40 countries | TechCrunch

Google's new, cheaper AI Plus plan is now available in more than 40 countries, including Angola, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Senegal, Uganda, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The company first launched its AI Plus plan in Indonesia earlier this month at Rp 75,000 ($4.50) per month. The plan costs around $5 in most countries, and Google says it will discount it by 50% for six months in a few locations like Nepal and Mexico. The Plus tier unlocks access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, as well as tools for image and video creation like Flow, Whisk, and Veo 3 Fast. Users also get access to more features on the company's AI research assistant NotebookLM, can use AI in Gmail, Docs and Sheets, and get 200GB of cloud storage. The news comes a day after OpenAI expanded its sub-$5 ChatGPT Go plan to Indonesia. Notably, India, where OpenAI debuted ChatGPT Go, is missing from Google's list. Both companies offer a $20 per month base plan, but with these new, cheaper subscription tiers, they're trying to reach more paying users in parts of the world where a $20 subscription can prove costly.

Google's budget Gemini plan expands to more countries

To unlock the best Gemini features and deep integration across Google's products, you need to subscribe to Google's AI Pro plan. At $20 a month, it's not cheap, with the company offering an even more expensive AI Ultra plan at a staggering $250 per month for advanced users. Earlier in September, Google introduced a more affordable Google AI Plus plan in Indonesia, priced at around $4.50 per month. Following its positive reception, the company is expanding AI Plus availability to 40 countries. With Google AI Plus, you get higher usage and editing limits in Gemini's Nano Banana, access to Veo 3 fast for video generation, along with tools like Whisk and Flow with 200 monthly credits, Deep Research on 2.5 Pro, Gemini integration in Gmail, Docs, and Sheets, and access to more Audio Overviews and notebooks in NotebookLM. Additionally, you get an extra 200GB of storage for your Google account, which you can share with other members in your family group. The AI features are only accessible to the primary account holder. To sweeten the deal for first-time users, for a limited time, Google is offering a 50% discount on the AI Plus plan for the first six months. The new Google AI Plus plan is available in the following countries: Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. While AI Plus pricing varies by country, it is still significantly cheaper than the $20 per month AI Pro plan. Google AI Plus takes on ChatGPT Go It's clear that Google is taking on ChatGPT Go with the new Google AI Plus plan. After initially launching in India, OpenAI expanded ChatGPT Go's availability to Indonesia. Like AI Plus, it provides access to higher usage limits for image generation and GPT-5, file uploads, and a bigger context window. While not cutting-edge, the new AI Plus plan gives budget-conscious users from lower-income countries a more affordable way to experience what Google's AI tools can do.

Google's new AI Plus subscription is now available in over 40 countries -- and it only costs $5

AI subscriptions seem to keep getting more expensive, with a variety of offerings exceeding the $200 a month mark. But now, the big companies seem to be offering a remedy for that, with Google announcing a bargain Gemini plan in a host of new countries. AI Plus, a more affordable subscription to Gemini, has just been made available in over 40 new countries, including Angola, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Vietnam, and more. This isn't the first announcement of the plan. It was first revealed in Indonesia earlier this month. When it launched in Indonesia, it cost $4.50 a month, and has been given a $5 a month price tag in most of the countries it has been announced for. This new tier offers a lot of the main features of Gemini. In a blog post, Google explains that you get access to Gemini 2.5 Pro, as well as tools like Flow, Whisk, and video creation via Veo 3 Fast. It also includes NotebookLM access and Gemini features in Google services. You even get 200GB of cloud storage. Currently, it is not clear how many countries this new plan will roll out to, but Google has said they are looking to expand it further. Google isn't the only company to launch a more affordable plan. OpenAI recently announced 'ChatGPT Go'. This is a $5 a month version of the popular chatbot that has so far only been released in India and Indonesia. It sits between the free version of ChatGPT and its $20 a month subscription. It gives users 10 times the usage limits for sending prompts, generating images and uploading files, but is still limited compared to OpenAI's more expensive plans. So far, both companies seem to be trialing these plans in countries that don't use the software as much. If it proves popular, it could well come to the US. This is an important opposition to the quickly rising AI subscription costs, with a number of companies unveiling $200 a month plans. AI chatbots and the services that come with them aren't cheap to run. If they can upgrade a lot of their free users to a paid model, it could help to cover some of the high costs companies like Google and OpenAI are facing. While no similar plans have been announced from the likes of Claude, Perplexity or Grok, they could well follow up. The AI companies do seem to replicate each other in these kinds of areas. If you're based in one of the countries this is currently available in, or are hoping it will come to you soon, is it actually worth getting one of these plans? Well, yes. For a lot of people, these two plans are going to hit the perfect balance of available features and costs. Most AI plans seem to start at around $20 a month. That is a sizable cost, especially if you aren't a huge chatbot user. This instead lifts some of the limits that can be frustrating on tools like Gemini and ChatGPT, but does it without lumping you with a hefty fee. Overall, the value does seem to be better from Gemini with these more affordable packages.

Google AI Plus -- our newest AI plan -- is now available in 40 more countries.

Today, we're bringing Google AI Plus to 40 more countries. It's our newest plan designed to help more people do more with Google AI for less. We launched this plan first in Indonesia, and the reception has been really positive, so we're looking forward to bringing it to more countries. Now even more people around the world can access our productivity and creativity tools at a more accessible price. The plan includes access to: * Higher limits to our image generation and editing model (fondly known as Nano Banana) in the Gemini app * More access to Google's video generation model, Veo 3 Fast, directly in the Gemini app, and in cutting-edge AI image and filmmaking tools Whisk and Flow * Gemini built into Gmail, Docs, Sheets and more * Higher limits in NotebookLM * 200 GB of storage across Photos, Drive and Gmail Plus, you can share these benefits and more with up to five other family members.

The affordable Google AI Plus expands to 40 new countries

Following a positive launch in Indonesia, Google has expanded its affordable AI Plus subscription plan to an additional 40 countries. The plan, first introduced in early September, is designed to provide a lower-cost alternative to the company's premium AI services and reach a broader global user base. Subscribers to AI Plus gain access to a range of Google's AI tools and benefits. While the storage can be shared, the AI features are accessible only by the primary account holder. To encourage adoption, Google is offering a 50% discount on the AI Plus plan for the first six months for new subscribers. The plan was originally introduced in Indonesia for approximately $4.50 per month. While pricing in the new regions varies by country, it remains significantly more affordable than Google's premium AI Pro and AI Ultra plans, which are priced at $20 and $250 per month, respectively. The expansion makes the plan available in Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Senegal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Google's AI Plus plan is positioned as a direct competitor to OpenAI's ChatGPT Go. OpenAI followed a similar strategy, first launching its affordable ChatGPT Go service in India before expanding to other regions like Indonesia. The ChatGPT Go service provides users with higher usage limits for image generation, access to GPT-5, file upload capabilities, and an expanded context window. The AI Plus plan is similarly aimed at providing budget-conscious users in lower-income countries with an accessible way to experience advanced AI tools.