Google slashes AI Ultra plan pricing and introduces compute-based limits for Gemini subscribers

Google Drops Price of Its Highest-Tier AI Plan as Gemini Gets More Powerful

With more than a decade of experience, Nelson covers Apple and Google and writes about iPhone and Android features, privacy and security settings, and more. Google is lowering the price of its most expensive AI subscription as it expands Gemini into more parts of the web and Android. At Google I/O on Tuesday, Google said its highest-limit AI Ultra plan will drop from $250 to $200 a month. The subscription gives people access to Google's most advanced Gemini tools and higher usage caps. The company is also introducing a new $100 Ultra plan for subscribers who want advanced Gemini features without the maximum limits. The pricing update comes as Google prepares to roll out Gemini Spark, an AI assistant-style tool designed to help people complete tasks across apps and the web. Josh Woodward, vice president of Google Labs, Gemini app and AI Studio teams, said Spark will connect to Chrome and later show live updates and task progress through a new Android interface called Android Halo. "Soon, Gemini Spark will also be able to connect to Chrome, which will help you get more done across the web and on Android," Woodward said. Spark is rolling out first to trusted testers this week, followed by a beta for Google AI Ultra subscribers next week. Google also announced Gemini Omni, a new multimodal AI model family that can work across text, audio, images and video. The first model, Gemini Omni Flash, will be available starting Tuesday to Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app, Google Flow and YouTube Shorts.

Google overhauls its AI plans - which one should you now choose?

Certain AI Pro subscribers also get YouTube Premium Lite for free. Looking to subscribe to one of Google's Gemini AI plans? That decision just got trickier thanks to the latest changes. Yes, Google has rejiggered its various AI plans with lower prices and more features. Also: Google I/O 2026 live: The latest updates At its I/O conference on Tuesday, Google kicked off another variant of its most expensive AI Ultra plan, but with a lower price tag. Aimed at developers, tech workers, and creative pros, the lower-cost version will run $100 a month. At that price, the subscription offers the following benefits. For developers and other pros who want the full AI Ultra plan, Google has cut the monthly price from $250 to $200. At that cost, you get a usage limit 20 times higher in the Gemini app and Google Antigravity, along with an array of other perks. Whether you opt for the full AI Ultra plan or the new and cheaper variant, a couple of other features are heading your way. Gemini Spark. Available only in the US, Gemini Spark is a new AI agent that aims to follow your commands to perform specific assignments on its own, under your direction. Spark can navigate across Google's different products and services to handle complex tasks more quickly than you could manually. Rolling out to testers this week, Spark will launch as a beta in the US next week for all Google Ultra AI subscribers. Also: Google's big Android update goes all-in on AI: Everything to know - Video Project Genie. Currently available as a Google Labs experiment, Project Genie is a research prototype that lets you conjure up your own interactive virtual worlds. By supplying text descriptions and images, you're able to create mini games and other environments populated by your own characters. Genie is now popping out of its experimental bottle and heading around the globe to all Google AI Ultra users on the $200 plan. Plus, you'll be able to tap into Google's Street View to add a dose of reality to your fictional lands. If you're a developer or other pro eyeing one of the two Ultra plans, the less expensive variant may be your best bet. If you find yourself hitting its limits, you can always switch to the more expensive subscription. Otherwise, that $100-a-month price tag makes the cheaper one quite tempting. Ah, but Google isn't forgetting about people on its other AI plans, including Plus and Pro. Gemini Omni. Rolling out globally to all four AI plans (Plus, Pro, and the two Ultras) is the new Gemini Omni model, designed to generate videos. Omni takes a multimodal approach, which means you can add your own text, images, and videos to create your short video productions. You can fashion the characters, scenes, visuals, sounds, and effects, and then edit your video to fine-tune it. Omni will take the stage in the Google Flow video generator to help achieve greater consistency in character and voice from one scene to another. Gemini 3.5 Flash. Now rolling out globally across all four Google AI plans, the new Gemini 3.5 Flash frontier model promises faster speeds and greater understanding than its predecessor, especially for agentic and coding tasks. Also: I tested ChatGPT Plus vs. Gemini Pro to see which is better - and if it's worth switching AI inbox in Gmail. Already available to AI Ultra plans and now rolling out to AI Plus and AI Pro plans in the US, Gmail's AI inbox aims to help you better manage your inbox. Analyzing the torrent of emails you likely receive, Gemini will suggest items for your to-do list, mark those items as done, draft replies, and find links to related files in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Daily brief. Accessible to all Google AI subscribers, the daily brief is another feature moving from experimental status to full availability. Here, an AI agent scours your emails, calendar appointments, and Gemini chats to see what's new, urgent, or overdue. The daily email you receive compiles all those items into a digestible, readable list and suggests next steps. The goal is to review your priorities and take action on the most pressing ones. And there's one more thing. YouTube Premium Lite. Free access to YouTube Premium is already included in a Google AI Ultra plan. But now it's expanding. Over the next few days, AI Pro subscribers in certain countries will get a free YouTube Premium Lite plan at no extra charge. In contrast to a full Premium plan, the Lite flavor quashes ads for gaming, fashion, beauty, news, and other topics but still displays them for music and many other videos. Also: YouTube Premium vs. Premium Lite: Is the cheaper tier still your best deal? Google measures how much you use Gemini to make sure you stay within the limits of your plan. But the way your use is calculated has now changed. Instead of treating each prompt as equal against your limits, Google is using a compute-based model. This approach factors in the complexity of your prompt, the features you use, and the length of your chat. Your limit will refresh every five hours until you reach your weekly quota. If you hit your limit, you'll be shifted from the larger AI models to the smaller ones. AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers can also purchase AI credits on the go if they need to continue using the more advanced models for Google Antigravity, Google Flow, and the Gemini app. Unless you're a developer who needs an Ultra plan, the decision comes down to the AI Plus plan at $8 a month and the AI Pro plan at $20 a month. The Plus subscription limits how much you can use Gemini and other AI features by imposing stricter quotas. If you're currently looking for a Gemini plan but don't anticipate heavy usage, you may want to opt for the AI Plus subscription and save yourself $12 a month or $144 a year. Also: Google's AI Overviews will show you advice from other people now Another option, though, is to look for a discount. For example, Verizon offers a perk: you pay $10 a month for an AI Pro subscription. This is the main reason I stick with the Pro plan; otherwise, I would seriously consider the Plus plan. Whichever plan you choose, remember that Google charges for them on a monthly basis. That means you can always switch to a different subscription from one month to another to see which one works best.

The Google AI Ultra plan now starts at $100 a month - Engadget

Google made a bunch of AI announcements at its I/O 2026 showcase today, and the company is making it cheaper to take advantage of those tools. The cost for the top tier of its AI subscription plan has been halved. Before, the Google AI Ultra plan cost a whopping $250 a month. Now you can get it for $100 a month. All three of the subscription tiers include some basic features, such as use of Gemini 3.5 Flash and the Gemini App with Omni. The $20-a-month AI Pro plan adds more access to those core services, as well as a YouTube Premium Lite subscription and eventually Google Pics in Workspace. When you shell out $100 for the Ultra tier, you'll get 5X the usage limits of AI Pro, a YouTube Premium Lite subscription and the upcoming Gemini Spark. The storage limit has dropped along with the price; the previous version capped Ultra users at 30TB and the new limit is 20TB. There is still an even more expensive, $200 option within the Ultra plan that adds access to the Project Genie world model, and has 4X the usage limits of the $100 tier. That's a significant drop from the current top tier, which at the time of writing costs $250.

Google drops its most expensive AI Ultra pricing and adds new, lower tier

Google's keeping its higher-end Ultra tier, but lowering pricing to $200/month, down from $250. You've got no shortage of free options for experimenting with AI, but getting access to the best, latest features or overcoming usage limits often requires the use of a premium, paid plan. Google's already had three offerings like that, between AI Plus for just about $8/month, AI Pro for $20/month, or the top-tier AI Ultra at $250/month. If you needed more access than Pro afforded, but weren't quite willing to pay for Ultra, Google has some good news to share at I/O this year, as it overhauls its approach to Ultra pricing.

Gemini app now has compute-based usage limits as AI Ultra now starts at $100

Alongside all the feature announcements, Google announced that Gemini is switching away from daily prompt limits, while AI Ultra is now cheaper. The Gemini app is "moving from daily prompt limits to a 'compute-used' model" that factors the: Limits will now "refresh every five hours until you reach your weekly limit." And if you reach your cap on our biggest models, we'll shift you to our state-of-the-art, lightning-fast smaller models so you never miss a beat. The Gemini app will soon let you buy "pay-as-you-go top-up AI credits," with this already available for Google Antigravity and Flow. Google says this is a "better way to allocate limits, because a simple text prompt uses far less compute than a complex video or coding prompt." Google AI Ultra now starts at $100 per month. It's aimed at "developers, technical leads, knowledge workers, and advanced creators." It comes with: There's also access to Gemini Spark when it starts rolling out in beta to AI Ultra subscribers in the US next week. Meanwhile, the previous $250 plan is now $200 with the "exact same capabilities" as before. This includes 20x higher usage limits in the Gemini app and Antigravity than the Pro plan. One particular perk is Project Genie with a Street View-powered capability that lets you "create new, unexpected worlds anchored in reality."

Google I/O 2026: AI subscription tiers are now cheaper

Google restructured its AI subscription lineup at I/O 2026 today, introducing a new mid-tier Ultra plan and cutting the price of its most expensive plan, while stating it wants to rethink how usage limits work across the board. The headline number is $99.99 per month for a new AI Ultra entry point, aimed at developers, technical leads, and power users. It comes with 5x the usage limits of the Pro plan, Gemini 3.5 Flash, priority access to Google Antigravity -- the company's agent-first coding platform -- 20TB of cloud storage, and a full YouTube Premium individual plan bundled in. For those already on the $250-per-month top tier, Google dropped that price to $200, with all the same capabilities intact. The three-tier structure now looks like this: AI Plus at $7.99/month, AI Pro at $19.99/month, and AI Ultra starting at $99.99/month. Gemini Spark, the new autonomous AI agent announced earlier today, is exclusive to Ultra subscribers and rolling out in beta next week in the U.S. Google also overhauled how it measures usage. Instead of counting individual prompts, the new system measures compute used. This means that a simple text question costs far less against your limit than a complex video or coding task. Limits now refresh every five hours rather than resetting daily. If you hit your cap on a top-tier model, Google automatically drops you to a faster, lighter model instead of cutting you off. AI Pro and Ultra subscribers will also be able to buy pay-as-you-go credits for Google Antigravity and Google Flow, with Gemini app support coming soon.

Google's AI subscriptions get a new $100 tier, a price cut, and new features across all plans

Google's I/O 2026 subscription update brings new pricing tiers, new models, and productivity tools to all paid plans. Google I/O 2026 This story is part of our complete Google I/O coverage Updated less than 1 minute ago Google has announced an overhaul for its AI subscriptions at I/O 2026, adding a new AI Ultra tier, cutting the price of its top plan from $250 to $200, and rolling out new models and features across all plans. New tiers and pricing The new $100/month AI Ultra plan targets developers, technical leads, knowledge workers, and advanced creators. It includes a 5x higher usage limit in the Gemini app compared to the Pro plan, 20 TB of cloud storage, a YouTube Premium individual plan, priority access to Google Antigravity, and Gemini 3.5 Flash for testing and debugging. It also includes access to Gemini Spark, Google's new 24/7 AI agent that can take action across Google products on a user's behalf. The existing top-tier AI Ultra plan, previously $250/month, drops to $200 but retains all its current capabilities, including a 20x higher usage limit than Pro. This tier also adds Project Genie, an experimental world-building prototype that includes a Street View-powered capability to let users create worlds anchored in real locations. What's new across all plans All paid subscribers (AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra) get access to two new models: Gemini Omni and Gemini 3.5 Flash. The former handles text, image, and video creation and editing, and is available in the Gemini app and Google Flow, while the latter is the new default model and is designed for coding and complex agentic tasks. On the productivity side, AI Inbox in Gmail expands from Ultra to Plus and Pro subscribers. It surfaces key to-dos, draft replies, and links relevant Docs, Sheets, and Slides files. A new Daily Brief feature in the Gemini app, available to all paid US subscribers, pulls in updates from Gmail, Calendar, and Gemini chats to give users a morning overview with suggested next steps. Recommended Videos AI Pro subscribers in select countries get a YouTube Premium Lite individual plan included at no extra charge, adding $8.99 in monthly value. Health Premium and Home Premium are also included in AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions at no additional cost. Google Pics, a new image creation and editing tool, plus additional voice capabilities in Gmail, Docs, and Keep, are also coming this summer to Pro and Ultra subscribers. Updates to usage limits Google is moving from daily prompt caps to a compute-based model that factors in prompt complexity, features used, and conversation length. Limits refresh every five hours up to a weekly cap. Subscribers who hit their limit on larger models shift automatically to smaller models. Pro and Ultra users can also purchase pay-as-you-go top-up credits for Google Antigravity, Google Flow, and soon the Gemini app. The subscription restructuring puts Google in more direct competition with OpenAI's ChatGPT Pro and Anthropic's Claude plans, as all three companies compete for power users with tiered, high-usage offerings.