The biggest issue with Google One just got even worse

For 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.

The cheaper Ultra

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.

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.

But all this perceived value and all these new perks can’t conceal the underlying problem Google itself has created.

What’s available where, again?

At first glance, it looks like Google is trying to make things simple. The regular Google One plans don’t include Gemini or any AI features. If you buy one of these plans, you get Google Drive storage depending on your tier, along with a handful of additions like exclusive Google Photos tools and Google Store/Google Play discounts.

Gemini itself is available on free accounts too, but if you want higher AI usage limits, you need one of the separate Google AI plans. Sounds simple enough, right?

But if you followed the Google I/O announcements, you probably noticed those slides constantly showing feature availability notes. Some features are exclusive to Ultra for the foreseeable future. Others require the AI Pro plan or higher, while some are even available on the cheaper AI Plus plan. Add regional restrictions, what features can you share with your family (YouTube Premium can’t be shared), and varying AI usage limits across plans into the mix, and suddenly you’re scrambling to make sense of what’s available where and to what degree.

The variations between these plans revolve around access to new features, Gemini token limits, monthly Google Flow credits for video creation, NotebookLM limits, which YouTube Premium tier you get (or not at all), and even whether Gemini is available inside Google Workspace apps. And some recent user reports suggest that Google is nerfing the AI Pro plan with dynamic limits — that’s just Google having a lot of fun leaving everyone bewildered.

AI Plus is the weakest link

I honestly feel bad for the AI Plus tier — the cheapest $8 AI plan in Google’s lineup. While it does get you access to higher AI usage limits compared to free access, a few Google Flow credits, and 200GB of cloud storage, it glaringly misses Gemini access inside Google Workspace apps besides Gmail — so, no Gemini inside Google Docs. For that, you’ll need to upgrade to the AI Pro tier.

While it’s understandable that Google would want to reserve newer and more resource-intensive features for pricier plans, Gemini integration across Workspace apps feels like a basic requirement to call it an AI plan. And unsurprisingly, many of the newer features announced at Google I/O — including Gemini Spark — won’t be available for AI Plus users.

Sure, Google can claim its AI plans start at $8 a month, but the ground reality is that you’ll need to shell out at least $20 to even get the basics.

Google, you must be thinking of Workspace users

The growing number of columns in Google’s plan comparison chart now looks a lot like Workspace pricing, with endless configurations with minute differences between them. IT managers at enterprises are probably better equipped to make sense of all these variations and figure out the right combination for their teams. Home users aren’t, and Google shouldn’t expect them to be either.

If Google really wants to push Gemini and get everyone using AI more aggressively, it would be better off eliminating the non-AI plans entirely and offering just these four Google AI plans instead. That would simplify the structure while also helping Google achieve its AI ambitions, hitting two birds with one stone.

And if non-AI options must stay, why not simply stick to the old Google One plans and offer Gemini as an add-on for a flat fee? That would not only make Google’s storage plans easier to understand but also give users back some control over whether they actually want AI access, instead of Google shoving it down their throat when all they wanted was more storage.

If you ask me, I’d much rather have the plain old $10 plan with 2TB storage back (it was quietly removed — you won’t find it on Google One’s website anymore), paired with reasonable AI usage limits and at least some of the perks available on the Pro and Ultra tiers, even if those come with lower allowances. $10 is something I can mindlessly shell out every month — and Google is already pretty good at delivering that kind of value.

Since Google has already sorted out the value part, it just needs to make things a teeny bit less complicated for its users.