The new $249 Google AI Ultra plan just put a gulf between me and I/O
Another Google I/O came and went, and this year’s event felt a bit different than past years.
To no one’s surprise, AI was the big focus of Google I/O this year, and while the company showed off some interesting things, it was perhaps the new Google AI Ultra plan that really got a reaction out of me when it was announced. The plan, which now joins Google’s newly renamed AI Pro subscription, costs a whopping $249 per month. That’s no typo, and it feels like a perfect representation of just who Google I/O is really for, which clearly isn’t me.
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What do you get with Google AI Ultra? Pretty much everything. It comes with just about everything Google announced at I/O, from the new Gemini 2.5 model to Flow with Veo 3 and early access to features like Project Mariner. Oh, and Google threw in 30TB of Google One storage and YouTube Premium. It’s Google’s “Everything AI But The Kitchen Sink” plan.
Subscriptions like that are for the people who can benefit from tools like Veo 3 and Project Mariner and can afford to pay about as much as my phone bill (with four lines, mind you). When we asked Google about the plan and why it costs so much compared to the $20 per month AI Pro plan, it was explained that “the way to think of the Google AI Ultra plan is it’s almost like your VIP access to all of Google’s AI.”
Frankly, I can’t imagine this will be a popular option among regular consumers such as myself and even some of you reading this. I don’t even want to pay $20 for AI Pro. It just feels very out of reach, which was a feeling I got throughout much of the keynote presentation.
In fact, many of my colleagues have lamented in recent years about how boring and developer-focused I/O has become. However, as Android Central senior editor Jerry Hildenbrand points out, that’s exactly what I/O is for.
“Apple and Microsoft would not be where they are today without third parties building reasons to use them. Think about it — do you want to use a smartphone platform that has zero apps?”
“Developer conferences exist to try to make sure that doesn’t happen. Hour after hour of complicated and confusing presentations might seem pointless to you, but the person building the next great idea is paying close attention.”
At least someone’s paying attention, because frankly, that keynote was dull as hell. I mean, it wasn’t all bad, and there were some things that stood out to me. The Project Astra video demo probably got quite a bit of applause and showed off a product that seemed genuinely useful, especially on top of Gemini Live. The live demo of the prototype Android XR glasses was also pretty cool, even if things didn’t go 100% as planned.
Even so, with the bevy of AI products announced at I/O, the keynote felt a bit hard to follow if you’re not of a developer mindset or a total tech nerd who loves following this stuff, and almost like a retread of things we heard about last year.
And even with some features rolling out like AI Mode on Search, a lot of what Google talked about felt somewhat intangible and out of reach for the average consumer. AI that can build an app? Cool. Video calls in 3D that require expensive equipment? Neat, I guess.
If you look at the list of 100 things Google announced at I/O, the company shoved all the consumer-facing stuff that you or I might care about into the first 20 things, while 4/5 of it is just developer blah, previews, and tokens.
Sure, we got to demo Samsung’s Project Moohan and those XR glasses, but we still don’t know when they’ll be available, and Jerry is convinced that no one will care when they are.
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In fact, everything that we did care about, i.e., Android, Wear OS, and the software that we engage with every day, was all shoved aside into a separate pre-recorded video a week prior to I/O. It genuinely felt like an afterthought for Google, which is why it was probably a good thing that there was a separate dedicated “event.”
I/O was focused on the things that will make Google money: AI and Search. Everything else is pretty much secondary, and that’s okay. It just gives me more to look forward to later this year when Google releases Android 16 and launches the Pixel 10 series, which is what consumers like me will really care about.
But what I won’t be doing is shelling out $250 a month for a subscription… from anyone.
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