Google One has crossed 100 million subscribers and has a big new focus on its “AI Premium” tier with Gemini Advanced, but caught up in the crossfire seems to have been the 200GB plan, which is no longer being surfaced to account holders.
There are currently four main offers for Google One storage tiers, as we detailed earlier this month. Starting out at $1.99/month, there’s a 100GB plan. Then, at $2.99/month, you can double that and get 200GB alongside some extra perks. From there, the numbers go way up, with $9.99/month getting 2TB of storage, and $19.99/month getting 2TB plus access to “Gemini Advanced.”
But, in the days since Google last talked about those plans, things have changed a bit.
When a new user signs up for Google One storage, the 200GB plan is no longer surfaced, as was highlighted by Google Watch Blog. We’ve confirmed that, on a new account, this option doesn’t exist through any of the main channels in which you can subscribe to a new plan. Instead, accounts are only offered the 100GB plan and the two 2TB offerings with nothing in between as pictured below.
Where did the 200GB option go?
From what we can tell, this plan has not technically gone away. Users can sign up for any of Google’s other plans and then, through account settings, upgrade or downgrade to the 200GB option.
We’ve tested this on an account that had no Google One plan. By subscribing to the 100GB plan, we were able to access the “change membership plan” section of One’s settings and, there, the 200GB plan is immediately “recommended” by Google, despite being hidden during setup.
Top comment by Justin Landis
Liked by 11 people
I’ve been on the 2tb tier for awhile. I am sharing it with family members. I want to sign up for the ai plus Google storage tier but my family members would lose their shared storage access. Opting for this tier penalizes me and my family. This seems to be pretty short-sighted planning by Google… Or not. I get not being able to share the ai features but sharing storage shouldn’t be sacrificed.
I don’t know. Maybe this is Google’s wayto say that shared storage for families will not be available in the future. Either way, Google has positioned me in such a way that I can’t, don’t, or using its product is a major inconvenience.
Notably, another account we tested showed the 200GB option from within the Google One app on Android, but not when trying to subscribe from the web. The latter seems more impactful, as users are less likely to download an app that focuses on a service they don’t yet subscribe to.
Google’s exact reasoning for this change is unclear, but it’s notable that when the company announced that One had crossed 100 million subscribers, it also made clear that there’s now a focus on the AI Premium tier. Effectively eliminating this lower tier from the sign-up flow does indeed give that AI Premium tier a bit more focus.
Update: Google has confirmed that, yes, the 200GB plan is still available and it will still be surfaced to those already subscribed to the 100GB plan.
More on Google:
Google One crosses 100 million subscribers, focusing on AI Premium
Sundar Pichai lays out Google’s 2024 goals, including building helpful Pixel devices
Google One VPN is ‘built into’ the Pixel 8 with no persistent notification
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