Google changes its model: it would start charging for using its AI search engine

BY GIRL BOSS
Ditch the Grind
Published in
3 min readApr 12, 2024

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The company plans to create a premium subscription service for its AI-powered search engine, although it will keep the ad-supported free option

Google is considering creating a premium subscription service for its search engine to create a new revenue stream. The Financial Times, which cites people familiar with the matter, details that the company could make the AI-powered features it plans to include in its search engine pay-as-you-go.

If Google’s plans finally go ahead, it would be the first time the company has put a paywall on one of its main services. Until now, Google’s search engine has been free for everyone, and the main revenue stream is based on advertising that the company displays in different sections when the search engine returns results.

Google will, of course, keep the ad-supported free option for any user, but those who want more advanced search or simply to make use of the search engine’s generative AI features will have to pay a monthly subscription, the price of which is currently unknown.

In fact, Google has hinted in a statement to Reuters on the matter that those who opt for the premium plan will also see ads in their search results. “We are not working on or considering an ad-free search experience. As we have done many times before, we will continue to develop new premium capabilities and services to enhance our subscription offerings on Google,” they say.

Google has already integrated paid AI into some of its services.

This is a significant disadvantage compared to Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, which integrates OpenAI’s AI for free. However, it is worth mentioning that the number of users is considerably higher in the case of Google’s search engine.

The Mountain View firm, moreover, already integrates some paid AI functions in some of its services. Only users with a subscription to Google One’s AI Premium plan can access Gemini Advance, a more powerful version of its language model that also allows integration with some of its services. One of them is Gmail, so that artificial intelligence can help the user to compose emails or create drafts.

Also, Google AI Premium allows AI to be used in Google’s office suite, whether it’s for drafting text in Docs or creating images in Presentations. Google One AI Premium is priced at €21.99 per month; a similar cost to what OpenAI offers for ChatGPT Plus. It is unclear whether the premium AI features Google plans to make its paid search engine will be included in this service or in a separate one.

Image created by the author using Midjourney

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BY GIRL BOSS
Ditch the Grind

Sharing artificial intelligence tips 🤖 and tricks to make your life simpler ⌚ Building a big tech brain 🧠 But most important of all: learning a lot 🧠