Google AI Ultra(blog.google)
blog.google
Google AI Ultra
https://blog.google/products/google-one/google-ai-ultra/
329 comments
The problem with all of these is that SOTA models keep changing. I thought about getting OpenAI's Pro subscription, and then Gemini flew ahead and was free. If I get this then sooner or later OpenAI or Anthropic will be back on top.
The global average salary is somewhere in the region of $1500.
There’s lots of people and companies out there with $250 to spend on these subscriptions per seat, but on a global scale (where Google operates), these are pretty niche markets being targeted. That doesn’t align well with the multiple trillions of dollars in increased market cap we’ve seen over the last few years at Google, Nvda, MS etc.
There’s lots of people and companies out there with $250 to spend on these subscriptions per seat, but on a global scale (where Google operates), these are pretty niche markets being targeted. That doesn’t align well with the multiple trillions of dollars in increased market cap we’ve seen over the last few years at Google, Nvda, MS etc.
I've toyed with Gemini 2.5 briefly and was impressed... but I just can't bring myself to see Google as an option as an inference provider. I don't trust them.
Actually, that's not true. I do trust them - I trust them to collect as much data as possible and to exploit those data to the greatest extent they can.
I'm deep enough into AI that what I really want is a personal RAG service that exposes itself to an arbitrary model at runtime. I'd prefer to run inference locally, but that's not yet practical for what I want it to do, so I use privacy-oriented services like Venice.ai where I can. When there's no other reasonable alternative I'll use Anthropic or OpenAI.
I don't trust any of the big providers, but I'm realizing that I have baseline hostility toward Google in 2025.
Actually, that's not true. I do trust them - I trust them to collect as much data as possible and to exploit those data to the greatest extent they can.
I'm deep enough into AI that what I really want is a personal RAG service that exposes itself to an arbitrary model at runtime. I'd prefer to run inference locally, but that's not yet practical for what I want it to do, so I use privacy-oriented services like Venice.ai where I can. When there's no other reasonable alternative I'll use Anthropic or OpenAI.
I don't trust any of the big providers, but I'm realizing that I have baseline hostility toward Google in 2025.
I pay for OpenAI Pro but this is a clear no for me. I just don't get enough value out of Gemini to justify a bump from $20 / month to $250.
If they really want to win they should undercut OpenAI and convince people to switch. For $100 / month I'd downgrade my OpenAI Pro subscription and switch to Gemini Ultra.
If they really want to win they should undercut OpenAI and convince people to switch. For $100 / month I'd downgrade my OpenAI Pro subscription and switch to Gemini Ultra.
I paid for it and Google Flow was upgraded to Ultra but Gemini still shows Pro, and asks for me to upgrade. When I go to "upgrade," it says I am already at Google Ultra.
Average Google product launch.
Average Google product launch.
Hmm, interesting. There's basically no information what makes Ultra worth that much money in concrete terms except "more quota". One interesting tidbid I've noticed is that it seems Google One (or what is it called now) also carries sub for youtube. So far, I'm still on "old" Google One for my family and myself storage and have a separate youtube subscription for the same. I still haven't seen a clear upgrade path, or even a discount based on how much I have left from the old subscription, if I ever choose to do so (why?).
edit: also google AI Ultra links leads to AI Pro and there's no Ultra to choose from. GG Google, as always with their "launches".
edit: also google AI Ultra links leads to AI Pro and there's no Ultra to choose from. GG Google, as always with their "launches".
Why do people keep on saying that corporations will pay these price-tags?
Most corporations really keep a very tight lid on their software license costs. A $250 license will be only provided for individuals with very high justification barriers and the resulting envy effects will be a horror for HR.
I think it will be rather individuals who will be paying out of their pocket and boosting their internal results.
And outside of those areas in California where apples cost $5 in the supermarket I don't see many individuals capable of paying these rates.
Price point here is a bit too high... They have bundled so many things together into this that the sticker shock on the price is too much.
I get what they're trying to do but if they were serious about this they would include some other small subscriptions as well... I should get some number of free movies on YouTube per month, I should be able to cancel a bunch of my other subscriptions... I should get free data with this or a free phone or something... I could see some value if I could actually just have one subscription but I'm not going to spend $250 a month on just another subscription to add to the pile...
I get what they're trying to do but if they were serious about this they would include some other small subscriptions as well... I should get some number of free movies on YouTube per month, I should be able to cancel a bunch of my other subscriptions... I should get free data with this or a free phone or something... I could see some value if I could actually just have one subscription but I'm not going to spend $250 a month on just another subscription to add to the pile...
I just tried it.
8 out of 10 attempts failed to produce audio, and of those only 1 didn't suck.
I suppose that's normal(?) but I won't be paying this much monthly if the results aren't better, or at least I'd expect some sort of refund mechanism.
8 out of 10 attempts failed to produce audio, and of those only 1 didn't suck.
I suppose that's normal(?) but I won't be paying this much monthly if the results aren't better, or at least I'd expect some sort of refund mechanism.
I think this could be worth it if:
we could have our chat histories with Gemini apps activity turned off (decouple the training from the storage) — including no googler eyeballs on our work chats (call this “confidential mode”)
Jules had a confidential mode for these folks (no googler eyeballs on our work code tasks)
Deep research connected to GitHub and was also confidential (don’t train on the codebase, don’t look at the codebase)
The other stuff (videos etc) are obviously valuable but not a big draw for me personally right now…
The biggest draw for me is trusting I can work on private code projects without compromise of security
we could have our chat histories with Gemini apps activity turned off (decouple the training from the storage) — including no googler eyeballs on our work chats (call this “confidential mode”)
Jules had a confidential mode for these folks (no googler eyeballs on our work code tasks)
Deep research connected to GitHub and was also confidential (don’t train on the codebase, don’t look at the codebase)
The other stuff (videos etc) are obviously valuable but not a big draw for me personally right now…
The biggest draw for me is trusting I can work on private code projects without compromise of security
For $250/mo I would hope it includes API access to Gemini 2.5 pro, but it's nice to want things.
people here keep saying that this is targeted at big companies/corporations. the big company that i work for explicitly block uploads of data to these services and we're forbidden to put anything company related in there for many reasons, even if you use your own account, we don't have 'company accounts'.
so no, i can't see companies getting all excited about buying $250mo/user licenses for their employees for google or chatgpt to suck in their proprietary data.
so no, i can't see companies getting all excited about buying $250mo/user licenses for their employees for google or chatgpt to suck in their proprietary data.
Can you... talk to a human for support? Perhaps I'm just used to SSO tax billing pages where I expect the right most column to mention that. I was partly expecting it because it'd be ironic to see people complaining that a model hallucinated only for some engineer at Google to shrug and be like "Nothing we can do about it"
Where is the plan that just removes all their AI tools from my view.
Would love to know how many people end up on this plan.
If i had to guess, looking at the features I would have guessed 80 bucks. Absurdly high, but lots of little doodads and prototypes would make the price understandable at that price.
250?!
I actually find that price worrying because it points to a degree of unsustainability in the economics of the products weve gotten used to.
If i had to guess, looking at the features I would have guessed 80 bucks. Absurdly high, but lots of little doodads and prototypes would make the price understandable at that price.
250?!
I actually find that price worrying because it points to a degree of unsustainability in the economics of the products weve gotten used to.
Let's all cheer this new era coming. Soon or you pay half your salary for AI since it will be so advanced or you will be unemployed impossible to compete with people subscribed to AI. Sure it may not happen (exactly) this way but look at this pricing, 200+/month and the fact is it is just the beginning.
The YouTube Premium is hilarious.
These prices are nuts, in my opinion. It basically means that only companies can afford access to the latest offerings - this used to be the case for specialist software in the past (e.g., in the medical sector), but AI has the potential to be useful for anyone.
Not a good development.
Not a good development.
> YouTube Premium: An individual YouTube Premium plan lets you watch YouTube and listen to YouTube Music ad-free, offline and in the background.
It seems weird to me, they included entertainment service in „work” related plan.
It seems weird to me, they included entertainment service in „work” related plan.
As long as these companies have an API, I imagine it's going to be cheaper to pay a la carte than pay monthly. $250 is a lot of API calls, especially as competition drives the cost lower. For stuff not behind an API, you're kinda shooting yourself in the foot because other providers might and at the very least it means developers aren't going to adopt it).
Does this include Gemini 2.5 Pro API access? What are the API limits?
I blew through my $40 monthly fee in Github Copilot Pro+ in a few hours. =^/
I blew through my $40 monthly fee in Github Copilot Pro+ in a few hours. =^/
Is there a premium option to control which of your data will be used for training? Or is it implemented the same way as Gemini Pro?
Amusing they picked a deadly jellyfish attacking earth as their hero image
Deep think, the only thing that’s interesting in the whole i/o day is not accessible via api.
Also I was hoping for a chatgpt test time search thing that. That is absolutely killer.
Also I was hoping for a chatgpt test time search thing that. That is absolutely killer.
I'm holding out for "Ultra Max Pro."
(Comment is on the horrible naming; good naming schemes plan ahead for next month's offerings)
(Comment is on the horrible naming; good naming schemes plan ahead for next month's offerings)
I don't mean to be snarky, but is this announcement timed just so they take press away from the Microsoft Copilot announcement?
Given that Youtube Premium is ~$20 USD and 30 TB of space would cost ~$130 (extrapolating from current Google Workspace pricing), that leaves all the AI fluff costing $100 more. I can see some people taking that deal but after a while realizing they are not using them as much and canceling.
This grab-bag seems haphazard to me -- half the tools seem to be perfect for creators or creative professionals. Some of the other stuff seems to be for researchers or technologists. How often do people need all of this? Is this to make tiers/products simple?
Given that the AI scene is not stable at all in the current moment (every day a new release that make last month's obsolete), any offer that tries to lock you with a model or model provider is a bad idea.
Pay-per-use for the moment, until market consolidation and/or commoditization.
Pay-per-use for the moment, until market consolidation and/or commoditization.
Whether you find that you get $250 worth out of that subscription is going to be the big question