Google just fired a shot across OpenAI's bow. The company's new AI Plus plan is now live in the U.S. at $7.99 per month, bringing Gemini 3 Pro and a suite of AI tools to consumers who've been priced out of premium AI subscriptions. After quietly testing the waters in emerging markets since September, Google's bringing its budget AI tier to all 35 countries where it operates, setting up a direct collision with OpenAI's ChatGPT Go plan at the exact same price point.
Google is making its play for the mass market AI user. The company announced Tuesday that its Google AI Plus plan is rolling out globally, including a U.S. launch at $7.99 per month - a deliberate undercut to its $20/month Pro tier and a direct challenge to OpenAI's identically priced ChatGPT Go subscription.
The timing isn't coincidental. Since launching in Indonesia last September, Google's been road-testing this mid-tier offering across dozens of countries, fine-tuning the feature set and pricing strategy before bringing it stateside. Now it's ready to compete for the millions of casual AI users who want more than free access but aren't ready to shell out $20 monthly for premium features.
The AI Plus package is surprisingly robust for the price. Subscribers get access to Gemini 3 Pro and Nano Banana Pro through the Gemini app, along with Flow's AI filmmaking capabilities powered by Veo, research and writing tools in NotebookLM, and 200GB of cloud storage. Google's also sweetening the deal with family sharing for up to five members - a feature that could give it an edge over OpenAI's individual-focused plans.
For existing Google One Premium 2TB subscribers, the upgrade comes automatically over the next few days, according to Google's announcement. It's a smart retention play that locks in users who were already paying for storage while adding AI capabilities they might have been tempted to find elsewhere.
