Google has annoyed me over the last week or so.
Not only do I find its desperation to push Gemini AI into every aspect of my life irritating, but the amount of digging and searching that’s required to stop paying for it is needlessly complicated, especially compared to the competition.
Here’s how a free year of the 2TB Gemini AI Pro tier in Google One led me to discover how little Google wants me to downgrade, and how hard it makes it to do so.
One year with my Pixel
2TB of storage included
I’ve long subscribed to Google’s 100GB Google One plan. It was just enough space. It forced me to keep my Google Photos account neat and tidy, and not to store too much stuff in Google Drive.
When I reviewed the Google Pixel 9 Pro, it came with a year of the 2TB Google AI Pro plan, which includes all the Gemini tools, Fitbit Premium, Nest Aware, and 2TB of storage space.
Having Gemini access has been very helpful for various reviews over the past year, and the additional storage space made me lazy, to the point that my stored data increased to 125GB, simply because I didn’t need to cull Google Photos regularly.
The AI Pro plan usually costs $20 per month, much more than the $2 per month I’d spent on my 100GB plan.
Fast-forward a year, and I noticed I’d been charged $20 for my Google AI Pro plan. Not a problem. I’d just forgotten about it, so off I went to look at alternatives or how to return to my old subscription plan after a long-overdue storage clean-up.
What a rabbit hole this turned out to be, as Google really does not want me to spend less and makes it really hard to understand what my actual options really are.
Another year of AI Pro for free
But only if you upgrade
If you bought a Pixel 9 series phone and got a year’s worth of AI Pro included, and then upgraded to the Pixel 10 Pro recently, you can get another year of AI Pro for free.
Except it won’t just roll over, you’ll have to make the effort. You must open the Gemini or Google One app on your Pixel 10 phone, look for a banner, follow the steps, and re-subscribe there.
This should give you another year (or six months on a non-Pro Pixel 10) of Google’s AI Pro subscription.
While a bit awkward, especially since the Pixel 10 doesn’t prompt you to claim your free subscription, this is acceptable, but what if you haven’t bought a Pixel 10 and don’t want to spend $20 per month on AI Pro?
This is where it gets annoying. A Google search, which is where many will start, for Google One plans takes you to a splash page with ways to spend more money on your subscription, with the 5TB, 10TB, 20TB, and 30TB plans laid out for you.
It’s the same deal when you use the Google One app, where at first glance you’d think the 2TB AI Pro plan was the most basic, cheapest option you could choose. Surely not?
On both the Storage and the Plans menu in the Google One app, there’s a button labeled Get More Storage, but what about less storage?
The start of the process is found on the Google One Home page, where you’ll find a Manage button at the bottom. Click this, and you’re directed to a Change Membership plan, and all the same upgrade options described above yet again.
In fairness to Google, there’s a cancel membership button below, so you can quit entirely if you want.
Less, not more, please
It’s there, somewhere
I didn’t want to quit. I wanted less storage space. It took me a bit of time to reach this stage, but the secret option I needed was the See All Plans button in this menu, where, after tapping it, you’re finally shown Downgrade options for the 100GB, 200GB, and non-AI 2TB plans.
You won’t find these options anywhere except in this section, as Google has been hiding them away for more than a year, in what I assume is part of its ongoing efforts to pull subscribers into the expensive, AI-first plans.
It’s all about knowing where to look, but for Google not to show all the available plans right on the main page is problematic.
There will be people who, after a year of free AI Pro, will see this and think it’s the cheapest, most basic plan available. It is, if you want all the AI, but it’s not if you don’t.
All the options should be presented as soon as possible, without endless exploration.
If I want to change my Apple iCloud subscription, on my iPhone, I tap Settings > iCloud > Change Storage Plan > See All Plans, where I immediately see plans that cost more and less than my current one.
When I go to Ring’s subscription plans, the three options are clearly presented. It’s obvious which one would suit me, and how much I’d have to pay. This simplicity and transparency are entirely missing from Google One.
Keep your wits about you
There are cheaper options
Subscriptions are a necessary evil these days, but Google One showed why many dislike them.
I didn’t see the banner in the Gemini app to continue my AI Pro subscription for another year when I reviewed the Pixel 10 Pro XL, and I wasn’t alone.
There was no notification to remind me that I was eligible, I didn’t receive any email letting me know my paid AI Pro subscription was about to start, and it took some considerable time before I found the correct page and menu where I could pay less for just storage and no AI.
Unless you’re a hardcore Pixel fan, it isn’t really worth upgrading your Pixel 9 Pro to the Pixel 10 Pro or Pro XL, meaning a lot of Pixel 9 Pro buyers are going to come to the end of their free year of AI Pro over the next weeks and months.
If this is you, get prepared now by going to Manage Your Google Account > Payments and Subscriptions, and checking when the AI Pro renewal date is due.
Don’t be fooled into thinking there aren’t cheaper options either, regardless of what Google first shows you.
If you want to downgrade your Google One plan, familiarize yourself with the process to change it ahead of the renewal date, because it’s not quite as straightforward as it should be.
- SoC
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Google Tensor G5
- Display type
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Super Actua
- Display dimensions
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6.3-inch
- Display resolution
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20:9
- RAM
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16GB
- Storage
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128 GB / 256 GB / 512 GB with Zoned UFS / 1 TB with Zoned UFS
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