If you wanted to use all of Google's AI features in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Meet, and the rest of the Workspace suite, you'd have to pay $20 per user per month for the Gemini business plan.
Google is bringing all of its AI features to its Workspace app at no extra cost as it continues to compete with Microsoft, OpenAI, and others to build the AI-powered office suite of the future.
However, there is something else: As it makes this change, Google is increasing the price of all Workspace packages.
Jerry Dischler, president of Google's cloud applications, says companies will pay about $2 more per month per user for AI-enabled Workspace than they paid before.
The numbers aren't exact because companies have complex and varied contracts, but the base subscription price was $12 per month and will now be $14.
Workspace AI includes things like email summaries in Gmail, designs that are created for spreadsheets and videos, automated note-taking for meetings, the powerful NotebookLM research assistant, and writing tools across all apps. It also comes with access to the Gemini bot itself, which is perhaps Google’s most powerful AI tool. The bot can do standard chatbot work, but it can also help you find information, search across your materials, and more.
Dischler says Google offers the most vertically integrated AI product out there right now, but that only matters if people use the entire system. Now, everyone can.
“Most of the time, when we talk to companies that are using artificial intelligence, their big obstacle is cost,” he says.
“That's why they don't use it right away. They want to see what it's worth.”
Google isn't the only company to give in to the price of artificial intelligence: Microsoft announced in November that its own Copilot Pro AI features, which also cost $20 per month, would become part of the standard Microsoft 365 subscription.
So far, this only applies to Personal and Family subscriptions and only in a few places.
All of these companies understand that it's time to teach people new ways to use their products to win new customers. They're betting that the cost of making all of these AI capabilities available to everyone will be worth it in the long run.
George is still wondering what he is doing here….
