It is no secret that OpenAI acquired the bounce on, effectively, everybody when it launched ChatGPT over two years in the past. Now, as firms like Google and Apple attempt to compete, they’re beginning manner behind OpenAI, no less than within the eyes of the general public. Simply how large of a head begin does OpenAI have? As of March 2025, ChatGPT has 700 million month-to-month lively customers, which is a staggering complete.
That does not imply Google is powerless within the struggle towards OpenAI for the majority of consumer-grade AI market share. Within the years since ChatGPT was launched, Google ramped up AI improvement first by way of Bard, later renamed Gemini. Whereas OpenAI’s plan to monetize ChatGPT concerned making a bunch of early options free and locking superior ones behind a paywall, Google is doing the alternative.
With Gemini, Google is nearly solely growing new options for its paid Gemini Superior tier, however that does not inform the entire story. These options begin out unique to the Google One AI Premium plan, which prices $20 per 30 days, however they do not keep there for lengthy. Within the case of the corporate’s newest Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental mannequin, it solely remained a Gemini Superior perk for a mere 4 days earlier than going free.
So, what does this inform us about Google’s AI technique, and is it even price paying for Gemini Superior anymore?
Why Gemini 2.5 Professional (Exp) is already out there at no cost customers
ChatGPT has an enormous model benefit over Gemini, to the purpose that some informal customers discuss with AI as an entire as simply “ChatGPT.” Nonetheless, Google has had the technological edge over OpenAI’s giant language fashions (LLMs) for a while now. It is releasing new fashions at a gradual bi-annual tempo — typically faster — and Google’s newest Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental mannequin is the highest-scoring in a number of AI benchmarks.
LMArena, a multifaceted AI benchmark, has Gemini 2.5 Professional rating first on its leaderboard — forward of Grok 3, GPT-4.5, and DeepSeek R1. Google referred to as it the corporate’s “most clever AI mannequin” in its announcement of Gemini 2.5 Professional final week, and unbiased assessments seem to again up these claims.
That leads us to why Google determined to make Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental free on March 29, simply 4 days after it debuted on March 25. To actually tackle ChatGPT, Google cannot simply persuade new customers to commonly use Gemini. It additionally has to try to entice present ChatGPT customers to change to Gemini, and the easiest way to do this is not to restrict the free tier to outdated fashions — it is to get the very best Gemini fashions within the palms of the most individuals.
Though some Gemini Superior customers could have been caught off guard by the brief exclusivity interval, Google confirmed that is precisely why it made Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental free in a social media publish.
“The staff is sprinting, TPUs are operating scorching, and we wish to get our most clever mannequin into extra individuals’s palms asap,” the corporate wrote in a publish on X (previously Twitter) on the Gemini app account. “Which is why we determined to roll out Gemini 2.5 Professional (experimental) to all Gemini customers, starting immediately.”
Gemini 2.5 Professional is taking off 🚀🚀🚀
The staff is sprinting, TPUs are operating scorching, and we wish to get our most clever mannequin into extra individuals’s palms asap.
Which is why we determined to roll out Gemini 2.5 Professional (experimental) to all Gemini customers, starting immediately.
Strive it at no… https://t.co/eqCJwwVhXJMarch 29, 2025
Google’s transfer concerning Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental may seem to be a one-off, till you have a look at previous examples of Gemini Superior options going free. In current months, quite a few paid options have made their approach to free customers, together with Gems — customized variations of Gemini catered to particular duties. As of March 2025, free customers can create their very own customized Gemini bots or use pre-made Gems.
This instance is sort of necessary, because it immediately challenges OpenAI’s customized GPTs. Customized GPTs work equally to Gemini Gems, as they’re customized chatbots designed to swimsuit a selected want. Nonetheless, free ChatGPT customers can solely check out current customized GPTs — they cannot create their very own. In the meantime, we all know that Google is providing related performance fully free with Gemini.
The record of paid Gemini Superior options made out there to free customers contains doc add and evaluation, picture technology of individuals, Deep Analysis, and Saved information. As soon as once more, it is price noting that ChatGPT’s model of Deep Analysis is not free, probably making the Gemini equal a extra interesting possibility.
Why Gemini Superior nonetheless is sensible for energy customers
Google’s technique concerning Gemini is obvious: the corporate needs to ship extra free options than its opponents, all whereas embedding AI into its current companies — like Google Search, Android, Workspace, and YouTube — to realize a aggressive edge. However the place does that go away Gemini Superior subscribers?
Surprisingly, there are nonetheless loads of causes to subscribe to Google One AI Premium for Gemini Superior entry. For starters, Superior customers will not hit charge limits as early as free customers. Even when the identical fashions can be found to free and paid accounts, Gemini Superior customers will get greater token counts for a bigger context window.
With Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental, paying prospects get a one-million-token context window that may broaden to 2 million sooner or later.
That is along with all the opposite Gemini Superior options which are nonetheless unique to the subscription, like NotebookLM — one of the crucial highly effective AI note-taking and analysis instruments out there. The identical goes for Gemini Reside with display screen sharing and reside video streaming, which is rolling out to supported Android gadgets now.
Google’s surprising transfer of creating Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental free simply days after its launch underscores how necessary Gemini’s unpaid tier is to the corporate’s AI technique. By some means, it does not come on the expense of Gemini Superior, both.
