So, people loved Gmail back in the day, Google was free and then there was going to be this free email service too...
Fast forward to these days and there's this constant "if you're not paying for it, you are the commodity" meaning that if it's free, they're probably getting you in so they could sell something about you to someone else. Google, Gmail, etc... are all free, but not all. There are some things that you pay for to get more; and I thought I'd run you through what I'm paying for (marked with a checkmark) on Google's side and some of the headaches that are out there in detangling the 'mess' that can be with free services.
[Note: these prices are in Canadian - I still get a lot of comments about "it's not that expensive"]
YouTube Premium $13/month or $130/yr
So a lot of people use YouTube every day, and what better way to use it than ad free? Plus, if you get premium you also get YouTube Music
There is an $8/month 'lite' version is most ads are gone, but no extra features.
YouTube Music Premium $11/month or $110/yr
If you don't want the videos, of YouTube you can just get the music for a few bucks less, but why not pay a little bit more and get both services.
This the one (or 2) services I find the most convoluted. I hated that they have now intertwined Music and YouTube. I preferred Google Play Music... sigh.
Play Pass $6/month or $35/yr
So, for this you can get a bunch of paid games available to play for free (while in the subscription) and no ads, depending on their catalog
Nest Aware / Google Home Premium $10/month or ✅ $100/yr [standard] and $20/month or $200/yr [advanced]
So, even tho' they are going through a name change at the moment, I had signed up for Nest Aware, so our cameras can all be covered and have access to the events recording. The price jump to the upper plan was too much (they used to have a price per camera, whereas now it's all cameras, so it wasn't worth it for them all at that level).
Also, note that I did get a notice that they're going from $100/yr to $130/yr. Which to me was a 30% price jump, so I have cancelled it. That bugged me.
Gemini AI $27/month [Pro] or $170/month [Ultra]
Now, this will jump you up ot the 2TB or 30TB Google One tier of choice.
I have the Pro, but that's because it came for free for me with the 10 Pro. I was already paying for the 2TB plan, so I was kinda hoping you'd get some credit for that.
Google One $2.80/month - $14/month - $27/month or $28/yr - ✅$140/yr - $270/yr
Now you get 15GB in Google's cloud for storage, but the basic plan gets you 100GB, I had opted for the mid which was $14/month [$140/year]. For $270 you get the Gemini AI Pro option.
On top of all these plans out there, there are still the business type services, like Google Cloud, or Workspace etc..., but I'll leave those out of this discussion.
What you see is a bit of a hodge-podge of services; some are intertwined like the YouTube or One/Gemini options, so it's hard to separate them. Honestly I feel like they should go the whole other way and offer bundles. Mix them all together if you want, or mix and match; and do like carriers do, the more services you get the more discounts you get (sure, with One, you do get 'credits discounts' on physical purchases)
I made a little bit of a chart here to see what's out there and I've highlighted ones that are 'linked'.
Which ones do you pay for? Did I miss any? How would you like to 'structure' a package, if you could?
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