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 method behind OpenAI, a minimum of within the eyes of the general public. Simply how massive of a head begin does OpenAI have? As of March 2025, ChatGPT has 700 million month-to-month energetic customers, which is a staggering whole.
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 via 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 sort of completely creating 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 thirty 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 value paying for Gemini Superior anymore?
Why Gemini 2.5 Professional (Exp) is already accessible without cost customers
ChatGPT has a large model benefit over Gemini, to the purpose that some informal customers consult 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 known as it the corporate’s “most clever AI mannequin” in its announcement of Gemini 2.5 Professional final week, and unbiased checks 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 recurrently use Gemini. It additionally has to attempt 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 best possible 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 put up.
“The staff is sprinting, TPUs are operating sizzling, and we wish to get our most clever mannequin into extra individuals’s palms asap,” the corporate wrote in a put up 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 at the moment.”
Gemini 2.5 Professional is taking off 🚀🚀🚀
The staff is sprinting, TPUs are operating sizzling, 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 at the moment.
Strive it at no… https://t.co/eqCJwwVhXJMarch 29, 2025
Google’s transfer relating to 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 method 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 go well with a particular want. Nonetheless, free ChatGPT customers can solely check out present customized GPTs — they can not create their very own. In the meantime, we all know that Google is providing comparable performance utterly free with Gemini.
The checklist of paid Gemini Superior options made accessible to free customers consists of doc add and evaluation, picture era of individuals, Deep Analysis, and Saved information. As soon as once more, it is value noting that ChatGPT’s model of Deep Analysis is not free, doubtlessly making the Gemini equal a extra interesting choice.
Why Gemini Superior nonetheless is smart for energy customers
Google’s technique relating to Gemini is evident: the corporate desires to ship extra free options than its rivals, all whereas embedding AI into its present providers — like Google Search, Android, Workspace, and YouTube — to achieve a aggressive edge. However the place does that depart 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 price limits as early as free customers. Even when the identical fashions can be found to free and paid accounts, Gemini Superior customers will get larger token counts for a bigger context window.
With Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental, paying prospects get a one-million-token context window that can develop to 2 million sooner or later.
That is along with all the opposite Gemini Superior options which might be nonetheless unique to the subscription, like NotebookLM — one of the vital highly effective AI note-taking and analysis instruments accessible. The identical goes for Gemini Dwell with display sharing and dwell video streaming, which is rolling out to supported Android units now.
Google’s surprising transfer of constructing 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.
