It is no secret that OpenAI received the leap on, nicely, everybody when it launched ChatGPT over two years in the past. Now, as corporations 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 combat towards OpenAI for the majority of consumer-grade AI market share. Within the years since ChatGPT was launched, Google ramped up AI growth first by 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 other.
With Gemini, Google is sort of solely 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 monthly, 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 free of charge customers
ChatGPT has an enormous model benefit over Gemini, to the purpose that some informal customers discuss with AI as a complete 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 impartial exams 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 really tackle ChatGPT, Google cannot simply persuade new customers to frequently use Gemini. It additionally has to try to entice present ChatGPT customers to change to Gemini, and one of the best ways to try this is not to restrict the free tier to outdated fashions — it is to get the very best Gemini fashions within the arms of the most individuals.
Though some Gemini Superior customers could have been caught off guard by the quick exclusivity interval, Google confirmed that is precisely why it made Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental free in a social media put up.
“The group is sprinting, TPUs are working scorching, and we need to get our most clever mannequin into extra individuals’s arms 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 right now.”
Gemini 2.5 Professional is taking off 🚀🚀🚀
The group is sprinting, TPUs are working scorching, and we need to get our most clever mannequin into extra individuals’s arms asap.
Which is why we determined to roll out Gemini 2.5 Professional (experimental) to all Gemini customers, starting right now.
Strive it at no… https://t.co/eqCJwwVhXJMarch 29, 2025
Google’s transfer concerning Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental would possibly appear 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 option 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 essential, because it instantly 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 current customized GPTs — they can not create their very own. In the meantime, we all know that Google is providing comparable performance fully free with Gemini.
The listing of paid Gemini Superior options made out there 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 price noting that ChatGPT’s model of Deep Analysis is not free, probably making the Gemini equal a extra interesting choice.
Why Gemini Superior nonetheless is smart for energy customers
Google’s technique concerning Gemini is evident: the corporate desires to ship extra free options than its rivals, all whereas embedding AI into its current companies — 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 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 larger token counts for a bigger context window.
With Gemini 2.5 Professional experimental, paying clients get a one-million-token context window that may increase 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 highly effective AI note-taking and analysis instruments out there. The identical goes for Gemini Stay 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 essential Gemini’s unpaid tier is to the corporate’s AI technique. Someway, it does not come on the expense of Gemini Superior, both.
