Is Google AI Ultra worth it in 2026?

Google revealed AI Ultra on May 20, 2025 at $249.99 a month. A Hacker News thread that day was titled “Google reveals $250 per month ‘AI Ultra’ plan”, and an archive snapshot of Google’s plan page dated 2025-09-02 still carries the figure 249.99 in its page code.

On May 19, 2026, at Google I/O, Google added a $99.99 a month AI Ultra tier and cut the top plan from $250 to $200. Digital Trends and Engadget both report the change. Engadget says the old top plan capped storage at 30 TB and the new $99.99 tier has 20 TB. Google’s current page lists the $199.99 tier at 30 TB and its top rate at $199.99.

Google’s AI Plus plan went from $7.99 to $4.99 a month on June 8, 2026, and its storage doubled from 200 GB to 400 GB, per Engadget. Google’s plan page lists AI Plus at $4.99 a month today.

The Google Gemini app on the US App Store averages 4.7 stars from 2,370,261 ratings, last updated October 21, 2026 (Apple App Store). That score covers the app, not the Ultra plan.

A Hacker News thread from February 22, 2026 about Google restricting AI Pro and Ultra subscribers for using OpenClaw drew 802 points and 705 comments. A February 19, 2026 post titled “Google Banning AI Ultra subscribers for using OpenCode while still charging them” drew 12 points (link).

One Google developer-forum thread, opened May 7, 2026, reads: “Google made another silent nerf on Ultra: family quotas went from independent per member to a single shared pool.” Replies come from other users (thread).

Opinions split. An Ask HN commenter on August 16, 2026 wrote “I spend $300 a month for Claude Max $200 and Google AI Ultra $100,” and called Google Meet live translation a must-have (link). A June 25, 2026 commenter wrote: “I also can’t use the Claude models included in the AI Ultra plan because the agy cli wrapper makes the experience completely unusable.” (link)

The gap between the tiers is volume. Against AI Pro, the $99.99 tier adds 5x AI Pro usage, 20 TB of storage instead of 5 TB, 10,000 Flow video credits instead of 1,000, 30,000 Flow music credits instead of 10,000, $40 a month in Google Cloud credits instead of $10, 1,000 Colab compute units instead of 200, Higher Jules and Google Antigravity limits, and an individual YouTube Premium plan in place of Premium Lite. The $199.99 tier doubles usage to 20x, adds 10 TB more storage, 25,000 Flow credits, $100 a month in Cloud credits and the Highest coding-agent limits.

Two features sit outside the table. Tom’s Guide’s headline says Deep Think “might not stay Ultra-exclusive for long” (link). Engadget described Gemini Spark as “the upcoming Gemini Spark” when the $99.99 tier launched, and reports Project Genie access on the $199.99 tier. Neither can be priced, so neither carries the case for the upgrade.

All three start at $100 a month. OpenAI’s help page lists ChatGPT Pro at $100 (Pro 100), $200 (Pro 200) and $500 (Pro 500) a month, and says Pro 200 is available to new subscribers again. Anthropic’s pricing page lists Claude Max from $100 a month for 5x Pro usage, with a 20x option.

Ultra’s $99.99 tier bundles 20 TB of storage, 10,000 Flow video credits and an individual YouTube Premium plan into one price. For a buyer who wants an assistant without the storage, Claude Max at $100 is the like-for-like usage comparison, and the Ultra storage and YouTube bundle is the number to weigh.