This is how Google convinced me to pay for a more expensive Google One plan

As a longtime Gmail and Google Photos user, I’ve always had my eye on Google One subscription plans. For the better part of a decade, I tried just about anything to avoid paying up for Google One storage, pushing the free 15GB of cloud storage to its limit. Eventually, mass-deleting emails and photos to free up cloud storage space took its toll, and soon I found myself paying $2 a month for Google One Basic. That only solved my data cap problems for one Google account; not long after, I shelled out for Google One Premium to share 2TB of cloud storage across all my accounts.

Subscriptions can get out of hand quickly, so Google One Premium at $10 per month was all I could muster. Despite owning multiple Nest displays and a Nest Video Doorbell, I stuck with only three hours of event recording to avoid paying another $10 for Nest Aware each month. Plus, my smart home is split between the Apple and Google ecosystems. Paying for Apple One gave me an unlimited number of HomeKit Secure Video (HSV) cameras with a 10-day recording history, making Nest Aware hard to justify.

The problem? I’m a renter and need a battery-powered video doorbell. There aren’t many that support HSV, and they’re not great. I could either pay for a HomeKit doorbell and take my chances, or pay for Nest Aware on top of all my other subscriptions. After refusing to go with either option for two years, Google finally bundled its AI Pro tier with the right perks last month to convince me to upgrade.

Gemini arrived for Google Home and Nest products in late October, but most users haven’t received Gemini for Home access yet. Along with that, Google replaced the old Nest Aware subscriptions with new ones called Google Home Premium Standard and Advanced earlier in the month. It’s more than just a rebrand, though — Google Home Premium includes every Nest Aware feature plus new ones powered by Gemini. Best of all, Google Home Premium is free with certain Google One subscription plans.

The plans are a bit confusing, but essentially, Google Home Premium Standard replaces Nest Aware, while Home Premium Advanced replaces Nest Aware Plus. Pricing for each plan remains the same, at $10 and $20 per month, respectively. Google recently hiked Nest Aware fees in August, so the consistency here makes sense. The subscription plans’ core benefits are the same, too: Home Premium Standard includes 30 days of event-based video history, and the Advanced plan extends that to 60 days, while adding 10 days of 24/7 video history for supported products.

Other classic Nest Aware features, like familiar faces, are still included in the form of intelligent alerts. Nest Aware perks haven’t changed at all; their plans just sport new names with extra features. In fact, the old three-hour limit for free event video history was upped to six hours as part of the Gemini for Home transition.

So, what’s really new in Google Home Premium? Gemini is the new centerpiece, and it replaces Google Assistant. I’m stoked about the transition, as Google Assistant became incredibly unreliable for me and most users over the past year. Gemini is included for free, but only Home Premium subscribers get access to the more seamless Gemini Live. I’ve already found Live helpful for free-flowing conversations with Nest speakers and displays, like sorting out a complicated recipe in the kitchen.

Home Premium Standard also includes Ask Home, an AI-powered chatbot that can turn text commands into powerful automations. Ask Home is in its early days and doesn’t work perfectly every time for me, but it’s certainly easier than crafting complex automations by yourself. Home Premium Advanced subscribers also get more detailed notifications, natural language video history search, and daily Home summaries powered by Gemini.

It has always felt strange that Google ecosystem users could end up paying for four (or more) separate subscription services. As of earlier this year, you had Google One Premium, YouTube Premium, Fitbit Premium, Nest Aware, and a bunch of extras like Play Pass and YouTube TV. It isn’t outlandish to imagine a user wanting all of those perks. There were signs as early as March 2024 that Google could consolidate some subscription plans, with Google One Premium users in the UK getting Nest Aware and Fitbit Premium for free — benefits that didn’t extend to other regions.

Now, the dream of having one Google subscription to rule them all is a reality, at least in the UK. Google’s incredibly expensive AI Ultra plan includes Google One Premium, YouTube Premium, Google Home Premium (formerly Nest Aware), and Fitbit Premium in the country. For most other regions, including the US where I’m based, AI Ultra includes everything but Fitbit Premium. The much cheaper Google AI Pro is the only realistic option for the average consumer, though, costing $20 per month and still including Google One Premium and Home Premium.

At $250 per month, Google AI Ultra didn’t have a chance at winning me over. Google AI Pro, on the other hand, provided the perfect mix of features to help me justify its monthly subscription fee. It includes all the benefits I already paid for in Google One Premium, plus every Home Premium Standard benefit and a handful of AI features. For the same price as One Premium and Nest Aware combined, I’m getting exclusive Gemini in Home features, more generative edits in Google Photos, extra AI credits, and Gemini in Workspace apps.

Google still needs to consolidate its subscription offerings — Google One, YouTube Premium, Home Premium, Fitbit Premium, and Play Pass are too scattered and complicated. With that being said, by adding Home Premium to Google AI Pro, Google finally put together a package of features I can justify spending $20 on each month. I’ve always had a need for Nest Aware, but never felt like the extended video event history was worth the extra $10 per month. Now, my additional $10 per month gets me more extra features than I can count on two hands.

The crazy part about Google AI Pro’s inclusion of Home Premium is that it’s now possible to get what was formerly Nest Aware for free. It’s not hard to get AI Pro access at no charge. Students can get a year of Google AI Pro for free in the US, and it’s also included with the purchase of a Google Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, or Pixel 10 Pro Fold. You can even snag a free year of AI Pro by buying a Samsung Galaxy XR. The offers are everywhere, and now, the freebies can upgrade your smart home too.