Tech
Why the New $7.99 Plan Is Not a Bargain
Google’s new $7.99 entry-level AI subscription plan has launched in 35 countries, including the U.S.
Key Takeaways
- Google launches low-cost Google AI Plus tier in 35 new countries, including the U.S.
- The tier offers significant AI features, but with reduced capabilities compared to the “Pro” plan
- Existing Google Premium 2TB customers get a free AI upgrade
Google has finally released its entry-level Google AI Plus subscription tier to 35 new countries, including the U.S., making it significantly less expensive to access premium AI features like Gemini in Google Apps and “Pro” level creative tools like Nano Banana Pro, Flow and Whisk. However, you probably shouldn’t buy it.
Initially trialed exclusively in Indonesia and India in late 2025, Google AI Plus is a new “mid-tier” plan that sits between the free basic plan and the current $19.99-per-month Google AI Pro subscription. At $7.99 monthly, it offers significantly more than the free plan for less than half the price of the full AI Pro option, allowing new users to dip their toe in the water without such a significant monthly commitment.
Filling The Mid-Tier Gap
The new Google AI Plus subscription bridges the sizable gap in the market between the “free” and “Pro” tiers, in direct competition to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Go product, also priced at $8 per month, but with significant added benefits including 200GB of cloud storage, video generation and deep integration with Google apps like Docs and Sheets.
Why You Probably Shouldn’t Buy Google AI Plus
Existing Google One subscribers on the standard “non-AI” 2TB plan will soon gain all the features of Google AI Plus at no extra cost on top of their current storage quota. Google is likely doing this to prevent the situation where paying more ($9.99 per month) would get you fewer features than those on the new, cheaper plan. This means there are now effectively two AI-enabled tiers between the free and “AI Pro” options, where users can choose either 200GB or 2TB of storage for an extra $2 per month.
This is a familiar pricing strategy where the real value isn’t in the cheapest option but in the next tier up. Google is no doubt banking on a significant number of users opting to pay $10 monthly for Google One Premium.
Google AI Plus provides everything in the free tier and adds “enhanced” access to Gemini 3 Pro, Google’s premium AI chat model, as well as an upgrade to Nano Banana Pro for image generation and Veo 3.1 Fast video.
But There’s A Catch
The version of Gemini 3 Pro you get with AI Plus is severely restricted compared to what you get with Gemini AI Pro. The “Pro” version offers a 1 Million token context window, meaning you can upload and analyze massive amounts of data and documents in a single chat. The “Plus” version comes with a much smaller 128k context window, meaning it will start to forget things much sooner.
Google’s new Google AI Plus tier offers premium AI features at a reduced cost.
If you’re considering upgrading from the free tier, here’s a breakdown of the main new and enhanced features in Google AI Plus.
New Features
- Nano Banana Pro: Generate images with Gemini 3 Pro Image, a significant upgrade over Gemini 2.5 Flash Image provided in the free tier.
- Generate AI videos with Veo 3.1 Fast: Generate short video clips in your Gemini app chats.
- 200 monthly AI credits: Use these to generate videos in Flow and Whisk
Enhanced Features
- Flow and Whisk: “More access” in Google’s AI filmmaking and image-to-video tools, including “limited” access to the full Veo 3.1 model.
- NotebookLM: More audio overviews, notebooks, and “more.”
- 200GB Storage: Increased storage for Google Photos, Google Drive and Gmail, up from 15GB in the free tier.
Google AI Plus is now available for $7.99/month in the U.S., with the first two months at $3.99/month for a limited time. However, the newly-upgraded $9.99 plan looks like the real bargain.
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Tech
JazzWorld Drives AI-Led Transformation Through Strategic Partnership with MoITT at Indus AI Week 2026
JazzWorld, Pakistan’s leading digital services company, has partnered with the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) for Indus AI Week 2026. The partnership will support national AI capacity-building, public-sector pilots, and local language model development.
The collaboration places JazzWorld at the forefront of Pakistan’s evolving AI ecosystem, convening policymakers, industry leaders, technologists, and innovators to shape a shared vision for AI-driven economic growth, competitiveness, and institutional transformation. Indus AI Week serves as a strategic forum to align national priorities with next-generation technologies capable of delivering measurable impact across sectors.
Aamir Ibrahim, Chief Executive Officer of JazzWorld, during a panel titled “Expert Led Strategic Dialogue: Designing AI Native Government” stated “AI is a multiplier, not a buzzword. Pakistan’s opportunity is to move from being an AI taker to an AI maker, and that requires execution, not just rhetoric. At JazzWorld, we are embedding AI into everyday decision-making, productivity, and customer experience, backed by pragmatic business cases, strong governance, and relevant upskilling. With our renewed focus and the appointment of a Chief AI Officer, we are moving decisively from experimentation to scale and setting the pace for Pakistan’s AIled future.”
Aamer Ejaz, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer at JazzWorld, speaking during a fireside chat titled “Building Competitive AI Ecosystems without Losing Sovereignty,” added: “In a globally connected AI economy, sovereignty is about strategic choices, not isolation. You can be sovereign where it matters through the right infrastructure, policy frameworks, and data governance. AI must be driven by real use cases, real customers, and real value. At JazzWorld, our focus is on building a responsible, commercially viable AI ecosystem that remains open to global innovation while protecting local data, language, and context.”
Fatima Akhtar, Vice President Communications and ESG at JazzWorld, underscored the importance of responsible AI deployment and eliminating digital divides. “Language plays a pivotal role in bridging the digital usage gap identified by the GSMA—one in which women are disproportionately represented. Large Language Models can be a powerful enabler in overcoming this barrier, ensuring women’s meaningful inclusion in the digital economy.”
The event reflected JazzWorld’s broader ambition to build a comprehensive AI ecosystem spanning platforms, talent, governance, partnerships, and innovation pipelines — accelerating Pakistan’s transition toward a high-value, AI-driven digital economy.
During the event, JazzWorld showcased the depth of its operational AI capabilities across consumer and enterprise platforms, financial services, cloud infrastructure, digital ecosystems, and next-generation applications through its platforms like JazzCash, Tamasha, ROX, SIMOSA, and the chatbot SIA. The showcase demonstrated how AI is being embedded across multiple segments to enhance decision-making, personalization at scale, operational efficiency, and new value creation.
As Pakistan’s leading digital services company, JazzWorld reaffirmed its strategic focus on embedding AI as a foundational layer across all platforms and services, enabling smarter systems, scalable innovation, and sustained digital growth.
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