Google has profoundly revised its AI subscriptions during Google I/O 2026, highlighting a price drop on its high-end offer. What the company avoided mentioning publicly is the parallel tightening of Google AI Pro plan usage limits, which directly affects subscribers at 19.99 euros per month.
A quota overhaul presented as an improvement
Google is abandoning the system of fixed daily limits in favor of a model based on "compute used." These new calculation limits take into account the complexity of the request, the features used, and the length of the conversation. According to Google, this mechanism would be fairer, as a simple text request consumes far fewer resources than a task involving video generation or complex code.
The quota now recharges every five hours, until the weekly limit is reached. If a subscriber exceeds their ceiling on the most powerful models, they are automatically switched to a lighter model, so as not to completely interrupt their usage. AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can also purchase additional credits in "pay-as-you-go" mode for Google Antigravity, Google Flow, and, soon, the Gemini application.
What AI Pro subscribers actually get
The plan Google AI Pro, maintained at 19.99 dollars per month, offers limits four times higher than those of the free tier, access to the Pro model, 5 TB of storage, and YouTube Premium Lite. Google does not specify the exact number of tokens or credits included, making direct comparison with competing offers difficult.
These new rules also apply to other Google AI products outside of Gemini, notably Antigravity and Flow. Furthermore, Google is ending the 1,000 free AI credits previously granted to Flow users, while assuring that this should not affect their experience. Subscribers can track their consumption from the Usage Limit option in Gemini settings.
What Google omitted to announce on stage
While Google boasted at Google I/O 2026 about the launch of a new AI Ultra tier at $100 per month and the price reduction of its premium offer to $200 (down from $250 previously), the overhaul of the AI Pro plan quotas was not publicly discussed during the conference. The changes were communicated to affected subscribers via email, an approach some users found less than transparent.
The reaction from part of the community was immediate. On Reddit, some subscribers are calling the new system a scam, with one user reporting that a simple text request had consumed 13% of their daily quota. This sentiment illustrates a structural problem with the compute-based model: the unpredictability of consumption for everyday use.
An industry-wide move towards usage-based pricing
Google is not alone in making this shift. GitHub recently revamped its Copilot offerings, abandoning its old system of premium request units in favor of AI credits based on tokens actually used during exchanges. Major AI providers are struggling to absorb the demands of the latest agentic features, which can generate tens of thousands of tokens over multiple turns from a single request.
Going against the grain, Anthropic recently doubled the limits of Claude Code for its Claude Pro and Max plans, after reaching an agreement with SpaceX to strengthen its computing capabilities. This decision illustrates that different choices remain possible, but they require considerable infrastructure investments.
What this means for subscribers in practice
For light conversational use, based on short text queries, the transition to the credit system should remain transparent. On the other hand, for users who exploit Gemini in intensive workflows, combining image generation, in-depth research, or calls to agents, consumption may prove to be much higher than anticipated. Google also reserves the right to modify its usage limits without notice, making long-term planning difficult.
Faced with this opacity, AI Pro subscribers are advised to regularly monitor their consumption from Gemini settings and to evaluate whether switching to the AI Ultra offer at $100 per month, with five times higher limits, is a more suitable option for their actual needs. The restructuring of Google AI subscriptions is far from over, and further pricing or functional adjustments are to be expected in the coming weeks.
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