Google’s search engine will likely be paid soon. Not for everyone: the version as we know it now remains what it is. However, AI is being added and that will probably cost money. The news does not come from Google itself, it is still a rumor.
According to Google, Financial Times want to charge money for the extra options. The remarkable thing is that it’s really about AI: even if you pay Google money every month for AI in Google Search, you will still see ads. Google makes the most money from advertisements and this shows that it does not want to say goodbye to that anyway. It earned Google $175 billion last year.
Subscription to Google Search
In any case, it will be interesting if Google adds more to the Google search engine. Last year, Microsoft attempted to put itself on the map when it comes to search engines, namely by providing Bing with ChatGPT arts. However, that turned out to be a drop in the ocean: Google remains the largest when it comes to search . Although it should rather be concerned about the target group: young people use TikTok like Google.
It will be interesting to see whether people are waiting for AI in Google Search: it is nice that Google Search is so simple: adding all kinds of AI tricks can make it a bit busier and more confusing. At Google itself, there is no decision yet about this paid subscription. The AI ​​options can be tested within Google SGE, a kind of test version where people in certain countries can try out Google’s AI options.
AI in the search engine
However, if it does happen, that paid subscription, then that is not very surprising. It is not the first time that Google has asked for money for AI: for example, since the introduction of Gemini, it has also put AI behind a paywall within its Google One subscription. Although: the regular version is free to use, but certain variants can only be reached with Google One.
Google Search has a love-hate relationship with AI. On the one hand, it wants to keep the AI ​​content that is placed on sites out of Google Search, but on the other hand, it also wants to get the most out of AI to make Google Search better. That says something about how versatile AI can be. It remains to be seen which direction Google will ultimately take and how much such a subscription will cost or whether it will become part of the One subscription.
