There are eight subscription tiers for Google One as of March 2025. While many of these are differentiated only by the amount of cloud storage space they offer, it’s nevertheless hard to parse all the various benefits of each tier. Notebook LM Plus, Nest Aware, unlimited Magic Editor Saves, and Gemini Advanced are some of the most notable benefits of a Google One subscription, but we won’t be surprised if you don’t know what they do.
There are plenty of fantastic cloud storage options that offer less complicated benefits than Google One, so we’re going to break down each of Google One’s benefits and rank them from worst to best. This will help you figure out which Google One subscription tier is best for you or whether you should switch to an alternative service.
Related
My journey from Google to Proton: Why I switched ecosystems and won’t look back
My unexpected journey to privacy with Proton
7
Unlimited Magic Editor saves
An upgrade for a feature you weren’t using anyway
Magic Editor uses AI to reframe photos, remove or move objects, and change weather conditions. It’s an interesting feature, but you’re limited to 10 edited photos a month. This isn’t a feature we found especially good or useful in the first place, so this is easily the most forgettable Google One benefit.
What you will find more useful than Magic Editor is Magic Eraser. This tool removes unwanted objects and is available with unlimited uses for free through Google Photos.
6
Google Workspace premium features
These Workspace benefits are mostly forgettable
Every Google One Premium plan offers Google Workspace premium features. These include:
- Longer Meet calls, call recording, and noise cancellation.
- Live streaming Meet calls on YouTube
- Enhanced appointment scheduling in Calendar.
These features aren’t useful outside of a business environment. If you’re picking up a Google One subscription for personal or family use, you likely will never need these features. There are plenty of third-party tools for Google Meet that are more useful than Google Workspace’s premium features.
5
Google Store discounts
You’re not going to save much money
Google One’s $2.99/month and $9.99/month subscription tiers offer 3% and 10% cashback, respectively, in the Google Store. This is an excellent benefit, but only if you regularly buy new Google hardware. In a time when it’s mostly pointless to upgrade your phone each year, this cash-back program doesn’t offer great value.
For example, a new Pixel 9 from Google costs $799. 3% of $799 is $23.97, which equates to a saving of $2 a month. This is technically saving you $1 a year by upgrading from the $1.99/month Google One plan, but as you have to buy new Google hardware each year, it’s not a good deal.
The 10% discount requires you to spend even more money. Using the Pixel 9 example above, you wouldn’t save any money; you would be short $4.80 a year unless you bought more hardware.
So, while this feature could theoretically save you a few dollars a year, in the long run, it’ll likely make you spend more money than you originally intended. It’s a nice bonus alongside other plan benefits but certainly not worth upgrading to a higher plan for.
4
NotebookLM Plus
Vital for some people, irrelevant for others
NotebookLM is an AI-powered notebook that can summarize and answer questions on documents. Whether you’re taking meeting notes, researching, or brainstorming ideas, it can help. It’s one of Google’s most useful AI features, but if you don’t find yourself regularly juggling documents, it won’t be of much use to you.
3
Gemini Advanced and Gemini for Gmail, Docs, and more
Unlock the most useful Gemini features
Every AI Premium tier includes Gemini Advanced. If you’re a Gemini sceptic, you won’t get much use out of it. However, it brings powerful upgrades to Gemini that make it one of the best Google One benefits.
Gemini Advanced lets you train a custom AI to fit your needs (e.g., practicing for interviews) and is integrated with Google Photos, Drive, Docs, and Gmail. For example, you can ask Gemini to summarize the contents of a Google Drive folder or find specific emails.
Google One also unlocks Gemini integration in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and other apps. For example, you can ask Gemini in Docs to create a document outline or draft an email in Gmail.
2
Cloud storage
More storage is always better
Google One’s eight subscription tiers offer increasingly bigger cloud storage space. Starting at 100 GB, it tops out at 30 TB. Most of these tiers are more affordable than alternative cloud storage solutions, and the basic 100G B option is more than enough for everyday use as long as you keep on top of clearing out unwanted photos and files.
1
Subscription sharing
Get the most value out of Google One by sharing it with friends and family
Every Google One tier lets you share the benefits with up to five other people. While you’ll have to share your storage space limit (Your photos, files, and emails will remain private), everyone will get the same access to these Google One benefits:
- Enhanced Google One editing features.
- Gemini Advanced.
- Gemini in Gmail, Docs, and more.
- NotebookLM Plus.
- YouTube Premium (US users only).
Google One makes it hard to avoid AI
Google One, just like most Google products, makes AI features a significant element of its offerings. A Google One subscription is the only way to access features like Gemini Advanced and NotebookLM. This means that most Google One benefits will only appeal to students, researchers, and businesses, while those just looking for cloud storage space are best off looking elsewhere.
Google One’s benefits vary in usefulness, but if you’re not convinced by its best features, try some of these alternative cloud storage solutions.
Related