Google 将 Gemini Pro 限制为 AI Pro 和 AI Ultra 订阅用户专享

Home; Artificial Intelligence; Generative AI

Free tier users are restricted to Gemini Flash Lite, while Gemini Pro is only for those paying big bucks.

Half of all US consumers use AI services — but only a small fraction pay for them. Google is trying to shift the balance by giving users of its Gemini AI services reasons to become paying customers.

Users are certainly reluctant to dip into their pockets. A quarter of US consumers use AI daily, but only 4.5% have an active paid subscription to ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude, according to research from Andreesen Horowitz. The survey found, however, that consumers are extremely engaged and that the top 10% of spenders account for roughly half of all observed spending.

Now Google is changing the rules on who can use which Gemini models, limiting what users of its free service and its lowest-priced subscription tier can do.

This is a clear change of direction for Google, looking to tap into the market for AI power users. The Andreessen Horowitz survey revealed that Claude had already overtaken Gemini among consumer users and Google now wants the higher end of the market. The question will be whether users are willing to pay that premium.

Maxwell began writing about technology in 1984, when mainframes ruled the world. Since then he has written for just about every business computing title in the UK, and for a few in the US, covering everything from Artificial intelligence to Zero-day exploits and all points in between. He has also been editor-in-chief of several award-winning titles, including Network Week, Techworld, and Cloud Pro, and a regular contributor to Whatsonstage.com. In his spare time he coaches a junior rugby team.

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