Key Takeaways
- Pixel 10 Pro-series owners are getting a rude surprise when trying to access Google’s latest and most advanced AI features.
- Google’s best AI features require a Gemini AI Ultra subscription, but there’s no way to upgrade without permanently ending the $240 Google AI Pro subscription bundled with the company’s flagship smartphones.
- Users must set up a separate Google account if they wish to test drive Gemini AI Ultra and return to the “free” Google AI Pro tier.
Google’s recent I/O 2026 keynote proves just how much the company wants users to upgrade to one of the premium Google One AI Ultra tiers. Not only did it cut the price of the top tier from $250 per month to $200, but it also launched a new $100-per-month tier designed specifically to upsell Google One AI Pro subscribers. The catch is that loyal owners of Google’s own-brand Pixel 10 Pro-series devices will have to give up the full year of Google One AI Pro (valued at $240) to make the switch. There’s no discounted price available, and no way to reactivate the “free” trial if they decide not to continue with an Ultra tier.
Can I upgrade from a promotional AI Pro trial to Google AI Ultra?
Yes, but users effectively have to take one of the Pixel 10 Pro’s best perks (effectively paid for as part of the smartphone’s purchase price) and set it on fire just to try out cutting-edge features like Gemini Spark or Deep Think. As soon as they upgrade to Google One AI Ultra, their remaining free months of PRO are permanently deleted. Google doesn’t remember that you were on a promotional plan before the upgrade, so it won’t be available for you to return to if you decide to switch back to Pro.
When starting the upgrade process, the Google One app displays the following warning:
- Your new plan will start immediately.
- Any discounts with your current plan will end when you switch.
Do Google One promotional offers stack?
Google’s Google One promotional offers do not stack. The terms of service explicitly forbid it. The Pixel Phone Offer Support page states, “When you subscribe, your trial starts immediately, and your existing plan is canceled.”
When a user cancels a promotional subscription, the system flags the promo as redeemed, and it can’t be reinstated, even by Google’s support staff.
How do I try Google AI Ultra without losing my Pixel 10 Pro XL trial?
The safe way to test out Google AI Ultra without losing any existing trial is to set up a new account specifically for the trial. You can easily set up a secondary Google account, each running concurrently with its own subscription tier. You can then switch to that second account and use its “Ultra” benefits without impacting your existing promotional Pro subscription.
Unfortunately, there are several unavoidable drawbacks to this approach:
- The contents of your Gmail, Google Photos and Drive won’t sync between accounts, so you’ll have to explicitly share any files you want to access from both accounts.
- Switching between accounts in IDE environments like Google Antigravity IDE causes reloads that wipe out multi-turn agent execution states. Swapping between user accounts changes the underlying security tokens, triggering an automatic reload of the environment.
- Google’s terms of service state that storage capacity and Gemini AI perks can be shared across a Google Family group, but you cannot share family group benefits with an account that already has an active Google One subscription. This means you would still have to permanently cancel your bundled 12-month Google AI Pro subscription to access family group benefits – defeating the whole purpose of the exercise.
Google wants customers to buy its premium AI tiers, but has introduced a significant point of friction for its most loyal Pixel customers, who have to weigh up permanently losing a valuable perk against the possibly unknown personal benefits of the higher tiers. Unless Google allows customers to pause and resume their bundled subscriptions, many users will either be put off upgrading entirely or be unexpectedly caught off guard if they try to return to Pro and find they now have to pay for something that was already included in the price of their device.
