You can try the best of Google Gemini AI for free on Workspace apps, but there's a catch

Google wants everyone to have Gemini AI, thus making its AI offerings free of charge on Workspace apps.

The Mountain View tech giant says that it integrates Gemini AI features into Business and Enterprise plans at no additional costs, so you can use it for apps like Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Meet, besides tools like NotebookLM Plus for research and data analysis.

“Businesses that embrace AI are gaining a significant competitive edge, but many are unsure how to start or struggle with the cost of adopting new technologies,” says Google’s boss for cloud apps, Jerry Dischler.

But, there’s a catch. As part of this change, the price of all Workspace plans will increase by a small amount, with most users seeing about a $2 per user monthly increase. Existing customers will see these changes starting March 17, 2025, with the rollout beginning earlier for new customers.

Here’s a hypothetical example, “A customer using the Workspace Business Standard plan with a Gemini Business add-on previously paid $32 per user, per month. Now, that same customer will pay just $14 per user, per month — only $2 more than they were paying for Workspace without Gemini.”

And with that, the competition in the AI offerings for business is just heating up.

On the same day, Microsoft also relaunched its Copilot for business as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. It gives you free AI chat like ChatGP with a pay-as-you-go option to use AI agents.

These agents, previously available only in the $30 per month full MS365 Copilot package, can perform tasks like monitoring emails and automating processes.