YouTube Premium is now part of Google One, and I couldn’t be happier

These two changes have dramatically improved the usability and value proposition of Google One, and at Google I/O 2026, Google announced another big change — one that’s potentially even more impactful.

For as long as Google One and YouTube Premium have existed, it’s always seemed strange that the two are so different. Google One is considered One Subscriptions to Google’s best services, and YouTube Premium is arguably the best paid service in Google’s arsenal. Bundling YouTube Premium with Google One always seemed like an obvious move, but year after year it’s never been the case.

So, you can imagine my surprise and excitement when Google unofficially announced at I/O that YouTube Premium is officially included in the Google One benefits.

Obviously, this is separate from the temporary 50% discount that Google was offering to AI Pro customers last month. From this point forward, select Google One plans now include YouTube Premium access at no additional cost – exactly what I’ve wanted from Google for years.

With this change, Google One AI Pro includes a free YouTube Premium Lite subscription. Meanwhile, Google One AI Ultra (including the new $100/month tier) comes with an individual YouTube Premium subscription. When you combine this with the recent Google Home and Google Health premium benefits, the value of AI Pro and AI Ultra now comes out to be:

• Google One AI Pro: $20/month cost – Google Home Premium ($10/month value) – Google Health Premium ($10/month value) – YouTube Premium Lite ($9/month value) = -$9/month cost effective.
• Google One AI Ultra: $100/month Cost – Google Home Premium Advanced ($20/month value) – Google Health Premium ($10/month value) – YouTube Premium Personal ($16/month value) = $54/month effective cost.

In other words, the new YouTube Premium benefit effectively makes you pay $9/month for the AI ​​Pro plan, while you can essentially halve the price of AI Ultra. Not only is this great from a value perspective, but YouTube Premium is also such an incredible service that dramatically improves the quality of these Google One plans overall.

Although I firmly believe this is a net positive change, I can feel underwhelmed by Google’s implementation.

Would it be a good idea to bundle the full YouTube Premium plan with AI Pro instead of the Lite version? Absolutely. Does it sting Google not to include a YouTube Premium family plan with the $100/month AI Ultra subscription? Sure.

Google could have done more here, but that doesn’t mean I’m unhappy with the execution. The fact that YouTube Premium is bundled with Google One plans in some form is a big step forward, and I’m really excited to see it.