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

These two changes have dramatically improved the usefulness 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 felt odd that the two have been so separate. Google One is supposed to be the one subscription for the best of Google’s services, and YouTube Premium is arguably the best paid service in Google’s arsenal. Bundling YouTube Premium with Google One has always felt like such an obvious move, but year after year, it never happened.

So, you can imagine my surprise and excitement when Google unceremoniously announced at I/O that YouTube Premium is officially an included Google One perk.

To be clear, this is different from the temporary 50% discount Google was offering to AI Pro subscribers last month. From this point forward, select Google One plans now include YouTube Premium access at no extra cost — exactly what I’ve been wanting from Google for so many 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 perks, the value of AI Pro and AI Ultra now works out as follows:

• 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 effective cost.
• Google One AI Ultra: $100/month cost – Google Home Premium Advanced ($20/month value) – Google Health Premium ($10/month value) – YouTube Premium Individual ($16/month value) = $54/month effective cost.

In other words, the new YouTube Premium perk effectively pays you $9/month to have the AI Pro plan, while you can essentially cut the price of AI Ultra in half. Not only is it great from a value perspective, but YouTube Premium is also such an incredible service that dramatically improves the quality of these Google One plans as a whole.

While I firmly believe this is a net positive change, I can understand feeling underwhelmed by Google’s implementation.

Would it be great to have a full YouTube Premium plan bundled with AI Pro, rather than the Lite version? Absolutely. Does it feel stingy of Google not to include a YouTube Premium Family plan with its $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 any form is a huge step forward, and I’m really excited to see it.