Google Cuts Gemini Ultra Price in Half, Launches Gemini Spark and Omni at I/O 2026
Google unveiled major AI updates at its I/O 2026 conference, cutting the price of Gemini Ultra from $200 to $100 per month and launching Gemini Spark—a personal AI agent that can take autonomous actions on your behalf—plus Gemini Omni, a model that creates any content type from any input.
Major Announcements
Google halved the entry price for its top-tier AI subscription and replaced daily prompt limits with a metering system that charges by computational cost rather than message count. CEO Sundar Pichai opened the two-day Google I/O 2026 event, which runs through Wednesday, May 20, noting that the conference's answer arrived in a wave of simultaneous launches across Gemini, Search, Gmail, YouTube, and hardware.
Gemini Spark & Omni Models
Google announced Gemini Spark, a personal AI agent that helps you navigate your digital life, taking action on your behalf, and works 24/7, even when your laptop is closed, powered by Gemini Flash 3.5 and the Antigravity harness. Gemini Omni is a new model that can create anything from any input, combines Gemini intelligence with generative models, and supports conversational language video editing.
Gemini Redesign & New Features
Google's Gemini app received a ground-up visual overhaul under a design language called Neural Expressive, rolling out Tuesday on Android, iOS, and web. Google is introducing regional dialects for Gemini and designing its responses with imagery, graphics and even narrated videos, and the redesigned chatbot is now rolling out worldwide on Android and iOS. Gemini is getting AI agents, like a Daily Brief agent that presents users with a customized daily digest, rolling out today for paid subscribers.
Investment & User Growth
The Gemini app now has 900 million monthly active users, roughly doubling from 400 million a year ago, and Google processes more than 19 billion AI tokens per minute across its products. Alphabet has committed between $175 billion and $185 billion in capital expenditures for 2026—nearly double the $91.4 billion it spent in 2025—with the bulk directed toward AI compute infrastructure.