Google's subscriptions business is booming — and AI is a big reason
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- Google's subscription business saw its strongest quarter yet.
- YouTube and AI features tied to Google One were the biggest drivers.
- Subscriptions are becoming an increasingly important business for Alphabet.
Google said it now has 350 million paying subscribers across its services — another boost to what is becoming an increasingly important part of the search giant's business.
The company's subscriptions, platforms, and devices business grew 19% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, Google said on Wednesday. That was in line with the 19% growth that Google also saw in Search.
That jump for subscriptions was primarily driven by YouTube and Google One, the company said.
Speaking on the company's Q1 earnings call, Google's chief financial officer, Anat Ashkenazi, said Google One subscriptions "benefited from increased demand for AI plans."
Google One gives paying users access to Google's frontier models and more advanced AI features, including better image models and more creative AI tools.
The company said paid monthly active users for the enterprise version of Gemini, its flagship AI model, grew 40% quarter on quarter.
Google has been drawing more attention to its subscription business in recent years. While advertising is still Google's core moneymaker, subscriptions are becoming a bigger part of the pie.
Overall, the company reported first-quarter revenue of $109.9 billion, up 22% year over year, while profits were $62.6 billion, up 81% compared to the same period a year ago.
Shares in Google's parent company, Alphabet, were up more than 6% in after-hours trading.