Google added 25 million paid subscriptions in Q1 2026

In short: Google says it added 25 million paid subscriptions in the first quarter of 2026, bringing its total to 350 million.

What happened

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reported in its latest earnings update that Google added 25 million paid subscriptions in Q1 2026. That brings the company to 350 million paid subscriptions across its services, up from 325 million at the end of 2025.

Alphabet said the growth was mainly driven by YouTube subscriptions and Google One. Google One is a paid plan that bundles extra cloud storage (online space for your files, like renting a bigger digital closet) and other features.

The company did not share a clear subscriber number for Gemini, Google’s AI chatbot, in the report. TechCrunch noted that advanced Gemini features are now included with some Google One plans, which makes it harder to tell how many people are paying specifically for Gemini.

YouTube’s ad business still grew, but it came in slightly below what analysts expected. CNBC reported that Wall Street expected $9.99 billion in YouTube ad revenue this quarter, while Alphabet reported about $9.88 billion. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai previously warned that as more people move to YouTube Premium, ad revenue can drop because fewer people see ads.

Why it matters

This is another sign that big tech companies are leaning more on subscriptions, not just ads. For regular users, it likely means more features will be packaged into paid plans, and more services will encourage upgrading to ad-free versions.

Source: TechCrunch AI