Google Adds 25 Million Paid Subscriptions in Q1, But Gemini Numbers Stay Under Wraps

Alphabet dropped its Q1 2026 earnings report on Wednesday, and the headline number that caught my eye is 25 million new paid subscriptions. That brings Google’s total across all its services to 350 million, up from 325 million at the end of last year.

The growth is being driven by the usual suspects: YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, plus Google One — the cloud storage bundle that now includes access to advanced Gemini features. It’s a smart move on Google’s part, bundling AI perks into a service people already pay for. But here’s the thing: the earnings report didn’t break out how many people are actually paying for Gemini specifically, or even how many monthly active users the chatbot has.

Google previously said Gemini had over 750 million users back in Q4 2025. The lack of an updated number this quarter could mean it’s still hovering around that mark, or they’re just not ready to share yet. Either way, it’s a bit of a black box. The only concrete figure we got was a 40% quarter-over-quarter increase in paid monthly active users for Gemini in the enterprise market. That’s solid growth, but without a baseline number, it’s hard to get excited.

On the YouTube front, ad revenue came in at $9.88 billion, slightly below Wall Street’s expectation of $9.99 billion. That’s a miss, even though it’s still up 11% year-over-year. Sundar Pichai had warned investors last quarter that this would happen — as more users switch to ad-free YouTube Premium subscriptions, ad revenue takes a hit. It’s a trade-off Google is clearly willing to make, and honestly, I think it’s the right long-term play. Subscription revenue is more predictable and less dependent on the ad market’s ups and downs.

Last year, YouTube’s total revenue across ads and subscriptions topped $60 billion, with Q4 2025 alone pulling in $11.4 billion in ads. This quarter’s $9.9 billion ad figure is lower, but the subscription growth likely makes up some of the difference. We’ll hear more details on the earnings call, but the trend is clear: consumers are voting with their wallets for an ad-free experience.

Despite the YouTube ad miss, Alphabet’s stock is up after beating overall revenue expectations. The company reported $109.9 billion in revenue, with cloud revenue alone crossing $20 billion. That’s a healthy chunk of change, and it shows that Google’s diversification beyond search and ads is paying off.

Overall, it’s a solid quarter. The subscription growth is impressive, but I wish Google would be more transparent about Gemini’s numbers. If you’re going to push AI as a key differentiator, you need to show how it’s performing.