Google spotted testing a paid ‘Bard Advanced’ tier

Google is finally preparing to charge you for its AI chatbot.

Developer Dylan Roussel recently dug into Google's code and uncovered evidence of an upcoming upgraded tier dubbed Bard Advanced. A second developer, Bedros Pamboukian, also spotted matching strings hinting at an advanced subscription tier.

According to the leaked screenshots, Bard Advanced appears to be locked behind a paid Google One subscription.

Packing Gemini Ultra and custom bots

The real upgrade inside Bard Advanced is raw horsepower. While the current free version of Bard runs on the mid-tier Gemini Pro, Advanced will be powered by Google's top-tier heavyweight, Gemini Ultra.

Screenshots describe it as a more capable model featuring advanced math and reasoning skills. In plain terms, Google is ready to let its smartest model off the leash.

Beyond model upgrades, Roussel found traces of several new features. The biggest one is codenamed Motoko, a tool that lets users build their own custom bots. That sounds nearly identical to OpenAI's custom GPTs released last year, though the code doesn't clarify yet whether users can share these bots publicly or if they will sit behind a paywall.

Google also seems to be prepping a feature called Power Up, which uses AI to automatically expand and polish user prompts before feeding them to Bard.

Other surfaced tweaks include a Gallery section to help users explore use cases, a Tasks tab for tracking longer background jobs like image generation, and custom backgrounds for shared prompts. Google has not yet commented on when or if these features will roll out.

Why it matters

Google is copying OpenAI's monetization playbook, but with a massive distribution advantage built in.

Bundling Bard Advanced with Google One is a very smart move. While OpenAI has to convince users to fork over a standalone subscription for ChatGPT Plus, Google already has millions of paying subscribers for cloud storage. Tacking frontier AI onto an existing storage plan creates a far stickier bundle with a much lower friction to pay.

For users, the real test will be whether Gemini Ultra actually delivers on its promised edge in complex math and reasoning over GPT-4. Features like prompt polishers and background task trackers are nice quality-of-life perks, but raw intelligence is what justifies opening your wallet.

If the Motoko bot-maker pans out, it also means the battle for user-generated AI agents is officially on. The era of getting Google's best AI toys completely free is clearly coming to an end.