Google may ask you to pay for AI-powered search soon: Is this future of online search?

Imagine actually having to pay for Google Search results powered by AI. Sounds unbelievable? Well, Google’s reportedly planning for this eventuality already, blaming the skyrocketing price of running AI-based services on a massive scale.

Also read: OpenAI’s DALL-E now lets you edit AI-generated images: Here’s how

According to a report from The Guardian (based on a Financial Times article), Google isn’t just mulling about whether or not it should start charging users money for using its AI-powered search engine features, but it’s actually drawing up plans on likely subscription models for the future of Google Search – which is expected to have a healthy dose of generative AI feedback to user queries.

Reportedly the upcoming Google Search offering, which is already being trialled selectively in very early beta, will have Gemini AI or its slightly tweaked version to allow Google’s generative AI to respond to search engine queries with a single best answer – very similar to chatting with AI chatbots like Google’s own Gemini AI, rival Microsoft’s CoPilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT interface. If this is indeed true, it will be starkly different from showing a search engine result page with several web pages hyperlinked – which is how Google Search currently operates.

The implication of this fundamental Google search engine tweak will be enormous, no doubt, whenever it does see the light of day (in the form of a wider beta launch, which Google’s renowned for doing with all its new products). 

Also read: Meet Devika, an open-source Indian AI software engineer: What can she do?

Why is Google trying to monetize this new AI-powered search engine release directly via user subscriptions instead of the more indirect AdSense advertising which it deploys on its search engine results page currently? The answer is pretty simple, actually. With AI getting infused into the search process, Google’s results will be generated more dynamically than plain-jane hyperlinked text blocks. Add to it the cost of training and inference the relevant AI search models in order to effectively deploy it across billions of users around the world, and it’s easy to see why Google would want to price the future service at a (hopefully) small fee versus the current free model of online search it drives on a global scale.

What do you think about this reported change coming to Google Search? Is this going to be the future of online search in general, powered by generative AI agents responding to users in an interactive fashion? Let us know in the comments below…

Follow Us

Jayesh Shinde

Executive Editor at Digit. Technology journalist since Jan 2008, with stints at Indiatimes.com and PCWorld.in. Enthusiastic dad, reluctant traveler, weekend gamer, LOTR nerd, pseudo bon vivant. View Full Profile