How to decide if Gemini Advanced is worth £18.99 a month
In my last newsletter, I promised I’d explore Gemini Advanced. On paper, Gemini is a strong contender for the best AI chatbot. But I wanted to see how it stacked up against Gemini’s free option.
Is it worth paying £18.99 a month for Google’s “best AI yet?”. Here’s a quick rundown to help you decide.
What extras come with Gemini Advanced?
First of all, lets look at the benefits you get with this paid option:
It’s powered by 1.0 Ultra, which is Google’s most capable model to date.
You’ll get Gemini in your email, Google Docs and Sheets.
It comes with 2TB of Google One Storage.
Of course, this is all helpful but here’s the key question: how does it perform as a chatbot?
Image generation
Unfortunately, at the time of writing, this tool was out of action. At the end of February, Google “paused” image generation within Gemini due to the model generating misleading images of people’s races in historical contexts.
Once it’s back, I’ll add in my thoughts.
How is it for text generation?
I’ve read that Google Advanced is pretty handy for coders and those carrying out more scientific jobs. But as I’m concentrating on copy and content here, I’ve been exploring its text-generation capabilities.
Here are a couple of simple prompts to give you an idea of what came back.
“Please write a product description for a new low-impact reusable water bottle, which is durable, easy to clean and comes in a range of colours”
This is Gemini’s response:
And this is the output from Gemini Advanced:
As you can see, both options approach the task differently. The free version has produced a short introduction and bullet points, while Gemini Advanced has opted for sentences. It also gives us three options and three names as well.
Prompt two
Next, I tried generating a Twitter/X post. (I use Twitter in my prompts as X doesn’t always deliver the right results.)
“I need to write a Twitter post to promote my latest blog. The blog title is: “Five Lessons from a Year of Using AI Writing Tools”.
Target audience: Copywriters, content creators and founders.
Using the above information, please generate three Twitter posts to promote my blog.”
Here’s what Gemini returned:
I’m not sure where that URL came from.
Here are the Gemini Advanced results:
I would say Gemini Advanced is more nuanced in tone. We get some tips, and it offers us different angles, rather than just three options. All pretty useful when you’re using AI to kickstart your copy.
My thoughts so far
In reality, it’s hard to assess a model after a few tests. These things take time and plenty of exploration. Keep in mind that I’ve also used the simplest prompts here.
More detailed instructions give you better results on both the free and Advanced options.
So is it worth paying the £18.99? I think it depends on what you need.
Paying for the premium version on Gemini (or ChatGPT) will always give you more nuanced results because you’re tapping into a more powerful model.
So, your next decision is whether you need the extras.
Here, your £18.99 puts Gemini in your Google Docs and supercharges your Google One Storage. With ChatGPT, your extra money gives you access to GPTs and the chance to make your own.
If those extras will be valuable to you, then it might be worth paying. It all comes down to your individual requirements.
My conclusion? Decide if you need the extras. And perhaps try out the premium version. The great news is, you can try Gemini Advanced free for two months. Result.