Chromebook Plus now includes a year of Google One AI Premium

Google announced Chromebook Plus in October and the next set of software features — both AI and nice quality-of-life additions to ChromeOS — and hardware are here. The highlight is how buying Chromebook Plus will get you 12 free months of Google One AI Premium, while Plus hardware now starts at $349 (from $399).

More Google AI features

The new AI features, which coincide with ChromeOS 125, start with the ability to generate images. When video conferencing with any app, you can create a custom background by opening the microphone/camera control “pod” in the Shelf. “Image” joins the blur options with one of eight themes, like Stylish office, Terrain, and Dreamscapes. Each has a prompt that you can customize, like “A [valley] with a glowing [river]” for Glowscapes. Each has several predefined options, while there’s also the random “Inspire me” button.

Generative wallpapers for your wallpaper work in the same way: right-click desktop > Set wallpaper & style > Wallpaper > Create with AI.

Like on desktop Chrome, you can invoke Help me write by right-clicking in most text fields to enter a prompt. If you select text you’ve already written, right-clicking will bring up a Rewrite box where your options are Rephrase, Emojify, Shorten, Elaborate, and Formalize. You also have the ability to enter a prompt like “make it more confident.”

Finally, the Google Photos app offers a Magic Editor experience optimized for large screen and mouse/keyboard input. You move, resize, or erase parts of a photo, as well as apply Sky, Golden hour, and other “contextual presets.”

Gemini + AI Premium

You’ll also have the Gemini app — gemini.google.com — pinned to your dock, with the Progressive Web App opening its own window for a slightly more dedicated experience. Google positions this as Gemini being built into Chromebook Plus. 

This goes hand-in-hand with how buying a Chromebook Plus now gets you 12 free months of Google One AI Premium. That includes access to Gemini Advanced and Gemini in Workspace (Gmail, Drive, Docs, etc.) powered by Gemini 1.5 Pro. This $240 offer is available to new Chromebook Plus purchases starting today, including if you previously took the general 2-month trial and/or are already paying for AI Premium.

Through the end of the year, we’re also offering new Chromebook Plus owners free 12 months of the Google One AI Premium plan, which includes access to Gemini Advanced, Gemini for Workspace, 2TB of storage and more. 

New ChromeOS features

Outside of AI, the Calendar widget in the Shelf is adding Google Tasks integration above the monthly view, while the screen recorder is adding a GIF (versus video) option. Launcher search now leverages OCR (optical character recognition) for local images downloaded to the Files app. For example, you could search “milk” to bring up a store receipt. 

On the gaming front, there’s the Game Dashboard with an exclusive Game Capture feature for Chromebook Plus. Besides taking a screenshot, you can record a video of the game and of yourself playing with the front-facing camera and voiceover. When playing an Android game, Game Controls let you map touchscreen interactions to key commands.

Google is also making initial set-up easier if you have an Android phone. Scanning a QR code will share Wi-Fi and Google Account credentials to the Chromebook.