Alphabet adds 25 million paid subscriptions in Q1 as YouTube and Google One accelerate growth

Alphabet said it added 25 million paid subscriptions across its services in the first quarter, lifting its total to 350 million.

The update, disclosed with the company’s Q1 earnings results, highlights a steady shift toward recurring revenue beyond advertising.

The company attributed much of the momentum to YouTube and Google One, its subscription bundle centered on cloud storage and extra features. Google One has also become a key on-ramp for access to advanced Gemini AI capabilities, which are packaged into certain plans.

Gemini growth, limited new detail

Alphabet did not provide an updated count for Gemini subscribers or overall monthly active users in the earnings release. In recent quarters, Google has pointed to the scale of Gemini usage and emphasized rising demand from business customers.

Google said paid monthly active users for Gemini in the enterprise market rose 40% quarter over quarter, but it did not disclose the underlying figure. The lack of new top-line metrics suggests the company is still emphasizing monetization and workplace adoption over headline user totals.

YouTube ads miss expectations

YouTube advertising revenue grew year over year but came in below Wall Street expectations for the quarter. Alphabet reported about $9.9 billion in YouTube ad revenue, compared with analysts’ estimates near $10.0 billion.

Executives have previously cautioned that subscription growth can weigh on ad revenue as viewers move to ad-free plans such as YouTube Premium. Investors have increasingly been urged to evaluate YouTube based on the combined performance of ads and subscriptions.

Alphabet overall reported revenue of $109.9 billion for the quarter, and the company said Google Cloud revenue topped $20 billion. Shares rose after results beat broader expectations, with subscriptions and cloud helping offset continued scrutiny of ad trends.