Google's YouTube and Google One Drive 25 Million New Subscriptions in Q1

Alphabet, Google's parent company, announced in its first-quarter earnings report that its services gained an additional 25 million paid subscriptions over the past quarter. The total number of paid subscriptions across Google's ecosystem now stands at 350 million, up from 325 million in the fourth quarter of 2025. This recent growth is primarily attributed to YouTube and Google One, the company's cloud storage and subscription service.

The earnings release did not specify subscriber numbers for Gemini or its monthly active users. However, access to advanced Gemini features is now included in the growing Google One subscription plans.

The absence of concrete figures suggests the Gemini chatbot's user base may still be hovering around the 750 million mark reported last quarter. Google did highlight Gemini's traction in the enterprise sector, citing a 40% quarter-over-quarter increase in paid monthly active users, though it declined to provide a specific number.

YouTube's advertising revenue fell short of Wall Street projections, despite showing year-over-year growth.

As Google promotes its ad-free YouTube Premium subscription, the platform's ad revenue has seen a concerning dip for investors. CNBC reported that while analysts expected Alphabet to generate $9.99 billion in YouTube ad revenue this quarter, the actual figure was $9.88 billion. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had previously advised analysts to assess YouTube's future performance by combining ad and subscription revenue, noting that user migration to Premium plans negatively impacts ad income.

Last year, YouTube's total annual revenue from ads and subscriptions exceeded $60 billion, with Q4 2025 alone bringing in $11.4 billion from ads. This quarter's YouTube ad revenue of $9.9 billion, while an 11% increase from the previous year, missed analyst targets. This shortfall indicates a continuing consumer shift from ad-supported viewing to ad-free YouTube Premium subscriptions. Further details are anticipated during the company's earnings call.

Overall, Alphabet's stock rose after the company surpassed Wall Street's revenue expectations, reporting $109.9 billion in total revenue. This performance was bolstered by strong cloud growth, with cloud revenue alone surpassing $20 billion.

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