Google announced it"s expanding the monthly plans for the Google Developer Program to more countries as part of the latest expansion, which brings the total number of such countries to thirteen. The monthly plan, costing $24.99, was launched earlier this year in August but was initially limited to the US.
Developers in India and Italy can now pay on a monthly basis when buying a Google Developer Program Premium or Enterprise subscription. Previously, Google only offered annual plans in these countries, priced at $299/year.
Google has a Standard no-cost plan, which includes Gemini Cost Assist, Gemini CLI, 10 Firebase Studio workspaces, and Gemini integration in documentation and tools, among various features. The Premium plan builds on top of these features with higher limits for Gemini CLI through Gemini Code Assist Standard, 30 Firebase Studio workspaces, and cloud credits to experiment with Gemini models.
On a side note, Gemini CLI has got a new extensions feature that allows users to connect different tools to their AI-powered command line.
The Premium subscription for the Google Developer Program is now more affordable in India. With Google"s new regional pricing, the plan now costs INR 1,000/month (about $11.27) or Rs 12,000/year ($135.23).
Monthly plans are already available in the US, UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, Poland, Singapore, and the Netherlands. Google said it will add support for more countries in the coming weeks.
Google Developer Program is also rolling out to developers in China. Developers can create and access their profiles using WeChat, have full control over profile visibility, earn badges for learning achievements, and customize their content feed.
With the announcement, the search giant is also kickstarting its series of DevFest events worldwide from October through December. These events are hosted by local Google Developer Groups in various locations, where developers can connect with Google employees and Google Developer Experts to discuss upcoming technologies around AI, cloud, mobile, and web.
That said, subscriptions have become the latest cash cow for Google. The search killed the Nest Aware subscription in favor of a newer alternative for its smart home devices and expanded its lower-cost Google AI Plus subscription to more countries.