Google One VPN is Being Discontinued Due to Low Usage

The free VPN that Google offers with Google One subscriptions is going away later this year. The company has started emailing subscribers to warn them that the free perk will be discontinued in the coming months, and the company also confirmed the news to 9to5Google.

The Google One VPN first launched on mobile devices back in 2020, and it became available on Windows and macOS two years later. Originally, the VPN was only available with a Google One Premium plan with 2TB of storage or higher ($9.99/month), but last year, Google made it available for all Google One subscribers.

However, it looks that the free perk didn’t generate enough usage for Google to keep investing in it. Indeed, the company told 9to5Google that killing the feature will allow the team to “refocus” and “support more in-demand features with Google One.”

As of today, Google One subscriptions provide additional storage in Google Drive, alerts and guidance if your personal information is circulating on the dark web, and more editing features in Google Photos. Google announced earlier this week that it will make Google Photos’ AI editing tools free for all users in May, though a Google One subscription will allow users to go beyond the limit of 10 Magic Editor saves per month.

While the Google VPN will soon be deprecated, Google will continue to offer a free VPN to owners of a Pixel 7 and newer models. The built-in VPN that comes with a Google Fi subscription is also here to stay.