Google Gemini review

The AI chat assistant already sitting in the Google account most shops run on: it drafts inside Gmail on paid plans, reads photos and spec sheets, and takes hands-free questions with the phone locked. Its free plan is the least restricted of the three.

What it costsas of August 2026

Free: $0/moWith a Google Account
Google AI Plus: $4.99/mo
Google AI Pro: $19.99/mo
Google AI Ultra: From $99.99/moA higher $199.99/mo tier sits above it
Workspace Business Starter: $7/user/moGemini bundled into Google Workspace
Workspace Business Standard: $14/user/moGemini bundled into Google Workspace
Workspace Business Plus: $22/user/moGemini bundled into Google Workspace

Workspace prices are list monthly, with a stated 16% saving for a one-year commitment and a 14-day free trial. Google One separately lists a Google AI Plus tier at $9.99/mo with 2 TB of storage, so the same plan name carries two prices depending on where you buy it.

Read our full Google Gemini review

What Google Gemini does

Pricing & terms

Starts atThe real monthly cost to get in the door, before add-ons.

Free to start. $19.99 a month for one person, or $4.99 for a lighter plan

How pricing worksFlat tiers, per user, or per job. This decides how fast the bill grows as you add people.

Flat price per person, bundled with storage. Workspace is $7 and up per user

Free trial or planCan you try it with your own jobs before paying?

Free plan stays free. Google Workspace adds a 14 day trial on top

ContractMonth-to-month vs a year-plus commitment you can't easily leave.

Month to month, cancel anytime. A year on Workspace saves about 16%

Fit & support

Ease of useHow hard it is to get a non-technical crew actually using it.

Runs in the Google account you already have. Paid plans put it inside Gmail

SupportWhat owners say about reaching a human when something breaks.

Help articles and a user forum. Workspace plans include Google support

What it does

Writing quotes & emailsTurns a few notes into a quote, a follow-up or a reply you can send.

Turns rough notes into a quote or an ad. Drafts inside Gmail on paid plans

Reads photosSend it a picture of the job or a nameplate and ask what you are looking at.

Send a photo of a part or a nameplate and ask what it is, on any plan

Reads your documentsDrop in a manual, a spec sheet or a contract and ask questions about it.

Reads a manual or spec sheet. Up to 10 files at once, 100 MB each

Works hands-freeTalk to it from the truck instead of typing with dirty hands.

Talk to it hands-free with the phone locked, or say Hey Google to start

Usable free versionWhether you can get real work out of it without paying.

Free plan covers chat, photos, files and talking, with a Google Account

Alternatives to Google Gemini

Other tools that do the same job for a trade business. Prices are what each vendor publishes, dated when we checked.

ChatGPT

The AI chat assistant with the best hands-free story for a truck: you can talk to it on a CarPlay screen, and it will write a quote or read a photo of a nameplate. It reads the words in a manual but not the diagrams, which is the catch for equipment paperwork.Free to start. The usual paid plan for one person is $20 a month

Claude

The AI chat assistant that handles paperwork best: it reads a manual or a contract up to 100 pages with the diagrams included, and turns rough notes into a quote or a follow-up. Talking to it hands-free still carries a beta label, and the vendor will not say how much the free plan gives you.Free to start. $20 a month for one person, or $17 if you pay for a year

Microsoft Copilot

The AI assistant already sitting on the office Windows PC and in the Microsoft 365 account a lot of shops already pay for: free for chat, photos, files and hands-free questions, but drafting inside Word, Excel and Outlook only works if you carry a Microsoft 365 subscription.Free to start. Inside Microsoft 365 it is $9.99 a month for one person

Birdeye

A reputation and local-marketing platform that automatically asks finished customers for Google reviews, pulls reviews from 200-plus sites into one dashboard so you can reply in one place, and keeps your business listings, texts, and social posts consistent so more local homeowners find you.Quote only. Reported entry is about $299/mo per location billed annually

Constant Contact

An email marketing tool that lets a trade owner build a customer list and send branded promotions, seasonal reminders, and follow-up campaigns from ready-made templates without any design work.$12/mo for Lite at 500 contacts; Standard $35 and Premium $80 at that size

Housecall Pro

Field-service management for home-service trades, strong on dispatching, service agreements, and customer marketing.$59/mo (Basic, billed annually)

HubSpot

A CRM with a free tier that lets a trade owner keep every lead, call, and email in one place, then add paid marketing and sales tools like email campaigns and forms as the business grows.Free CRM at $0 for 2 users; paid Starter is about $20/seat/mo

Mailchimp

Email marketing you can run yourself to stay in front of past customers, send seasonal reminders and promotions, and turn your customer list into repeat and referral work.Free up to 250 contacts; paid starts about $13/mo at up to 500 contacts

How we research this

Pricing comes from Google's own pricing pages and is dated at the time we checked it. Features are taken from the vendor's documentation, not from a sales call. We are independent and rank on fit, never on what a tool pays us. See how we review.