The Google Developer Program is getting a bunch of new tools, but you’ll have to pay for them
- The Google Developer Program is now available with free or $299/year plans
- “Benefits” include $500 in Google Cloud credits, one-on-one consultation with experts, and more
- Now available for personal users, except for customers in Europe/UK/Switzerland
Google has launched a new premium membership to its Google Developer Program in an effort to monetize the initiative, and has introduced a host of new features to justify those extra dollars.
The program was previously introduced in 2024 as a free resource center for developers, but on the heels of the free tier, a premium subscription has been introduced that will cost developers $299 per year.
Paying customers now get access to one-on-one consultations with Google Cloud experts, unlimited access to the Google Cloud Skills Boost training library, and $500 in annual Google Cloud credits to sweeten the deal.
Paid version of the Google Developer Program
Jeanine Banks, VP and GM for Developer described the new subscription as a “tailored set of services to help developers through the learning, building and deploying phases of their journey.”
The company already counts “millions” of developers as users of the free version launched at Google’s I/O conference.
Banks and her colleagues wrote: “Building on the success of the Cloud Innovators Plus program, this new offering is the next evolution of our commitment to streamlining the developer experience and showcases the continued investment in the Google Developer program at the center of benefits and resources around the world. Google’s many developer products and services.”
The extra features included in the $299 Premium plan are branded as “benefits,” which you can browse through from a special section of the Developer Dashboard. Subscribers also get access to the free resources already available in the standard Google Developer Program, such as AI-powered documentation tools and enhanced workspaces in Google’s IDX app development platform.
While the subscription is positioned as an option for individual developers, the fine print indicates that the Premium membership is “restricted for business or professional use” only in Europe, Great Britain and Switzerland, raising questions about its accessibility in the region.
