Google gains 25M subscriptions in Q1, driven by YouTube and…
The company said it now had 350 million paid subscriptions across its services, up from 325 million in Q4 2025 , with YouTube and Google One plans driving the recent growth. Per CNBC , Wall Street expected Alphabet to bring in $9.99 billion in YouTube ad revenue this quarter, but it pulled in $9.88 billion. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had warned analysts last quarter that it would be important to evaluate YouTube’s business going forward based on a combination of ads and subscriptions, because when users switch to a YouTube subscription plan, it will have a negative impact on YouTube ads.
Last year, YouTube’s annual revenue topped $60 billion across both ads and subscriptions, with Q4 2025 bringing in $11.4 billion in YouTube ads alone. That’s up 11% year-over-year, the company pointed out, but the miss on expectations could suggest consumers are continuing to move from ad-supported YouTube viewing to ad-free subscriptions through YouTube Premium. OpenAI ends Microsoft legal peril over its $50B Amazon deal Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre-seed to build an AI social network in iMessage Meta’s loss is Thinking Machines’ gain Google to invest up to $40B in Anthropic in cash and compute OpenAI releases GPT-5.5, bringing company one step closer to an AI ‘super app’ Microsoft offers buyout for up to 7% of US employees Surveillance vendors caught abusing access to telcos to track people’s phone locations, researchers say
Analysis: Why This Matters
When companies make decisions involving April Tickets, the ripple effects often hit competitors, investors, and consumers within weeks.
Key Takeaways
- Per CNBC , Wall Street expected Alphabet to bring in $9.99 billion in YouTube ad revenue this quarter, but it pulled in $9.88 billion.
- The company said it now had 350 million paid subscriptions across its services, up from 325 million in Q4 2025 , with YouTube and Google One plans driving the recent growth.
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Expect product, hiring, and pricing reactions across the sector in the coming weeks.
Source: TechCrunch