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Google is making a pretty big change to Photos soon and will be offering the AI editing tools like Magic Editor in its Photos app for free to all users. This includes anyone not using a Google Pixel device. Typically, the most advanced tools in Google Photos have required a Pixel phone or a subscription to its Google One service. But Google is expanding the most advanced feature to all users at no cost.
Google One comes in four different plans starting with 100GB, and it goes all the way up to 30TB which is $148 a month. Prior to this change, you’d have needed to be on the 2TB plan for $8 a month if you wanted these features. But that will all be changing on May 15. “Starting May 15, 2024, Magic Editor will become available on Android and iOS to more Google Photos users,” Google says. There is a caveat to this though. And it may change how people decide to use these new tools once they become available.
Google Photos AI tools will be free, but there are monthly limitations
It is true that these tools will be made available for free for more users. However, they technically won’t be free to use as much as you want. Google will be rolling out Magic Editor and a suite of other editing tools to those with “devices that meet the requirements” next month. You will only be able to make 10 saves a month though. In other words, you can have Magic Editor alter one of your photos and then save that photo, and then you can do that 9 more times a month. There are two ways to bypass this monthly limit.
First, you can be on a Pixel phone like the Pixel 8 Pro. The other option, if you’re not using a Pixel phone, is to subscribe to the Google One 2TB plan. If you have Google One at a lower tier already, you can also upgrade to the 2TB plan, and that will allow unlimited saves as well.
Only the Magic Editor will be limited to 10 saves a month
It should be noted that not all of the new tools will be limited to the 10 saves a month. This will only apply to the Magic Editor. This is undoubtedly Google’s most impressive feature. There are plenty of other fun ones to use though. Such as the photo unblur. Another particularly fun feature is the Magic Eraser, allowing you to remove unwanted subjects from your photos. Like people in the background. Those and more are also making their way to more users on May 15, and they’ll be available at no charge. Without monthly save limits no less.
All of the features arriving at no charge include Magic Eraser, Unblur, Sky Suggestions, Color Pop, HDR effect on photos and videos, Portrait Blur, Portrait Light, Cinematic Photos, Styles in Collage Editor, and Video Effects. You will still need to be running at least Android 8.0 or iOS 15, and have 3GB of RAM. But that should be most users at this point. These will begin to roll out May 15 and a full rollout will take a few weeks.