Yes, you can get 12-months of Gemini Advanced with older Chromebook Plus models

Since last week, I’ve been struggling with one specific part of Google’s new announcements around Chromebook Plus and ChromeOS: the free offering of Google One AI Premium (which includes Gemini Advanced) to users who purchase a new Chromebook Plus model.

With a presentation that really pounded home the idea that AI shouldn’t be behind a pricey paywall, I was super excited to see Google offering Gemini Advanced to Chromebook Plus users for a full 12 months for absolutely free. It solidified and reinforced the points they were making on stage and was one of the things I could not wait to tell people about.

The fine print always gets you

But after the presentation and for the past week, I’ve been asking questions. What about Chromebook Plus models bought a month ago? A week ago? 3 months ago? What about all those devices that are not branded as Chromebook Plus, but have all the Chromebook Plus upgrades? How will this free offer get extended in a way that doesn’t put a bunch of new users out simply for purchasing a Chromebook Plus model a few weeks or months ago?

And the initial answers to those questions weren’t great, and they came in the form of the new Chromebook Perk that is prominently displayed on the Chromebook Perks page right now. When you dig down a bit, some rather unsavory language is there to greet you, and when I read it, my initial elation about this new feature literally turned to dread. How in the world were we to explain this to all the people we’ve encouraged to buy Chromebook Plus models in the past few months?

We’ve tested, and the offer works for older devices

So, in light of this, I wanted to test it out before going on an all-out rant about all this. I snagged a few non-branded Chromebook Plus models we have around the office and used a few non-work email accounts to try and cash in on the offer. And it worked on 3 devices across 3 email addresses for me!

I then messaged Joe and had him try on the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, and we hit a roadblock. I also had a friend of mine in the office give it a go on his Chromebook Plus model he’d bought a few months back. Again, it was a no-go and the Perks page simply said – after running checks – that the deal had expired. So, I thought maybe it was a fluke that the few I had success with ever worked at all.

But I wasn’t ready to give up just yet. So with my friend’s approval, we ran a Powerwash on his device, went through the new OOBE setup we talked about yesterday, and this time around, the perk worked! There was an update taken during setup, and though I think he was already on ChromeOS 125, his device may not have been.

Either way, an update to 125 and a Powerwash did the trick, so I instructed Joe to do the same. And it worked. And to finalize the theory, I went into our private Chrome Unboxed Plus Discord community (learn more about that at the bottom of this post) and asked those fine folks to try this method if they were able. And the resounding result is nearly every person who updated, Powerwashed, and tried to redeem the Gemini Perk on their Chromebook Plus got it – regardless of the purchase date!

There are a couple who’ve yet to get this working, but they are outside the US. Both of their countries are on the approved list in the fine print, so it should be working; but I’m still unsure why it isn’t right now. However, the vast majority of those who’ve tried this method have had success, and there’s a very good chance you might as well.

Simply back up your local files, get updated to ChromeOS 125, then proceed to Powerwash your Chromebook. After getting all set up again, head to the Chromebook Perks page, click the big Gemini offer up top, and hopefully you’ll be able to get in on this pretty amazing offer.

But do it sooner than later! There are always layers to these sorts of offers, and there may be some deeper reasons Google didn’t intend to allow this one on older Chromebook Plus devices. While I deeply disagree with that notion, I have no idea how long this window will stay open. Don’t miss it!