Gemini - any news on alternative workspace integration for students

[mcbride]

Curious if anyone is hearing any type of feedback if Google has any intention to offer a more cost effective Gemini for Workspace option for students (13+)? We have a small amount of paid Gemini Education licenses for testing Workspace integration with Staff accounts and it's such a better experience than having only the Gemini chat bot (gemini.google.com). We have Gemini chat enabled for Staff and will soon be enabling it for Students (13+), we cannot afford the current pricing model of the Education license for everyone. We've heard some "rumors" that Google may offer a different pricing model at a much reduced rate, as the current model just doesn't seem realistic at all for public ed institutions. 

[MarkLoundy]

I would hope that Google's reasoning is not price, but appropriateness for use by students.

[icrew]

One big block aside from price is the fact that the Gemini integrations in Workspace are restricted to only people who are over the age of 18. For those of us in higher education, that doesn’t have a huge impact, but for folks in K-12 it might….

[panderson]

Would Gemini Teens work?  Personally, I think they should include some additional Gemini for Education Plus users as they added for Business users.  I think it would give a much bigger incentive for those on the fence about getting Education Plus.

[icrew]

I actually asked about whether that was in the works, and was told that it was not, given how very much less Google charges for EduPlus vs. Workspace Business Standard. (~$5/user/year for education plus vs. ~$15/user/month —$180/year — for Business Standard).

[panderson]

Yeah, I guess at that kind of difference, a lot of Fundamental users would need to go to Plus, it would be interesting to find out how many more would go from the free version to the Plus version. 

[mcbride]

Gemini Teens? I assume that is the same as enabling Gemini Chat/App access for 13+, which is what we are planning to do. 

Ultimately, I was hoping there was some other plans to provide the Gemini Workspace integration for staff and/or students (13+) at a lower price point than the current Education license price point. The integrated feature set is nice, but not $20/month nice for every person. That gets way too pricey too fast.

[panderson]

Even $20/year per person would be too pricey for us and most schools.