Google seems to be playing a little game of hide-and-seek with its standard 200GB storage plan on Google One. The plan appears to have vanished from the service’s website, hidden behind promotions for Google One’s new 2TB AI-powered subscription tier.

As first noticed by the blog Google Watch, the $3 per month 200GB plan is nowhere to be found on One’s website. Instead, when you max out the included 100GB on your account, you’re prompted to upgrade directly to the 2TB option, skipping over the 200GB middle ground.

This hiding act extends to logged-out users too. When browsing plans incognito, the website displays the free 15GB tier, the 100GB tier, and then jumps right to the 2TB plan – no 200GB in sight.

Oddly enough, the 200GB plan still shows up in the Google One mobile app, albeit demoted to the very bottom of the plans list. You’ll have to tap “See more plans” and scroll past multiple promotions to find it tucked away down there.

So no, Google hasn’t removed the 200GB plan completely – it just seems to want new users to have a hard time finding it. This has led to speculation that Google is using a bit of dark pattern design to push people towards its shiny new 2TB Premium plan instead.

The 2TB Premium option stands out as the big new thing for Google One right now. For $9.99 a month, you get 2TB of storage plus access to Google’s new Gemini AI ($19.99/month plan) helper features powered by Generative AI models like LaMDA and PaLM.

With AI being the hot new tech buzzword, it makes sense Google would want to highlight its AI-enabled offerings front and center right now. But making access to its standard 200GB plan confusing does feel a bit shady and manipulative.

For now, existing Google One subscribers can still downgrade to 200GB if needed through the mobile app. But the plan’s disappearance from the main website suggests its days could be numbered as Google continues its AI push. This cat-and-mouse game seems likely to frustrate users who just want simple access to extra storage, with no AI required.