Gemini Hits 750M Users—Then Google SVP Says Ads Are On the Table

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750 million users. That's more than double Gemini's 350 million count from March 2025. By any measure, it's a breakout growth story. Google chose this moment to admit it's considering running ads inside it.

On March 13, Wired published remarks from Google SVP Nick Fox confirming the company is "not ruling out" advertisements in Gemini. Demis Hassabis, DeepMind's CEO, had said weeks earlier that Google had no plans for ads in the assistant. Fox's statement directly contradicts that. One of them is wrong, or the policy changed between the two statements.

The Numbers Behind the Decision

Gemini's user trajectory is striking: 350M to 750M in twelve months, a 114% increase. For context, ChatGPT crossed 400 million weekly active users in February 2025. Gemini is now competing in the same weight class.

But scale creates a monetization problem. These users aren't paying. Google's core advertising business—$240 billion in 2025 revenue—runs on search queries. Every query Gemini answers without a search results page is, in some accounting, a query that doesn't generate ad revenue. At 750M users asking Gemini billions of questions per month, the lost search revenue becomes material.

The internal pressure to monetize Gemini directly isn't surprising. What's surprising is saying it out loud.

Why This Is Awkward

Hassabis spent months insisting Gemini would remain ad-free. His credibility as a scientist-CEO is tied partly to the idea that DeepMind operates with research-first values. Ads in an AI assistant feel categorically different from ads in search—more intrusive, more opaque about when commercial interest shapes an answer.

Fox's "not ruling out" language is a balloon test: say it to Wired, measure the reaction, decide later. If users and press react with outrage, Google can say Fox was misquoted or that it's purely hypothetical. If the reaction is muted, it's a green light.

The reaction so far is not muted. Users on X and Reddit have pointed out that an ad inside an AI assistant is potentially far more manipulative than a labeled search ad—because the ad could be embedded in what appears to be an objective answer.

Gemini 3 in the Background

Google released Gemini 3 earlier this month, with Gemini 3 Pro available in preview across Google products. The model competes directly with Claude 3.7 and GPT-5.4 on multimodal reasoning and agentic tasks. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite hit the API on March 3 for developers who need lightweight, fast inference.

The product momentum is real. The monetization uncertainty is also real, and at 750 million users, it can't stay hypothetical much longer.

What Happens If Google Runs Ads in Gemini

The precedent would be significant. If Google—the company with the most to lose from AI assistants disrupting search—ads Gemini, it signals that the "AI as premium subscription" model isn't delivering enough revenue. Every competitor would watch the outcome carefully.

The alternative path is enterprise. Google Workspace AI features and Gemini for Business are paid products. The consumer Gemini app monetized through ads would be a separate bet—one that risks user trust to unlock ad inventory.

Google is the only major AI player for whom ads are a native option. That cuts both ways.

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