Build native Android apps in Google AI Studio

Posted by Emma-Louise Leavey, Group Product Manager and Mike Taylor-Cai, Product Manager


Starting today Google AI Studio can build entire Android apps for you in minutes from just a prompt. You don't need to install any software or configure any libraries, which significantly lowers the barrier to development. Whether you’re a seasoned developer looking to prototype at lightning speed or a creator building your first-ever mobile experience, you can now go from a single prompt to a high-quality, Kotlin-based Android app in AI Studio. You can easily install the app on your device, share it with others for testing, or send it to Android Studio for any further development.

The power of native Android

While AI has made it easy to generate web-based apps, people want more on their mobile devices. They expect the beautiful and usable modern app design and capabilities that come with native Android user experiences, built with the Kotlin programming language using Jetpack Compose, the official and recommended toolkit for Android development. Native Android apps bring the reliability of offline support, continuous background services, and the deep integration of hardware sensors like GPS, Bluetooth, and NFC. We've brought the technology that enables you to quickly create new projects with Gemini in Android Studio directly into the web-based AI Studio. Now, you get the best of both worlds: the ease of a prompt-based interface paired with the power of the Android SDK, all in your browser, no installation required.

A seamless, end-to-end workflow

We have streamlined the entire development lifecycle so you can focus on your idea: 

1. Create your app and iterate in the cloud: Use the embedded Android Emulator directly in your browser to preview and interact with your app as it’s being built. No heavy SDKs to download, no local setup required.

Use the embedded Android Emulator to create and edit Android Apps right in the web browser

2. Install instantly: Connect your Android phone using a USB cable and install your app directly from AI Studio using the integrated Android Debug Bridge (adb).

Install the app on your Android device

3. Streamlined Publish to Google Play: Using your Google Play developer account, you can now publish your app directly from AI Studio for testing. AI Studio will automatically create your app record, package the bundle, and upload it to an internal testing track in Google Play Developer Console. Your app is available for you to install within minutes, and you can automatically update your app on your device as you develop it further in AI Studio. 

Publish the app to an internal test track in Google Play

Seamless app development handoff 
As you iterate on your app in AI Studio, you may find you need more advanced Android tools or support for a wider variety of Android device types. To move beyond the browser, you can seamlessly hand off your project to Android Studio by downloading a ZIP file or exporting it directly to GitHub.

Download zip file of Android app project files

When transitioning to a team environment or local development, you can leverage any IDE or agent you prefer. For a specialized experience, we recommend Gemini in Android Studio, which features models designed with Android in mind, or Antigravity, which integrates Android CLI commands into Google’s agentic development platform. This workflow makes building high-quality apps more accessible while giving you total flexibility in how you use AI to scale your project.

Start building today

To ensure a safe, high-quality ecosystem from day one, we have focused our initial release on specific capabilities including:
  • Personal utilities and simple social apps: You can rapidly prototype single or multi-screen apps, such as habit trackers, study quizzes, or event itineraries.
  • Hardware-enabled experiences: Because you are building native apps, you can leverage device features like the Camera, GPS/Location, Accelerometer and Bluetooth using the native Android APIs, letting you optimize hardware-level performance.
  • AI-powered experiences: You can create apps that feature Gemini API integrations, seamlessly embedding powerful AI capabilities directly into your mobile experience.

What’s Next?

We are moving fast to expand what’s possible for creators in AI Studio. Here is a sneak peek at what is coming soon:
  • Managing Google Play Test Tracks: Coming soon, we will be adding the ability to invite testers to try your app directly from AI Studio. 
  • Firebase integrations: Out-of-the-box support for Firestore, Firebase Auth, Firebase App Check and other tooling critical for Android developers is coming soon.

Head over to Google AI Studio right now to start building. Here is some inspiration to get you started… 

Turn your Google Pixel Watch into an aviation assistant
Prompt:
Build a small airplane "6-pack" instrument app for Google Pixel Watch. The 6 instruments should include attitude indicator, airspeed indicator, altimeter, turn coordinator, vertical speed indicator, and heading indicator. Use the Google Pixel Watch's sensors to power the instruments and display them clearly. Display one instrument at a time on the display. Swiping to the left or right should cycle through the instruments.


Interactive Harmonium app on Google Pixel Fold
Prompt:
Build a Harmonium app for Pixel Fold devices, which plays like the instrument based on the hinge angle and touch gestures. The app should simulate the bellows and reeds accurately.

An Android app for guitarists to become better musicians by jamming to backing tracks 
Prompt:
Build an Android guitar practice companion app that features a two-tab navigation system: 'Fretboard' and 'Library'.

The 'Fretboard' primary screen must contain an interactive guitar neck UI that visually maps out user-selected root notes, musical scales, and chords. Above the fretboard, implement a WebView-based YouTube player configured to play embedded videos inline. Additionally, include an AI generation feature that uses Retrofit to call Gemini Lyria 3 to create custom, 30-second backing tracks based on the user's currently selected key and scale. The generated audio files and their metadata must be saved locally using a database and displayed as a list in the 'Library' tab, where users can delete or play them.

Finally, implement a persistent, globally visible mini audio player at the bottom of the screen, complete with play/pause toggles, a progress slider for seeking, and timestamp text, allowing the user to seamlessly practice on the fretboard tab while listening to their tracks.
We are looking forward to seeing what you build next!

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2026 updates on io.google.
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Increasing app discovery and engagement on Google TV

Posted by Paul Lammertsma, Developer Relations Engineer



With over 300 million monthly active devices across Google TV and Android TV, it’s clear that the living room is a massive, distinct platform for apps to accelerate growth. Today, we’re excited to share Google TV features and developer tools designed to increase the discoverability of your content and prepare your app for future TV experiences.

Drive discovery and engagement with Gemini

Last year, we brought our AI voice assistant, Gemini, to our platform, so that people can easily find what to watch, learn something new on the big screen, and get everyday tasks done with just their voice.

Since launch, we’ve made improvements to how Gemini provides tailored responses to questions. Gemini shares a mix of visuals, videos, and text to help users find what they need, when they need it. For our streaming partners, Gemini is a helpful discovery engine—pulling from your app's metadata to surface your relevant content to viewers.

Declare support for pointing modality

The TV experience that we once knew is changing. Gemini is changing the way we discover and stream content with voice, but how we use the remote is evolving, too.

Pointer remotes bring motion-controlled input to the big screen, unlocking faster user navigation across the Google TV Home page and within content-heavy apps. To ensure your app is ready for this shift and provides a great experience for all users, now is the time to start thinking about pointing input. Here’s how to get started:

1. Adapt your TV app UI Library

You’ll need support for hover states, scrollable containers, and cursor clicks to enable pointer remote interactions for your app on Google TV. While implementation varies by UI stack, Jetpack Compose streamlines this transition, as most core components handle these multi-modal interactions natively out of the box.

  1. Hover state: Every focusable element on your screen (buttons, movie posters, setting toggles) needs a clear visual feedback mechanism for a hover state. This is often subtler than a focus state but critical for feedback.
  2. Scrollable containers: Pointer remotes will also have a small circular touchpad for scrolling. Users can use this touchpad to scroll up or down, or left or right in your app. Your app will need to respond to touch events to scroll.
  3. Cursor clicks: Many TV apps today expect a simple D-pad OKAY button “click.” With a pointer remote, a user may “click” on an element that’s not the D-pad focus state, but is instead from a hovered state (similar to a mouse click).

2. Test pointing interactions with a mouse today

To see how your app handles hover, scroll, and clicks, simply connect a bluetooth mouse or wired mouse to your Google TV. Keep in mind that a mouse has more precise control, since users are closer to the screen and typically rest the mouse in a stable position. Pointer remotes can often be less precise, since users are sometimes 10 feet away from the screen, making rough gestures with the remote from their couch. As a TV designer or developer, you can mitigate this lack of input precision by having larger hover targets for elements.

3. Declare TV app support for pointer remotes on Google Play

Finally, tell Google Play that your TV app is designed to work with a pointer. This ensures that users with pointer remotes will be able to easily find, install, and interact with your app.

Within your AndroidManifest.xml, declare the meta-data tag, android.software.leanback.supports_touch. This tag informs the platform that your TV app “spatially supports touch,” since pointer remotes simulate touch events from a distance.

AndroidManifest.xml

<manifest ...>
    <!-- Signal whether the app is adaptive or built just for TV -->
    <uses-feature android:name="android.software.leanback" android:required="true|false" />

    <!-- Ensure the app can be installed on conventional TVs -->
    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.touchscreen" android:required="false" />

    <!-- Signal whether the app supports pointer remotes -->
    <meta-data android:name="android.software.leanback.supports_touch" android:value="true|false"/>

    <application ...>
        ...
    </application>
</manifest>

Tips:

  • The android.software.leanback feature declaration indicates that your app supports D-pad navigation and is intended for distribution only on TV devices via Google Play.
  • The new software attribute of android.software.leanback.supports_touch declares that in addition to D-pad, you have ensured that your TV app works well for pointer/cursor experiences via mouse (of today) and pointer remotes (of future).
  • If you haven't already, now is the time to adopt Jetpack Compose. Hover, scroll, and clicks are common input modalities that are supported on various form factors, and building your app with an adaptive UI framework enables code reusability and reduced maintenance.

Onboard the Engage SDK

The Engage SDK, formerly known as the Video Discovery API, optimizes Resumption, Entitlements, and Recommendations across all Google TV form factors to boost app discovery and engagement.

  • Resumption: Partners can easily display a user's paused video within the 'Continue Watching' row from the Home page.
  • Entitlements: The Engage SDK streamlines entitlement management, which matches app content to user eligibility. Users appreciate this because they can enjoy personalized recommendations without needing to manually update all their subscription details. This allows partners to connect with users across multiple discovery points on Google TV.
  • Recommendations: The Engage SDK even highlights personalized recommendations based on content that users watched inside apps.

It’s a great time to start onboarding the Engage SDK now, since the legacy Watch Next API, which has been powering your continue watching 1.0 experience, will lose support in the 2nd half of 2027. To get started, head to goo.gle/engage-tv to learn more.

We're excited to see how our latest Gemini experience and developer tools will optimize your discovery and drive user engagement on our platform.

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2026 updates on io.google.
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Android CLI Now Stable 1.0: Accelerate developing for Android using any agent

Posted by Simona Milanovic and Ben Trengrove, Developer Relations Engineers

As Android developers, you have many choices when it comes to the agents, tools, command-line interfaces (CLI), and LLMs you use for app development. Whether you use Gemini in Android Studio, Antigravity 2.0, Antigravity CLI, or third-party agents like Anthropic's Claude Code or OpenAI'sCodex, our mission remains the same: to ensure that high-quality Android development is possible everywhere.

At Google I/O ‘26, we shared the latest leaps forward in agentic development, and showcased some of the newest capabilities of Android CLI—now stable at version 1.0 and ready for all Android developers to use. From new skills to enabling agent access to powerful Android Studio capabilities, we’re giving your agents the right tools to build alongside you.

If you’re already using Android CLI and want to jump into using all the new features, just run android update. Otherwise, read further to learn more about how we’re making the agents you choose be better at building for Android.

Android development unlocked for Antigravity

Google Antigravity now includes an optional bundle of Android resources—including the Android CLI and skills—that you can install. You can either install the bundle during onboarding after installation, or later from the Settings > Customizations > Build With Google Plugins menu.

This provides Antigravity with all the powerful tools and knowledge of Android CLI, enabling it to perform the core tasks necessary for Android app development more easily and efficiently—from creating projects to deploying your app on a new Android virtual device.

You can now easily install Android CLI for use with Google Antigravity 2.0.

Unlocking Android Studio capabilities for any agent

Android CLI provides a lightweight interface for AI Agents to perform tasks and retrieve knowledge about Android development. However, there's benefits to specialization — Android Studio contains over a decade of Android expertise, built to handle even the most complex Android projects. This includes Android Studio's powerful static analysis engine, refactoring tools, dependency management, UI design and rendering libraries, and more. AI Agents can now tap into Android Studio's tools to gain many of these same capabilities.

Your agents can now use Android CLI to access powerful capabilities of Android Studio.

The latest version of Android CLI introduces the new android studio command. This enables the agent of your choice to leverage the deep, contextual capabilities of Android Studio to better understand and perform actions on an open Android project. By running Android Studio alongside your preferred agent with Android CLI, your agent’s tasks can more efficiently navigate the codebase to produce more precise code changes. And, when you use Android CLI to create and iterate on your project, transitioning to Android Studio is much easier, so that you can use the purpose built tools—such as, performance profilers, Compose Previews, and Android Device Streaming—to get that production-grade polish.

When you have a project open in the latest preview version of Android Studio Quail, you (or your agent) can run the following command to check whether Android CLI has a connection established with your open project:

$ android studio check
pid: 32942
version: Android Studio
Projects:
    READY     JetSet /Users/adarshf/AndroidStudioProjects/jetset-main

From there, the agents can use the android studio command to access powerful IDE tools to interact with projects more efficiently. Key commands include:

  • analyze-file: Analyzes a file for errors and warnings using the editor's built-in inspections.
  • find-declaration: Finds the exact definition site of a symbol (class, method, variable, field, constant, or Android resource/color) across the project using semantic resolution.
  • find-usages: Finds all references and declarations of a symbol (class, method, variable, or Android resource) across the entire project using semantic analysis.
  • render-compose-preview: Renders a Jetpack Compose UI Preview and returns a path to the image and UI hierarchy if successful.
  • version-lookup: Get the latest information about which versions for specified app dependencies are available in common repositories, such as the Google Maven repository. By providing a programmatic solution, dependency management is less tedious and much less prone to flakiness.
  • open-file: Opens a file directly in Android Studio. This is useful if the agent wants to direct your attention to view Compose Previews, performance traces, or other specific files in the IDE.

For example, agents can now run the following commands to render a Compose preview for a new layout for your Android app, and then open the previews in Android Studio for you to take advantage of seeing multiple Compose Previews side by side and make AI-assisted edits right from the IDE.

$ android studio find-declaration HotelDetailScreen
$ android studio analyze-file .../JetPacker/feature/detail/src/main/java/com/example/jetset/feature/detail/HotelDetailScreen.kt
$ android studio open-file feature/detail/src/main/java/com/example/jetset/feature/detail/HotelDetailScreen.kt

To learn more about how to use these commands, run android help. And, to make sure your agents understand how to work with this tool, make sure to update the Android CLI skill by running android init.

More ways to get started

To make integrating Android CLI into your environments as seamless as possible, we’re making it available in more ways. You can now download and install Android CLI using more package managers: apt-get, winget, and homebrew. For example, you can run the following to install Android CLI using winget:

winget install -e --id Google.AndroidCLI

We’ve also updated the installation to a user-local directory, by default. You can find the commands for all supported operating systems plus additional download options on the Android CLI page.

Support for Journeys

Journeys are natural language descriptions of core user experiences.

 

(sped up) An agent running a Journey it generated for an app.

Agents can run these journeys using the Android CLI to navigate your app exactly like a user would. This unlocks entirely new ways to test, validate, or collect data across the critical experiences of your app, all driven by natural language and executed by your agent.

Expanding Android skills

To help models better understand and execute specific patterns that follow our best practices, we are continuing to expand our library of Android skills. We’re shipping new skills that make Android development everywhere more capable, efficient, and productive:

  • Display Glasses and Jetpack Compose Glimmer for XR: Provides guidelines for developing projected applications for Android Display Glasses using the Jetpack Compose Glimmer UI toolkit.
  • Migration to CameraX: Helps you migrate legacy Android camera implementations (Camera1 or raw Camera2 APIs) to CameraX.
  • Perfetto SQL: Translates natural language data prompts into Perfetto SQL queries and executes them against a local trace file.
  • Adaptive UI: Instructions to make or update an app's UI so that it adapts to different Android devices
  • Testing setup: Creates a basic testing strategy.
  • Styles: Helps with adoption of the new Jetpack Compose Style API for new components, and supports migration to Styles API. 
  • AppFunctions: Analyzes Android codebases to recommend and implement new AppFunctions, and refines KDoc documentation for Model Context Protocol optimization.

You can add these new skills to your workflow directly from the command line. To help your agents understand and use Android CLI right away, you can initialize your environment and install the base android-cli skill by running:

android init

From there, you can browse and set up your agent workflow by searching for the exact capabilities your agent needs:

android skills list

Once you've found the right skill, install it to your environment by running:

android skills add –skill=<skill-name>

Get started today

To download the stable 1.0 release of the Android CLI, explore the new tools, and browse the complete documentation, head over to d.android.com/tools/agents today!  Also, make sure you update to the latest preview version of Android Studio to unlock the latest features that Android CLI offers. We can't wait to see what you build with Android CLI 1.0 and how these new features supercharge your daily workflows. Join our vibrant community on LinkedIn, Medium, YouTube, or X and  share your feedback.

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2026 updates on io.google.

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Build for the future with the Android XR Developer Catalyst Program — Apply now!

Posted by Android XR Team



The Android XR ecosystem is expanding, and we’re committed to supporting developers who will build its next great experiences. Today, we’re opening applications for the Android XR Developer Catalyst Program, a dedicated initiative to accelerate the development of Android XR apps ready to launch within the next year.

This program is designed to provide the resources, hardware, and grants to help you build and scale innovative experiences across wired XR glasses, like XREAL’s Project Aura, and intelligent eyewear (audio and display glasses). We are especially interested in seeing innovative experiences across media, gaming, productivity, and health, but we welcome any unique use case that helps users expand what's possible.

Why join the catalyst program?

We want to help developers navigate common barriers to entry for XR development by providing:

  • Development Kits: Get early access to hardware development kits for wired XR glasses (XREAL’s Project Aura) and / or intelligent eyewear (audio and display glasses).

  • Technical support: Gain access to specialized technical resources and support forums specifically designed to help you prepare your app for Google Play.

  • Grant Opportunities: Submit a request and you may be eligible to receive a non-recoupable grant to accelerate your development.

Ready to start building?

Applications are open to developers looking to publish apps for the Android XR ecosystem in the next 6-12 months. You can build with Kotlin and the Jetpack XR SDK, or with Unity, Unreal Engine or Godot. If you need a spark of inspiration, you can check out existing XR Experiments and Samples to see how you can use the SDK for everything from spatial music to navigation.

Once you have your concept ready, be sure to submit your application by June 30th by 11:59PM PDT. We can’t wait to see what you build.

Start Your Application

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2026 updates on io.google.

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Adaptive development for the expanding Android ecosystem

Posted Fahd Imtiaz, Senior Product Manager, Adaptive Apps



With the release of Android 17, we are transitioning into an adaptive first development standard. Your users no longer rely on a single form factor; they transition between phones, foldables, tablets, laptops, automotive displays, and immersive XR environments throughout their day.

Now, with over 580 million large screen devices in the hands of users, adaptive is no longer just a technical goal. It’s a massive opportunity to reach highly engaged users. To thrive in this multi-device ecosystem, your app must be resilient, responsive, and ready for virtually any surface.

The multi-device opportunity

The Android device universe is now a multi device reality. Users are buying into entire ecosystems, moving from handhelds to foldables, tablets, and cars. And the data is clear: users with multiple devices often spend more than users with only a phone.

  • Drive higher revenue: Multi-device users spend 9x more on average than phone only users. On foldables, that engagement multiplier can reach 14x. (Source: Google Internal Data, 2026)

  • Capture high-value segments: Large-screen users (tablets, foldables, and Chromebooks) typically spend roughly 5x more than phone-only users.

To help amplify your reach with these users, we've rolled out a new badge in Google Play. Apps meeting adaptive quality standards now earn an "Optimized for large screens" badge, making it easier for users to discover high quality experiences.

Latest in adaptive Android development from Google I/O

Android 17, new Jetpack updates and advanced tools help you build apps that feel native across diverse surfaces, from pocket-sized foldables to Googlebooks.

Adaptive by default: Android 17 updates

In Android 16, we introduced significant changes to orientation and resizability APIs to facilitate adaptive behavior, while providing a temporary opt-out to help you make the transition. Android 17 (API level 37) sets a new quality baseline by removing that developer opt-out for orientation and resizability restrictions on large screen devices (sw > 600 dp). When you target API level 37, your app must be capable of adapting to a variety of display sizes. This helps your app deliver an experience that matches the users’ expectations.

Apps that were previously letterboxed on large screen devices will now be stretched to landscape

Tip: You can start testing these behaviors by enabling the UNIVERSAL_RESIZABLE_BY_DEFAULT flag in App Compatibility Changes under Developer Options under SDK 36.

Your app on even more surfaces

In addition to your mobile app running on large screens devices including foldables, tablets, Chromebooks and XR, we are also expanding the Android surface area for your mobile apps:

  • Connected Displays: Now in stable as of Android 16 QPR3, Connected Displays support enables supported Pixel and Samsung mobile devices to transform into a desktop environment via external display support.

  • Automotive & TV: With the Car Ready Mobile Apps program and enhanced pointer support for Android TV, your adaptive app can now benefit from engagement on the infotainment system and the living room with ease.

Googlebook: Evolving desktop computing

Talking about more surfaces, we’re evolving our work in the desktop space with Googlebook, the next generation of ChromeOS. Built with parts of the Android stack, we are enabling your apps to achieve a "laptop-class" feel with native level performance.

Building with adaptive principles today helps ensure your app is ready for this new generation of high performance hardware.

To help you prepare for this new generation of devices, we’ve released comprehensive new documentation including comprehensive design guidance and developer guidelines. Built on the principles of adaptive, these guidelines offer a playbook for transitioning your mobile apps to offer a premium desktop class experience.

Try out the new Desktop Emulator, available now in the Android Studio Canary to get started today.


Building adaptive layouts with Jetpack Compose

We are now Compose first and Jetpack Compose is our recommended way to build modern, adaptive UIs to help you manage layout complexity efficiently.

  • New layout primitives: We’re introducing Grid and FlexBox layouts, bringing powerful, CSS-inspired capabilities to Compose for both 1D and 2D layouts.

  • Navigation 3: The 1.1 release for compose-navigation3 introduces Scene Decorators, allowing you to wrap your screens with other content, such as bars, rails and dialogs.

  • MediaQuery API: The new experimental MediaQuery API provides observable device UI capabilities, such as window size and pointer precision, that allow you to adapt and optimize your app's UI for the current device configuration.

  • Styles API: Dynamically evolve the visual properties of your app using the new state-based experimental Styles API.

Beyond layouts: non-touch input

Adaptive app quality goes beyond window dimensions, including handling non-touch input paradigms e.g. keyboard, trackpad, mouse, stylus that are primary input methods on large screens.

  • Trackpad support: Compose 1.11 now brings trackpad support on par with mouse, and provides new APIs to automate non-touch input testing including TrackpadInjectionScope and performTrackpadInput.

  • Focus indicators: Enhance accessibility with built-in support for standard focus rings in Compose.


AI-Powered developer tools

Android Studio and Android CLI are evolving to help you architect adaptive apps faster than ever.

  • Android Skills: These modular AI instructions are designed to assist any LLM through complex architectural tasks, including helping you with View-to-Compose migrations, implementing adaptive layouts, Navigation 2 to Navigation 3 transformation, and migrating off of legacy camera libraries to CameraX. Get started with these latest skills on the Android Skills Github repo and via Android CLI.

  • New Project Agent: Available in Android Studio Panda 2, this agent initializes new projects with adaptive best practices by default.


For developers working with cross-platform frameworks, we continue to provide full support for Web, Qt, and Unity. Whether you are building from scratch or modernizing a legacy codebase, these tools are designed to meet your users exactly where they are.

We’re excited to see how you bring these new adaptive capabilities to your apps. By moving to an adaptive first approach, you’re not just reaching more users but you’re delivering the seamless, high quality experiences they expect across the entire Android device landscape.

Get started with adaptive development and start shaping the future of your apps.

Explore this announcement and all Google I/O 2026 updates on io.google.


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Are internet bundle deals the new hidden fees?

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Some internet service providers (ISPs) can try to make pricing appear more attractive by headlining prices that are only good when you buy their other services too. While providers may advertise what looks like a low entry price, the fine print often includes conditions like paperless billing, limited-time "new customer only" discounts, restrictive change policies and TV, phone, or wireless bundle requirements. Each of these represents a separate condition you must maintain to keep that “great rate” even for just a limited time. 

GFiber provides a transparent alternative with pricing that is flat and predictable and no  add-ons, removing the follow up price increases often associated with internet “deals.”

Tactics that increase monthly internet costs

Understanding how promotional pricing works is essential for determining the true cost of an internet service. It’s not uncommon for providers to rely on discounts that expire, charge additional fees on top of the rate that you might not expect (like an extra fee for equipment you need or Wi-Fi!), or require additional service commitments.

Conditional bundle discounts and linked bills 

Bundle deals often require subscribing to a secondary service, such as a TV, landline, or cellular plan, to receive a discount on internet service. These two commitments become financially entangled; if you cancel the phone plan or switch, your internet rate increases, and vice versa. This may be of interest to some households, but it limits the flexibility to switch providers for individual services and get what you want or need without incurring a price hike.

At GFiber, we focus on doing one thing really well—providing fast, reliable internet—so you can feel free to choose the rest of your tech without being penalized. You should stay because you love our service, not because you’re locked into a bundle you don’t want or services you don't need.

Too-good-to-be-true promotional pricing with expiration dates 

Some internet providers offer limited-time “new customer” promotions that make their service appear affordable at first. But when the promotional period ends, those discounts typically disappear automatically, and your bill jumps to a "standard"—and sometimes eye-popping—monthly rate. Months at that higher rate eat away at any savings you may have had, plus create a time pressure for you to go find a new deal. And, as an existing customer with that provider, you’ll no longer be able to get any “new customer promotions” that come along – how’s that for gratitude for your business?! We think having to monitor your provider’s ads, endlessly call in to haggle, or disconnect and re-connect under a different account name just to keep a fair price is a hassle you shouldn't have to deal with.

In contrast, GFiber doesn’t use introductory promotions or subject you to incessant rate hikes; the price you sign up for is the price you pay. In fact, our 1 Gig product pricing hasn’t changed since we launched in 2012. We provide simple, honest rates that stay the same, giving you one less thing to worry about.

Hidden installation, equipment, and cancellation fees 

It’s not uncommon for ISPs to charge for additional items that are not reflected in the advertised monthly price of service. Installation fees (even for self-installation!), Wi-Fi fees, equipment rental charges, data charges, repair service fees, and early termination fees (ETFs) are frequently relegated to the fine print or understood only after you get that first bill. Those lurking fees can really add up. Required equipment rentals can cost up to $20 per month at major providers, and one-time installation fees often range up to $100. And it can be even worse if you decide for some reason you don’t want that service after all. Early termination fees can reach up to $300 if a contract is canceled before the term ends.

With GFiber, installation, Wi-Fi, unlimited data, in-home visits, customer service, and the equipment you need is included in your monthly price. And there’s no fee for cancelling if you want to try something else. (Of course, full disclosure, if you cancel altogether, you do have to send our equipment back to us or there is an unreturned equipment fee.) Whether you choose professional installation or a convenient self-install kit, we’ll get you set up with the best routers and the extender(s) you need for whole home Wi-Fi as needed at no extra cost. Our 1 Gig service comes with Wi-Fi 6E and Home and Edge come with Wi-Fi 7 as standard, no upcharge, and depending on your service and home’s unique needs, up to 2 extenders, GFiber’s signature performance verification, and on-going monitoring in the GFiber App. All included at no extra charge.

Pricing dependent on on AutoPay, billing and account conditions 

Some providers require specific on-going conditions to unlock and maintain the advertised price, including so-called Price Locks and Price for Life offers. For example, a provider may advertise a price that is only available if the customer enrolls in both AutoPay and paperless billing. Sounds easy enough but if an AutoPay cycle is missed due to a credit card expiring or a payment method is changed, the monthly discount may be reduced or removed entirely. Or if you pause your internet for vacation or make any change to your internet – or if the provider at their discretion discontinues the plan you are on – poof, that discount is made void.

With GFiber, we want you to love your internet service. That’s why we offer simple, no shenanigan pricing, and any Autopay or billing preferences can easily be updated at any time in your account settings with no change to your bill. We don’t penalize for using a credit versus a debit card, and we also have gracious terms for the occasional late payment –  because we know sometimes life happens. 

The role of the FCC Broadband Label

So if there are so many potential catches to the prices advertised by other providers, how can you be a smart shopper? The official FCC Broadband Label is a reliable reference for comparing ISP pricing. To understand what your bill will look like after a promotion expires, check the "Monthly Price" section of the FCC label, which reflects the standard non-promotional rate.

GFiber customers don’t have to guess or worry about surprises on their bill. We were excited when the FCC required all providers to publish these labels. We believe we were the first to do so – because our pricing has always been simple and straightforward. We take pride in the fact that we’ve helped push the industry to become more transparent since the very beginning.

The GFiber all-in pricing structure

With GFiber, the rate you sign up for is the rate you pay. This structure includes installation, Wi-Fi equipment, and unlimited data without annual contracts or hidden fees. Pricing is transparent, flat, and predictable, removing the long-term uncertainty that often comes with internet service.

  • Core 1 Gig: $70/mo (same price since launching in 2012)

  • Home 3 Gig: $100/mo (same price since this service launched)

  • Edge 8 Gig: $150/mo (same price since this service launched)

All our products follow a consistent structure. There are no hoops to jump through to get the advertised price, no landline, cell phone or TV bundling required, no expiring discounts, no nonsense fees, and no annual rate increases.

Learn more about what makes GFiber pricing different. 

How to compare internet products effectively

When evaluating an internet product, consider if the service offers straightforward pricing, the best hardware and install included, and no annual contracts or bundling dependencies. If not, it will require you to worry about surprises down the road. 

Remember that the advertised "starting at" price of an internet offer is often less informative than the FCC Broadband Label price and the specific conditions attached to discounts. A rate that requires a combination of AutoPay, a new customer promotion, and a phone or TV bundle is a conditional pricing system and whether it works in your favor depends on how long you stay, which other services you keep, and how closely you watch your bill.

We think that's more work than you should have to do for internet. GFiber was made by people who wanted better internet than we had, so we built a whole new internet from the ground up. The internet we all wanted—and we believe the internet is better when it's simple, works reliably, and costs what the provider says it will cost.

Check if GFiber is available in your area. 

Disclaimers

Depending on your municipality, GFiber’s price may be plus a small local access fee, 100% of which go back to your municipality.


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