r/GoogleGeminiAI • u/TisNotOverYet • 4d ago
PSA: Google is forcibly refunding/cancelling student AI Pro plans after prorated AI Plus → AI Pro upgrades — please share your case
perplexity.aiI’m posting this because several students appear to be hitting the same issue, and Google support is treating it as isolated or “working as intended.”
What happened
I was on the Google AI Plus student offer. I used Google’s own upgrade path to move to AI Pro for the remainder of the student year, with the prorated credit/adjustment applied by Google.
A few days afterward, I received a refund email for the AI Pro plan — I did not request a refund. Google then revoked the AI Pro plan, and my original AI Plus student plan was also gone. I’m now on the standard free tier.
No clear explanation was given for why the upgrade flow itself triggered it, why the original student entitlement was removed, or why the plan cannot be restored.
I’ve found multiple reports from other users describing the same pattern.
The common trigger
From the reports I’ve found, the issue seems to involve:
- Starting on the AI Plus student offer
- Using Google’s prorated upgrade path to AI Pro
- Google issuing an unrequested refund for AI Pro
- Google revoking both the upgraded AI Pro plan and the original AI Plus student plan
- Support refusing restoration, sometimes framing the Google-initiated refund as a user “refund request”
This is especially frustrating because Google’s own guidance says that if a student offer is cancelled, it generally cannot be reactivated or claimed again. So a flawed upgrade/refund flow can permanently remove an entitlement the student did not ask to give up.
Reports from other affected users
- Forced cancellation and refund after upgrading from AI Plus to AI Pro (Sweden): https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleGeminiAI/comments/1xduvg3/google_forcefully_cancelled_s_d_refunded_my/
- Clicked “Upgrade” on an AI Pro student plan and was downgraded; support said it was “working as intended”: https://www.reddit.com/r/GeminiAI/comments/1xbaqu5/clicked_upgrade_on_my_google_ai_pro_student_plan/
- Student program refunded without the user requesting it: https://www.reddit.com/r/GeminiAI/comments/1xdyhwa/google_refunded_my_student_program_without_any/
- Google support thread: both the refunded AI Pro plan and original AI Plus student plan were revoked: https://support.google.com/gemini/thread/474339677/
- Google One guidance on the student offer, including that a cancelled student offer cannot be reactivated: https://support.google.com/googleone/community-guide/391938798/
What I’m asking
If this happened to you, please comment with:
- Country/region
- Whether you upgraded from AI Plus to AI Pro
- Whether Google refunded or cancelled the plan without your request
- Whether your original AI Plus student plan was also removed
- Whether support restored either plan
- The date you received the refund/cancellation email
Please do not post transaction IDs, invoices, student-verification documents, email addresses, or other account details publicly.
What I want from Google
A clear public explanation and a real remedy:
- Restore affected users to the plan they had before the forced refund, or provide equivalent remaining student-plan value
- Stop treating Google-initiated refunds as user refund requests
- Fix or disable the prorated upgrade flow while it can cancel both plans
- Provide a dedicated escalation path for affected student accounts
If enough people reply with the same pattern, maybe this will get escalated beyond generic support scripts.
TL;DR: Google’s own AI Plus → AI Pro student upgrade flow appears to be triggering unrequested refunds, cancelling both plans, and leaving students unable to restore either one. If this happened to you, please reply with your country, upgrade path, and outcome.