Having trouble activating free "Gemini Advanced" offer on Pixel 9 Pro purchase? Here's what you can do

Google’s latest flagships were officially unveiled a month ago, and early buyers have started getting their hands on these shiny new Pixels. To sweeten the deal, Google’s even offering a year’s worth of Google One AI Premium to those who copped the Pixel 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and the 9 Pro Fold too. But it seems like the process to activate the free Gemini Advanced offer isn’t going as smooth as buyers might have hoped. So after reading dozens of user posts and comments as well as articles from other outlets on the matter, I’ll break down what’s happening and what you can do to resolve the problem.

Eligibility maze

First, let’s break down who’s actually eligible:

• New Google One members.
• Existing members on 100 GB, 200 GB, 2 TB Premium, and AI Premium plans or trials.
• Google Fi sponsored plan members.

Sounds simple, right? Not quite. Users quickly discovered some frustrating exceptions:

• Google One family plan members (except the plan owner).
• Users with Google One plans billed through third-party providers.
• Google One members on 5 TB plans or higher.

How to activate the free subscription

For those eligible, here’s the official activation process:

1. Open the Gemini app on your Pixel 9 Pro
2. Tap your profile icon
3. Select “Try Gemini Advanced”
4. Hit “Start trial”
5. Select “Subscribe”
6. Tap “Done”

Family plan fiasco

The family plan issue is particularly thorny. As one Redditor put it: “So I just found out after dropping nearly 1200 dollars on the new 9 Pro XL that because I’m in a family group I can’t access the 1 year promotion that was advertised before my purchase. Google chat won’t help, and only recommends you to leave your family which you then can’t join for another 12 months.”

As highlighted by Android Authority, if you’re the family plan owner, you’re in luck – you can claim the offer without hassle. Everyone else? You’ll need to bite the bullet and leave the group, sacrificing shared storage and benefits for a year. However, the family plan isn’t the only limiting factor. After reading multiple reports, it seems that users who were getting “The offer is not available” error found alternative methods to fix the problem.

Other troubleshooting tips

One individual, in the UAE, claimed that they were able to get the offer activated by simply using a VPN and connecting to a server in the US. Of course, this offer isn’t available in the UAE to begin with, but this nifty trick could help you get a free year of Google One AI Premium.

A user who enrolled and installed the Android 15 beta update on their new Pixel 9 Pro XL also wasn’t able to activate the offer. Responding to the complaint, a “Pixel product expert” on the Android_Beta subreddit noted that the offer isn’t available on the beta builds.

If nothing helps, you might want to consider getting in touch with Google’s support team directly. Some users claim Google activated the offer from their side itself. So I’d suggest getting in touch with Google support to get your free year of Gemini Advance activated.

If you haven’t jumped on the Pixel 9 Pro bandwagon yet, breathe easy. The promotion runs until October 31, 2025. Just remember, after the free year, it auto-renews at $20/month. So keep a reminder to cancel the subscription if you don’t want to get billed every month once the free promo ends.