Google is a copycat in AI products.

Gemini Chat: ChatGPT

Gemini CLI: Claude Code

Antigravity: Cursor

Nano banana: Midjourney

Subscription API ban: copied Anthropic

NotebookLM seems to be the only exception, or it could be an acquisition.

Subscription API ban could be part of a larger strategy because of OpenClaw’s association with OpenAI and Google will not be able to copy OpenClaw Personal Assistant model due to the security implications.

Pay as you go through API pricing is one of the easiest ways to drastically reduce mass adoption of a product. Pay per month works on consumption patterns where 80% of the users will barely use the product to compensate for the other 10 or 20% power users.