Google's $99 Home Speaker arrives June 25, and the $35 Nest Mini is gone

Google opened pre-orders for its new Home Speaker on Monday, the first device built around its Gemini for Home assistant. It costs $99.99, ships June 25, and lands as the Nest Mini quietly leaves the store.

This is Google’s first smart speaker designed for the Gemini era, and the company is positioning it as the anchor of a refreshed Home lineup rather than a like-for-like Mini successor. For the millions of households running an aging Nest Mini or the original Google Home Mini, the real question isn’t whether the new speaker is better. It’s whether it’s better enough to justify nearly triple the price.

What we know

The hardware and pricing are confirmed straight from Google’s announcement, and they explain why this matters now: after a year of teasers, Google finally has a shipping flagship for the Gemini-powered home, and it’s pricing it well above the speaker most people actually own. Here’s the spec sheet.

• Price and date. The Google Home Speaker is $99.99, available for pre-order now and shipping June 25. Order before the end of September and Google throws in six months of Google Home Premium at no charge.
• Colors. Four finishes: Hazel, Porcelain, Jade, and Berry. Jade and Berry are US-exclusive.
• Audio. Google claims 360-degree balanced sound and 2.5 times the bass of the Nest Mini. You can pair two of them with a Google TV Streamer for a spatial surround setup.
• Design. A 3D-knit textile shell with a light ring at the base, plus a physical microphone mute toggle.

The headline change is the assistant. Gemini for Home swaps the old, command-by-command Google Assistant for something far more conversational. Google describes the speaker as “the first device built for the Gemini for Home voice assistant,” with “advanced natural language understanding and reasoning.” In practice that means you can stack requests in one breath (“dim the kitchen lights, play something relaxing, and set a timer”), correct yourself mid-sentence, and ask follow-ups without repeating a wake word. Ten new voice options ship with it. Some of the smarter tricks, like Gemini Live conversations and Camera History Search across your Nest cams, sit behind the Google Home Premium subscription.

What we don’t know

Google hasn’t said when, or whether, a true Mini-class replacement is coming. The Nest Mini’s $35 price and its wall-mount keyhole made it the speaker you stuck in a hallway or a bathroom; the new Home Speaker has neither. There’s no word on a smaller, cheaper tier to fill that gap. Independent audio testing is also still pending, so the “2.5x bass” and 360-degree claims are Google’s numbers, not reviewers’. Early impressions from launch coverage suggest the sound is a step up, but hands-on reviews haven’t landed yet. And the deeper Gemini features depend on a paid Premium tier whose long-term pricing Google hasn’t fully detailed beyond the introductory six months.

Who’s reporting this

The specs and pricing come from Google’s own product post, authored by product managers Frank Chen and Mark Alexander. 9to5Google pushed back on the “replacement” framing, arguing the speaker “isn’t a replacement, but hopefully the start of a new era,” and noting it drops the Mini’s mounting and compact footprint. Android Central and GSMArena confirmed the $99.99 price and June 25 ship date after months of teasers dating back to Google’s original spring-2026 reveal.

What this means for you

If your Nest Mini still answers timers and plays music, you don’t need to rush. The Mini’s job was cheap, good-enough voice control in any room, and at $99 the Home Speaker is a different product with a different price. Where it earns the upgrade is voice: Gemini for Home is the same conversational leap Google is pushing across Android and that Apple is chasing for Siri. If you talk to your speaker for more than timers, the natural back-and-forth is genuinely better. Audiophiles eyeing it as a music speaker should wait for reviews. And if you loved the Mini specifically because it cost $35 and bolted to a wall, hold off. Google hasn’t shipped a replacement for that, and the Home Speaker isn’t it.