Screenshot: Apple
Apple does not plan to charge for Apple Intelligence in the next three years. Apparently, the company wants to add more advanced AI features before charging for it.
The Cupertino giant did not talk about eventually charging for Apple Intelligence during its unveiling at WWDC24 earlier this year.
You’ll eventually have to pay for Apple Intelligence
Some analysts recently claimed Apple could charge as much as $20 per month for Apple Intelligence. Given the billions of dollars tech giants are investing in their AI features, it’s not surprising that they eventually want to charge for them.
Samsung has already revealed that its Galaxy AI suite features are free until the end of 2025. After that, it will become a paid service, though there’s no word on its pricing yet.
In the August 11 edition of the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman addressed concerns about Apple charging for Apple Intelligence. He notes that Apple will eventually start charging for its AI features, but this won’t happen in the near future. At the minimum, he expects Apple Intelligence to be free until 2027, three years from now.
Apple Intelligence needs more compelling and advanced features
The company is still working on more advanced Apple Intelligence features like Genomji, Image Playground, and smarter Siri. None of them will be ready in time for iOS 18’s initial public release. Instead, they will launch later in the year or early 2025.
Even then, the current suite of Apple Intelligence features might not be compelling enough for most users to pay a monthly subscription fee. Plus, Google and Opeady offer similar features as a part of their free plan, albeit with a quota. So, Apple charging for these features is unlikely to work.
Apple could eventually paywall some of the advanced features of Apple Intelligence behind a premium Apple One plan. Google has already done something similar and introduced a Google One Premium AI plan bundling the latest version of Gemini with it for $20 monthly.