Apple could increase AI feature fees as usage limits approach, report says

With the launch of iOS 27 this week, Apple Intelligence has reached maturity, with a real chatbot assistant in Siri AI, powerful photo editing tools, and legitimately good image generation.

And it’s mostly free. Unlike ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools, which charge monthly fees for anyone who uses the service more than occasionally. For example, the free Claude plan has “session-based usage limits” that can kick in when you’re using it too much. Those limits don’t exist with Siri AI or any of the Apple Intelligence tools.

Apple does charge for HomeKit Secure Video features. Apple has always tied HomeKit Secure Video to iCloud accounts for recording and viewing footage, but the Apple Intelligence features are costlier. Here’s what Apple charges now:

HomeKit Secure Video recording

However, that 2TB plan, which costs $9.99 a month, is the least you can spend to get Apple’s new AI Home app features, including video descriptions for recorded clips and natural-language search. And that only supports a single camera:

HomeKit Secure Video recording with AI

A setup with five cameras that costs you $2.99 a month will now cost $59.99 a month if you want to include AI summaries. That’s a steep increase just to get AI summaries, but it speaks to the overall expense of AI. Storing and analyzing 4K videos all day long isn’t cheap. And Apple cautions that “camera counts and other iCloud+ plan features may change over time,” so costs could go up.

And it sounds like Apple is going to charge for other services soon. On the Apple Intelligence usage limits support page, Apple warns that limits are coming to other features, including Siri AI and Photos:

In the future, Apple will implement usage limits on these and other Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features to ensure a high-quality, reliable experience for everyone. If you reach a limit in a particular feature, that feature will become available again after a time out period. Limits may vary by feature, request complexity, system demand, system policies, and other factors. Increased access to such features will be available for a fee.

It’s not clear when Apple will begin charging for AI features and conversations or how much it will cost, but enjoy your free Apple Intelligence while it lasts.