Apple's New AI Cameras Require Extra iCloud Storage

Apple is making HomeKit Secure Video a lot smarter. Its new Apple Intelligence features can describe recorded activity and let you search camera footage using natural language instead of digging through clips yourself.

Getting those features across several cameras is where things get weird. The 2TB iCloud Plus plan supports Apple Intelligence on one camera. Two cameras require 6TB, while five require the 12TB tier. All that extra storage is required even though HomeKit Secure Video recordings don’t count against your iCloud allowance.

Why the storage tiers feel backwards

The regular HomeKit Secure Video setup is considerably more generous. Apple’s 2TB iCloud Plus plan already supports unlimited cameras, and their recordings don’t eat into the storage you’re paying for.

Apple Intelligence puts much tighter limits on those same cameras. Adding AI to a second camera means jumping to 6TB, while a five-camera setup requires 12TB.

Apple says those limits could change over time. Right now, though, the storage tier effectively doubles as a paywall for how many cameras get the smarter features.

What the AI upgrade actually adds

There’s genuine utility here. Apple Home can summarize recorded activity and search through footage based on a natural-language request, which should save some tedious scrubbing when you’re looking for one particular event.

It can also pull footage from multiple cameras into a single clip. That becomes more useful as you add cameras around a home, but Apple’s pricing works against that exact use case. The bigger the setup gets, the more expensive the required iCloud plan becomes.

Who should actually pay for this

A single-camera setup is relatively painless if you already subscribe to the 2TB plan. Once you start adding cameras, the price climbs fast.

Five AI-enabled cameras require the 12TB iCloud Plus plan at $59.99 a month, or nearly $720 a year. Unless you genuinely need that much cloud storage for everything else in your Apple account, that’s a lot to pay just to unlock AI on more cameras.

Before upgrading, it’s worth deciding which security cameras actually need the new features. Apple may loosen the limits later, and the existing HomeKit Secure Video features still work without paying for the higher AI tiers.