Apple won’t charge for AI features until at least 2027

It will be years before Apple Intelligence’s AI-powered features become so compelling that people are willing to pay money to use them. This opinion is shared by Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman. In his opinion, the iPhone maker “will need three years” to create a product worth charging for, and it will only be possible to meet this deadline if everything goes well.

Image source: macrumors.com

Gurman has previously said that Apple’s long-term plan is to bring Apple Intelligence+ AI capabilities to market, which will provide additional capabilities and will be available to users as part of a paid subscription. The company already has a tiered subscription scheme for iCloud, so the development of Apple Intelligence may well follow a similar scenario. This means that in the future, access to basic Apple Intelligence features may remain free, while access to more advanced tools will require a paid subscription.

Currently, the first Apple Intelligence features are available in beta versions of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1, and we are talking only about tools for generating text messages, some Siri improvements and tools for working with images. Most of the updates will appear after the release of stable versions of new versions of the operating systems, and more advanced AI functions will appear later as they are ready for mass distribution.

Beyond the massive rollout of Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2024, Apple still has a lot of work to do to bring AI features to more regions around the world, including China and the European Union. The features Apple announced in June likely won’t be available until 2025, and there’s no word yet on when they might arrive outside the US. Against this background, the assumption that Apple will begin charging for the use of Apple Intelligence only in a few years seems quite logical.

When Apple starts charging for Apple Intelligence, the cost of AI features may be included in an iCloud+ or Apple One subscription. According to Counterpoint Research analyst Neil Shah, the cost of Apple Intelligence could be between $10 and $20 per month. A basic Apple One subscription currently costs $19.95 per month and includes 50GB of iCloud+ cloud storage, Apple TV+, Apple Music and Apple Arcade.