Paid Apple Intelligence features won't come until at least 2027
In the forthcoming Apple Intelligence features, there was no mention of any fees or subscription charges. That could change as early as 2027.
![In years to come, some advanced Apple Intelligence features could have a price tag attached.](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/60668-124860-400-hero-xl.jpg)
In years to come, some advanced Apple Intelligence features could have a price tag attached.
Apple has not specified when all of the first features of Apple Intelligence coming in iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia will arrive. While the OS upgrades will be unveiled this spring, some of the AI features will be added to future updates spread across late 2024 and into early 2025.
AppleInsider has previously discussed that future Apple Intelligence features, particularly those for more advanced users, could come with a subscription or fee structure. That said, it is unlikely that users will see such features before 2027 at the earliest, according to Bloomberg's Power On newsletter.
The first set of features of Apple Intelligence include a combination of intelligent summarization abilities in programs like Mail and Messages, an improved Siri assistant, image generators, and more.
As with several of Apple's "add-on" services, such as Apple TV+ or iCloud+, more advanced features of Apple Intelligence are likely with a price tag. These features would likely be for specialized areas, or for large-scale services leveraging the Private Cloud Compute technology.
Subscription or paid features of Apple Intelligence are most likely be aimed mostly at corporate users, the education sector, or other business or specialist users. Some analysts have speculated that such a subscription could cost users as much as $20 per month.
Rumor Score: Likely
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Comments
For sure if Apple wants widespread adoption of Apple Intelligence they will need to offer some functionality free of charge (or offer a trial period). But the fact that they are going to launch Apple Intelligence without any fees would make it highly unlikely that they will erect a paywall around it (i.e. start charging for something they previously offered for free).
If Apple can only offer something comparable to what the competition offers for free, it will be hard for them to charge anything. The opportunity is if they compete with other paid services (like current ChatGPT+) or offer something differentiated that is head and shoulders above the competition.
And if Apple does create a paid level for Apple Intelligence, most likely they will offer some sort of free trial period. They have done this for pretty much all of their paid service offerings.
You know basically the same model that has driven massive hardware sales and AppStore revenue for over a decade.
"Slow and easy" instead of all men to battle stations as ChatGPT seems to be doing.
When I use ChatGPT via Bing (which I often do after my freeloader time limit for GPT4o runs out), it too makes mistakes. And when I get pissed off at it and give it a piece of my mind, silly Bing suggests I change the topic and a new session begins. Totally hilarious that Bing is protecting ChatGPT!
Every single time I use ChatGPT4o in Chrome (which is the most reliable browser for it), at times when it gives me a clickable link, the link will never open when I click on it. That forces me to tell it to give me links in plain text. Why plain text? So I can copy/paste it into a browser's address bar myself. That's a work-around the "can't click the text link" bug, but quite nearly 100% of the time, when I finally am able to open the link, it yields a 404 or totally unrelated info. It's maddening!
I am also not inclined to trust ChatGPT because it lies. Because of it's blatant lies, I almost always ask it for links to its source info. And that is how I know the links are bogus. I sometimes believe what it tells me is true, but without a link to source info, I cannot trust it 100%. I become especially doubtful when it gives me a link that leads to totally unrelated topics.
I mainly want to use ChatGPT to search the web faster and easier than I can Google something, asking it to check multiple sources. Sadly, most of the time GPT4o misses info I know exists. I often test ChatGPT based on what I know is out there on the web and is easily found by Googling. Often times it misses that info when it does its own searches, and then comes back and tells me something wrong or incomplete.
I truly hate ChatGPT a lot of the time because it lies so often. For example, I've recently been comparing OLED TVs and soundbars. It tells me certain specifications that simply are not true. When I point out its error, it apologizes and deletes the single error line, and then just repeats the rest it told me before.
Why do I even torture myself by continuing to use the stupid thing? Because it sometimes does a decent job in very specific situations like summarizing text or rephrasing. I prefer that use case because I am good enough in the English language to know if what it tells me is good or not. But in other cases where I am looking for facts I don't know to be true, it often lies; and even when it doesn't lie, I try to get links to source info, but those links never work.
So it's a real love-hate relationship, but more hate than love.
It is totally and utterly laughable that governments and people around the world are afraid of AI. Yeah right! Maybe 100, 200 or perhaps 300 years from now it might be worthy of such fears, but at the moment it's not that far ahead of brain dead Siri. It's no different than the fake promise of "self driving cars." That's not going to happen in my lifetime. Truly autonomous driving means no human intervention is EVER needed, and you can drive in any situation, like mountain driving in the snow with sunlight reflections hitting the snow and blinding you occasionally. Or driving on dark roads that aren't marked with paint. Or driving off-road in the dirt. Nope. No matter what these car companies say, what they have now is little more than a joke. It gives you a great first impression, but using the tech for a while shows how ridiculous it is.
The PROMISE of AI is great, but it's far, far in the future before we can sit back and experience true "intelligence" that's "artificial." What we have now in the world of AI is barely useable. It's more entertainment than anything else.
I write all this to say that if Apple CHARGES MONEY for such digital stupidity, I certainly will not be lining up for a subscription, They have a LONG way to go before its worthy of dedicated fees and special charges. We're very much in the R&D stage right now. I say this in the hope of something far superior to what we have now, while at the same time, I am a realist too. It's not great now, and it probably still won't be that great 10 to 20 years hence. We need a real technological breakthrough to make a huge leap in usability.
It will be very interesting to see which direction Apple goes with Apple Intelligence. Raise all boats or pay to play?