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With its Siri overhaul, image-generation abilities, and photo-editing tools, Apple Intelligence – Apple’s upcoming suite of AI features – could be more exciting than iOS 18 itself, but according to one report it might also be rather expensive.
According to Neil Shah, a partner at Counterpoint Research, speaking to CNBC, Apple Intelligence probably won’t be a free offering, with Apple charging $10-$20 (around £8-£16 / AU$15-AU$30) for some of the more advanced features within Apple Intelligence.
Shah didn’t specify which features might be charged and which might be free, but we can imagine that perhaps the upgraded version of Siri or the ChatGPT integration would come at a cost.
He added that if Apple does charge, it might bundle its Apple Intelligence features into an Apple One tier, so you’d be getting other things for your money too, like iCloud storage and potentially subscriptions to services like Apple TV Plus and Apple Music.
AI also costs money elsewhere
That would be a similar bundle to what Google offers with its Google One AI Premium plan, which provides access to its Gemini Advanced AI service, along with cloud storage and Fitbit Premium.
So there’s precedent for this sort of bundle, and there’s certainly precedent for charging for AI, with OpenAI charging for the most advanced ChatGPT model.
Shah also pointed out that AI would give Apple a chance to further lock its customer base into Apple products, since Apple Intelligence can learn from a user’s behavior over time, becoming more personalized, and you wouldn’t be able to bring that model with you from iOS to Android.
As it becomes more personalized, you’d likely use it more too, becoming more reliant on it, and therefore happier to pay.
Of course, Apple would have to get past the initial hurdle of convincing people to sign up in the first place, but it’s easy to imagine that it might provide Apple Intelligence for free for a period of time with purchases of an iPhone 16 or other devices.
All of this is really just speculation though, and we likely won’t know Apple’s plans for Apple Intelligence until the service launches, which it probably won’t until October. Before that, there’s the iPhone 16 line itself to look forward to, with a September launch likely, and TechRadar will cover all of these announcements in full as they happen.
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