Apple’s revamped Siri and new Apple Intelligence features may be free to start, but power users will likely have to pay to get more out of them. The news came during the company’s latest earnings call, when Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked about how Apple plans to recover its AI compute costs.
“In terms of what it means for compute cost, it’s obviously early going for us. And so I don’t want to say that we have a complete plan for that,” Cook said, before adding: “We do believe there will be people that want to use it a lot. And so we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud Plus where people can buy up the stack on iCloud Plus. And we’ll see how the pickup for that is.”
This isn’t the first time Apple has spoken about usage limits for AI features. As MacRumors reports, Apple dropped a hint during WWDC, saying that certain AI features, including Image Playground, could come with usage caps.
iCloud+ is currently best known for offering additional cloud storage, with plans starting at just $0.99 per month for 50GB and going up to $60 per month for 12TB. The subscription includes additional privacy features, such as Hide My Email and iCloud Private Relay, but cloud storage remains its biggest draw.
Whether the addition of extended AI usage could revamp the plans remains to be seen. Cook’s statement arrives just weeks after Apple raised iCloud+ prices in eight countries, including Egypt, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Turkey, and Vietnam.
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Apple’s updated Siri, meanwhile, is already available via iOS 27’s public beta. The general release is expected in September with the latest iPhones. Some of the standout Siri AI updates include a new chatbot-like interface, the ability to explain what you see on the screen, take action across apps, and create Shortcuts using natural-language prompts.
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Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.
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