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Science/Tech News

Macworld

Science/Tech / Macworld

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Apple outlines steep AI usage costs, and it

Macworld With the launch of iOS 27 this week, Apple Intelligence has reached maturity, with a real chatbot assistant in Siri AI, powerful photo editing tools, and legitimately good image generation. And its mostly free. Unlike ChatGPT, Claude, and other AI tools, which charge monthly fees for anyone who uses the service more than occasionally. For example, the free Claude plan has session-based usage limits that can kick in when youre using it too much. Those limits dont exist with Siri AI or any of the Apple Intelligence tools. Apple does charge for HomeKit Secure Video features. Apple has always tied HomeKit Secure Video to iCloud accounts for recording and viewing footage, but the Apple Intelligence features are costlier. Heres what Apple charges now: HomeKit Secure Video recording 50GB: 1 camera 200GB: Up to 5 cameras 2TB: More than 5 cameras However, that 2TB plan, which costs $9.99 a month, is the least you can spend to get Apples new AI Home app features, including video descriptions for recorded clips and natural-language search. And that only supports a single camera: HomeKit Secure Video recording with AI 2TB: 1 camera 6TB: 2 cameras 12TB: Up to 5 cameras A setup with five cameras that costs you $2.99 a month will now cost $59.99 a month if you want to include AI summaries. Thats a steep increase just to get AI summaries, but it speaks to the overall expense of AI. Storing and analyzing 4K videos all day long isnt cheap. And Apple cautions that camera counts and other iCloud+ plan features may change over time, so costs could go up. And it sounds like Apple is going to charge for other services soon. On the Apple Intelligence usage limits support page , Apple warns that limits are coming to other features, including Siri AI and Photos: In the future, Apple will implement usage limits on these and other Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features to ensure a high-quality, reliable experience for everyone. If you reach a limit in a particular feature, that feature will become available again after a time out period. Limits may vary by feature, request complexity, system demand, system policies, and other factors. Increased access to such features will be available for a fee. Its not clear when Apple will begin charging for AI features and conversations or how much it will cost, but enjoy your free Apple Intelligence while it lasts.

16 Sep 2026 8:23 pm