Heavy users? Get ready to pay Apple for the new Siri AI
Apple is preparing to launch the new Siri AI, with CEO Tim Cook hinting at potential paid iCloud+ subscription tiers to remove usage limits. This move aligns the company with other major players in the AI market.
Very soon, Apple is set to put behind it one of the most embarrassing chapters in its history when it launches, after numerous delays, the new Siri AI, which has been awaited since 2024. Shortly before that happens, and in his final earnings call as the company's CEO, Tim Cook mentioned an idea that might put Apple on par with other AI companies.
Prepare for upgrades
Siri AI is currently in advanced beta as part of the iOS 27 update. We have already tested it and discovered a significant upgrade to the veteran assistant that finally makes it much more useful and smarter. As of now, Apple claims that the new Siri will arrive "later this year," meaning not necessarily on the very first day of iOS 27, which is expected to be released in September. However, it seems the company believes enough in the new Siri that it is about to introduce a usage option that, for the first time, will require payment.
During Apple's latest earnings call, Tim Cook noted:
"We believe there will be people who will want to use it (Siri AI) a lot, so we will have upgrade options in iCloud+, where people will be able to upgrade their subscription, and we will see what the response will be. But we are very excited about where it (Siri AI) is at."
In doing so, it seems Apple intends to treat its new voice assistant in a similar way to how all other players in the AI market operate. Siri AI will be offered for free to Apple users (with hardware suitable for Apple Intelligence), however, it will present what is known as a Rate Limit, or simply usage restrictions. Want to use it more times a day or per hour? No problem, just pay more each month and enjoy more extensive quotas. Apple needs to compensate for the significant processing power it uses behind the scenes to run Siri AI, one of whose flagship features is Private Cloud Compute, where every time your request needs to go to the cloud, it undergoes secure processing on servers based on Apple Silicon and is then immediately deleted, remaining inaccessible to Apple.
Indeed, Cook addresses the privacy issue in the earnings call as well, noting that the initial reviews for the new Siri highlight "our approach whereby building private artificial intelligence based on personal context can change the way users find information and perform tasks using our products, in a way that truly enriches their lives." Now we will have to see whether those new restrictions will be part of existing iCloud+ packages, or perhaps Apple will use the new launch to create entirely new packages to achieve additional cash flow from its users every month — and, of course, what the limit will be for free users.
