Siri AI could come with a paywall for power users

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in his final earnings call that the company's Siri AI upgrade could include paywalled limits, with users able to purchase more compute through existing iCloud+ subscriptions. Cook noted plans are not final but expressed excitement about the feature, which is available in the iOS 27 beta and planned for broader rollout this fall. The announcement comes as Apple faces delays and competition in AI, having paid $250 million to settle a lawsuit over Siri's delayed AI features and licensed Google's Gemini model to augment Siri.

In his final earnings call https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/apple-stockpiles-inventory-as-it-braces-for-significant-supply-constraints/ as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook said that the company’s long-awaited Siri AI upgrade could come with some paywalled limits. While Cook conceded that these plans are not set in stone, he envisions users being able to buy more compute for Siri AI via its existing iCloud+ subscriptions, which offer extended cloud storage. “We do believe there will be people that want to use Siri AI a lot, and so we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud+, where people can buy up the stack on iCloud+, and we’ll see how the pickup for that is,” Cook said on Thursday. “But we could not be more excited about where Siri AI is.” Most other AI providers like Anthropic and OpenAI operate similarly, offering a limited free version to consumers with the option of upgrading to support more usage. The new-and-improved Siri AI is available in the iOS 27 beta, and is planned to roll out more broadly this fall. As longtime Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/21/apples-john-ternus-will-run-one-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-companies-the-job-is-a-minefield/ steps into Tim Cook’s shoes, he will take the helm at a critical time for the company. Apple has fallen behind in its efforts to build an advanced AI assistant, even capitulating to its direct competitor Google by licensing a custom Gemini model https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/05/apple-nears-deal-to-pay-google-1b-annually-to-power-new-siri-report-says/ to augment Siri. The Siri AI overhaul was so delayed that Apple had to pay $250 million https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/06/apple-to-pay-250m-to-settle-lawsuit-over-siris-delayed-ai-features/ to settle a class action lawsuit over how it marketed the iPhone 16’s AI capabilities. Apple, like every other hardware manufacturer, is also staring down a rocky road for accessing the supplies https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/apple-stockpiles-inventory-as-it-braces-for-significant-supply-constraints/ it needs to meet customer demand. Due to the AI-driven RAM shortage https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/27/memory-shortage-could-cause-the-biggest-smartphone-shipments-dip-in-over-a-decade/ across the industry, it’s more expensive to build hardware, which has led companies like Meta https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/16/meta-raises-quest-3-and-quest-3s-prices-due-to-ram-shortage/ , Samsung https://www.theverge.com/tech/911623/samsung-galaxy-phones-tablets-price-hike-ram , Microsoft https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-reveals-major-price-increases-for-all-surface-pro-laptop-pcs-as-ram-crisis-continues , and Sony https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/sony-hike-playstation-5-prices-again-memory-chip-costs-surge-2026-03-27/ to raise prices of some devices. Apple raised the price https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/30/apple-stockpiles-inventory-as-it-braces-for-significant-supply-constraints/ of Macs and iPads last month, but has yet to adjust the price of its existing iPhone models.