During his final earnings call as Apple CEO, Tim Cook addressed investor concerns about the rising capital expenditure costs associated with artificial intelligence, particularly Siri AI. While the financial outlook remains uncertain, Cook hinted that heavy users of Siri AI may eventually face an iCloud+ subscription paywall.

Currently, Siri AI is a free feature on Apple devices. However, running the service, which involves sending queries to Apple's cloud and third-party infrastructure for processing, incurs ongoing costs. This marks the first public suggestion by Apple that a paid component will be introduced for Siri AI. While specific usage limits are unknown, Cook indicated that indefinite free use will not be possible, with heavy users eventually needing to subscribe to an iCloud+ plan.

This follows previous indications that new image generation features, such as those in Photos and the Image Playground app, will have usage limits, with iCloud+ subscribers receiving higher allowances. The new Apple Intelligence features for Home app video recordings require the 2 TB iCloud plan, and access to the new Cloud Pro model in Shortcuts is exclusive to higher iCloud+ tiers. iOS 27 with Siri AI requires capable hardware, such as the iPhone 15 Pro or newer, and will launch later this year. Siri AI will not be available in Europe or China.