Apple Introduces $50 ‘Intelligence Usage Packs’ for Select AI Features
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Apple has just quietly launched its first explicitly paid AI features, in what could be a sign of things to come for the broader Apple Intelligence and Siri AI world.
While former Apple CEO Tim Cook once said charging for AI wasn’t initially on the table, telling Wired in late 2024 that “we never talked about charging for it,” times change, and the resources required to power Apple Intelligence cost real money.
To be fair, Apple isn’t likely to charge for on-device AI features, as those are largely built in. What it’s been talking about since it announced iOS 27 in June is having tiers where users pay for “increased access,” while also saying that they’ll bundle that with iCloud+ in some way.
Some features, including image generation, have daily usage limits because they rely on powerful server models. Increased access is available with most iCloud+ subscription plans, which also include Apple Intelligence support for compatible Home cameras.
Craig Federighi
That’s not unlike how Google and OpenAI operate. Google, in particular, bundles expanded access to Gemini with other packages, such as Google Workspace for business customers, or Google One for consumers. OpenAI is in a trickier situation as it has no other services, so its customers are paying strictly for ChatGPT and its ancillary generative AI tools.
Still, Apple has yet to announce exactly what its “daily usage limits” will be, much less how the increased access will work. The only limitation so far is on Home camera summaries — and they’re disappointingly expensive, with the 2 TB iCloud+ plan, which costs $9.99 per month, required to support even a single camera, and the $30 6 TB plan required to increase that.
However, Apple has now dropped another form of paid AI usage, this time tucked into its Apple Creator Studio subscription suite.
While Apple Creator Studio already gates access to some AI capabilities in Apple’s Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps, which otherwise remain free, there are no tiers beyond the base subscription, which also bundles Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Pixelmator Pro.
That’s not to say that these AI features were a free-for-all. From the start, Creator Studio apps had monthly limits — and no way to move beyond them. Until this week.
Apple spells those monthly limits out in a support document as approximately 50 images, 250 shapes, 50 presentations (of approximately 8–10 slides each), presenter notes for 700 slides, or various combinations of all four. However, as of this month, customers can purchase intelligence usage packs for $50 each.
For now, these seem to be limited to Logic Pro for Mac, where they can be purchased from within the app by going to Logic Pro > Intelligence Features > Show Usage > Buy More Usage. While there’s reason to believe we’ll see them expand to the rest of the Creator Studio suite as those app updates roll out, Apple’s support document only mentions Logic Pro at this point.
What’s interesting is that this isn’t tied to a subscription, per se — although you do need to be a Creator Studio subscriber, as intelligence features aren’t available in the purchased version of the app. Instead, each “usage pack” is a one-time $49.99 purchase that supplements the standard monthly limit.
Apple doesn’t say exactly how much extra usage this nets buyers, but the packs are valid for 12 months, and will roll over from month to month, with the additional usage only being consumed after the “free” monthly tiers are exhausted.
It’s also unclear if Apple is actually charging for its own AI services, or simply passing on the costs incurred by third-party providers. The company’s support document explicitly states that “some intelligence features in Apple Creator Studio are powered by third-party providers, such as OpenAI and Google Gemini models.” Image and shape generation, Generate Presenter Notes in Keynote, and the assistant in Logic Pro for Mac are all powered by Gemini, while the Generate Presentation feature in Keynote relies on OpenAI.
Intelligence usage packs are available in Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States, don’t support Family Sharing, and can be used only by the iCloud Apple Account that purchased them.
