Apple Plans Paid iCloud+ Upgrades for Heavy AI Users
Apple is planning to let users pay to increase their AI limits, with upgrade possibilities available through iCloud+.
During today's earnings call for the third fiscal quarter of 2026, Apple CEO Tim Cook said it's early, but the company expects to offer options for people who want to make heavy use of AI services.
In terms of what it means for compute cost, it's obviously early going for us, and so I don't want to say that we have a complete plan for that. We do believe there will be people that want to use it a lot and we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud+ where people can buy up the stack on iCloud+. We'll see how the pickup for that is.
At WWDC, Apple said there would be daily usage limits on features like Image Playground, but increased access would be available through iCloud+ plans. Cook's comments today suggest there may also be iCloud+ add-ons specifically for AI usage.
Apple hasn't offered any details on what it might charge to increase AI limits, and that's information that we might get when iOS 27 launches in September. Features like Siri AI are expected to remain free to use.
Popular Stories
Yesterday we reported that Apple tripled the number of iCloud Mail aliases users can create, from three to nine. But it turns out that's not the only email-related limit Apple has raised. The company has also bumped the number of email addresses you can use per iCloud Custom Domain, from three to 10.
If you subscribe to iCloud+, you can use a domain name you already own for your iCloud Mail...
Apple appears to have quietly tripled the number of iCloud Mail aliases users can create, increasing the limit from three to nine. The increase was first noticed last week by a Reddit user, and picked up shortly after by a member of the MacRumors forums. MacRumors can confirm the change is live at iCloud.com.
The increased limit has not been mentioned by Apple, so it could conceivably be a...
Apple today sent out invites for an experience in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 28, and the "Pro and tell" tagline on the invitation likely means that the rumored MacBook models with touch-enabled OLED displays will stick with MacBook Pro branding instead of the once-rumored "MacBook Ultra" name.
The long-rumored "iPhone Ultra" ended up being named iPhone Duo, so speculation that Apple...
