iCloud+ Subscribers Get Higher Apple Intelligence Usage Limits in iOS 27

[Ad47uk]

I should no one is surprised by this? They are not going to give it away, it is costing Apple a lot of money every year, so they will want something back. Google is not given them access for nothing, just thing of the energy that is being used just to ask a simple question.

This is going to happen if is not already happening on other devices, like Android phones and windows computers.
All this thing about A.I, but it is not going to be for free.

Not going to make any difference to me, I will not be using it and certainly would not be using it enough to get charged for it.

 

[963852741]

Absolutely. Hang on to old hardware. Hoard offline content you find useful or entertaining.

That never changed. I avoid cloud and "smart" hardware like a plague.

 

[triumvirate]

There are 5 iCloud tiers. The assumption is that "most" includes all but the base tier, but it could equally be the top 3 tiers. My wife and I each have a 50 GB plan for £0.99 per month and are both within 10-20% of filling it. Perhaps it's time to upgrade to a single shared 200 GB plan between us (which she will likely fill up much faster than me).

And that’s how Apple does what they do. Every dollar and every credit cart counts.

 

[JulianL]

Anything to get those users to put in a credit card number.

Of all the things I had hoped they would announce they were fixing, iCloud is still not one. 5GB in 2026, unchanged for literally over a decade.

It continues to very, very clearly be their plan to get users to put in a credit card, just to pay that $1 a month to make it actually useful and get their foot in the door.

...

I have found it interesting that Apple has refused to increase the free 5GB allocation even to 15GB to not put it at a disadvantage to Google. That desire to get credit card numbers on record might be a motivation.

Having helped a friend transition from Android to iPhone after another friend gave him an old iPhone one of the things that was a problem was constantly hitting that 5GB iCloud limit when storage had never been an issue for him on Android. I thought not a huge problem because upgrading to the lowest paid iCloud tier is only $0.99 a month but he wasn't willing to do that on principle because he'd never had to pay for extra storage for his android phone (he's quite stubborn).

We ended up keeping the photos out of iCloud and keeping them in Google Photos which was what was tipping things over the edge so Apple didn't end up getting my friend's credit card details anyway, all it managed to do was lower his opinion of Apple.

 

[BeatCrazy]

That never changed. I avoid cloud and "smart" hardware like a plague.

Yet the words you just typed, are literally stored in a cloud, for others to see and engage with.

 

[richpjr]

That never changed. I avoid cloud and "smart" hardware like a plague.

I do not avoid the cloud as it is far too convenient to be able to access data from anywhere. I do back up anything critical on local storage that is not kept powered on (I live in an area with a lot of lightning).

 

[I7guy]

I have found it interesting that Apple has refused to increase the free 5GB allocation even to 15GB to not put it at a disadvantage to Google. That desire to get credit card numbers on record might be a motivation.

Having helped a friend transition from Android to iPhone after another friend gave him an old iPhone one of the things that was a problem was constantly hitting that 5GB iCloud limit when storage had never been an issue for him on Android. I thought not a huge problem because upgrading to the lowest paid iCloud tier is only $0.99 a month but he wasn't willing to do that on principle because he'd never had to pay for extra storage for his android phone (he's quite stubborn).

We ended up keeping the photos out of iCloud and keeping them in Google Photos which was what was tipping things over the edge so Apple didn't end up getting my friend's credit card details anyway,

With goggle you are the product.

all it managed to do was lower his opinion of Apple.

Well people can have whatever opinion they want of apple. It’s apples way or the highway. And incidentally I pay for services in both google and apple.

 

[BigMcGuire]

That perk is nice.

How dare you post something positive. And about Apple nonetheless! Lol

As an iCloud+ subscriber - Agreed! Nice! Wonder if that applies to my entire iCloud family too.

 

[richpjr]

Wonder if that applies to my entire iCloud family too.

Interested in this as well. I have 2 TB shared with my wife and kids.

 

[I7guy]

How dare you post something positive. And about Apple nonetheless! Lol

As an iCloud+ subscriber - Agreed! Nice! Wonder if that applies to my entire iCloud family too.

Good point. Do family sharing members get the increased AI capacity? Great question!

 

[ProbablyDylan]

AI isn’t a free resource. And unlike google where you are the product, how are you going to be the product using AI?

I'm just not gonna use it. And if I do find a use case worth paying for it, you better believe I'm not gonna pay for some middle of the road model.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Oh well I need to get something for my £37 per month

 

[jbachandouris]

I'm on the lowest family plan so 5GB. Wife and kids left 4 years ago so I'm not upgrading them. Don't care about AI or AI limits.

 

[jonnysods]

Nah, 500GB or 1TB iCloud tiers would've been infinitely more useful.

I'd like a 3TB option, sharing with the family and they are gobbling space up but the next tier too high.

 

[bleakend]

It's an added feature, so I don't mind. I would like to see Apple One launched in Singapore, though. I have Apple Music (with TV as part of the student plan) and iCloud+ 2TB subs, and have been holding off on getting the Music plan for the family because it's quite a bit more than what I am paying now or what I would pay if there were Apple One (Family) here. Apparently it's because there is no Fitness+/News+ available here.

 

[Bazza1]

A moot point, as I intend to continue to turn off both Siri and Apple Intelligence (ever the oxymoron) - assuming 27 will let me...

 

[rensuchan]

Already on Apple One so I won't complain about additional perks, though I don't think I'll really use image generation much at all.

 

[211]

What are these limits? And which Apple Intelligence features have limits?

 

[svish]

Waiting to hear the exact usage limit with each plan and especially with Apple One. Might know only with the final release later in the year.

 

[b.inazawa-fan]

I'll pay more for AI generated Olivia Rodrigo songs. Otherwise NO DICE.

 

[switz]

Apple's emense store of cash is not large enough???? So they are devising new ways to charge for every thing they can. Somehow, there ought to be some folks working at the higher levels in Apple that are stressed out to live on a budget that is being squeezed from all sides. Have some customer sympathy....

Apple's customer base do not own printing presses to print our paper we call cash so when the credit cards are maxed out and even the penny jar is empty, Apple's overpriced items will become art work on the store shelves. No Apple product is essential to life.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Apple's emense store of cash is not large enough???? So they are devising new ways to charge for every thing they can. Somehow, there ought to be some folks working at the higher levels in Apple that are stressed out to live on a budget that is being squeezed from all sides. Have some customer sympathy....

Apple's customer base do not own printing presses to print our paper we call cash so when the credit cards are maxed out and even the penny jar is empty, Apple's overpriced items will become art work on the store shelves. No Apple product is essential to life.

I support what you’re saying.

However, in this case - Apple is just offering those of us who have iCloud+ subscriptions more AI tokens (for no additional cost) than those who don’t (which will still have access, just at a less token rate) - normal for LLMs.

These companies are in the business to make money - first and foremost.

That said, I half expected Apple to include a new subscription on this - and it doesn’t look like they will - which is really cool.

 

[LightProtector]

Why is the base tier only 50GB? It's 2026. They should increase it.

 

[CarAnalogy]

How long till our computers will just be terminals to buy compute time form the "cloud"? My lifetime?

In many cases, especially in business, they literally already are. So, yes.

 

[adamjackson]

I'm paying Apple for Premier Family + 6TB of Storage. If they want another $20 a month for realistic AI images, I'm going to tell them to pound sand.