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Some features of Apple's upgraded, AI-powered Siri may not be available to you unless you pay extra for them, based on comments CEO Tim Cook made on the company's fiscal third-quarter earnings call this week.
"We do believe there will be people that want to use it a lot, and so we will have some kind of upgrade possibilities on iCloud+," Cook said. It's the first time Apple has confirmed on the record that it plans to charge for any part of the new Siri.
The new Siri, unveiled at Apple's developer conference in June, uses large language models, including some built on Google's Gemini, to follow multi-step, conversational requests instead of losing the thread after a single command. We tested the new Siri and found it finally follows what you're saying across a back-and-forth conversation, handling a correction without being told the details again. It still comes up short digging through older call history and completed reminders.
A public beta began this month, with a full rollout expected this fall alongside new iPhones. Apple hasn't said which specific features will require payment, but the most likely candidates are the ones that cost the most computing power to run: image and video generation, and AI agents that carry out complex multi-step tasks on your behalf. Apple's Shortcuts app already lets you build and customize simple multi-step commands starting from a library of ready-made templates. Adding agents is a logical next step.
Cook didn't say what an upgraded iCloud+ tier would cost. Apple has already said that a separate new home security feature coming in iOS 27, which lets Siri describe footage from HomeKit-compatible cameras, will require a paid iCloud subscription.
If you're an iPhone owner who plans to lean on the new Siri heavily, budget for the possibility of an added monthly cost once the feature reaches general availability this fall. Apple hasn't said whether current iCloud+ subscribers get any of the new capacity included, or whether this is an entirely new add-on tier.
Read next: iOS 27 public beta is here: Is the new Siri worth the bugs?
