At the start of this year, Samsung opened the Pandora’s Box which was Galaxy AI, serving as the catalyst for all other major manufacturers searching for how to put themselves into the smartphone AI ring. Now, there’s no escaping AI in any new smartphone release.
With all the AI things going on in the smartphone space, it was rather easy for me to lose track of the fact that it was assumed pretty early on that such features wouldn’t be free for life. However, it was easy to take all these AI features for granted and Samsung has maintained its stance on some Galaxy AI features coming with a price tag in 2025.
Some Of Samsung’s Galaxy AI Features Will Only Be Free Until The End Of Next Year
AI is the future whether we like it or not, and smartphone manufacturers want to get in on that action as quickly as they can. It’s why the whole craze started at the start of this year and now at the end of it, there’s hardly a major smartphone manufacturer that you can point out that hasn’t found a way to introduce its own implementation of AI; including Apple, which tends to be late to jump on trends introduced by others.
While many of us might have been enjoying features like Live Translate, Sketch to Image, Interpreter, Note Assist, and others in the Galaxy AI suite, if you love them enough, you’ll be expected to pay for them come the end of 2025. Samsung hasn’t come out to make a statement or anything, but if you read the fine print in the Tab S10 series and Galaxy S24 FE press releases (thanks to SamMobile), you’ll find the South Korean company hinting at it.
In Samsung’s words, “Fees may apply to certain AI features at the end of 2025.” This isn’t the first time that you’ll find this in Samsung’s press releases, as its other major launches for the year—the S24 series and the sixth generation of Z foldables—had the same disclaimer written into their press releases.
We’ve No Idea Which Features Will Come With A Price Tag, Nor How Much
Personally, I don’t use any Galaxy AI feature enough to end up paying. However, I know that’s just me and some people might be using these features on a daily basis. The thing is, there’s no word on which of these features are most likely to be monetized. I think more basic ones like Generative Edit might escape the guillotine, but those that need a bit more computing power, such as Live Translate, might not be that fortunate.
At the same time, there’s no clue how much Samsung might charge to unlock paid AI features once the time comes around in 2025. I’d like to think that a yearly subscription shouldn’t cost more than a few tens of dollars.
Anyway, for now, we’ll simply need to wait. I don’t blame Samsung for monetizing these features as it likely costs a lot server-side, but a lot of average consumers likely won’t see it coming.
