Would you pay for AI features on your phone? Samsung might want you to [Poll]

Ben Schoon | Jan 15 2024 - 9:10 am PT

AI is dominating the conversation going into 2024, and there’s potentially no better example of that than the Galaxy S24 series. Samsung’s new phones are apparently filled to the brim with AI features, and that’s the entire marketing campaign around them too. But, apparently, you might have to pay for them.

A huge Galaxy S24 leak late last week revealed effectively everything left to know about Samsung’s new smartphones including more AI features and the potential of a whopping 7 years of Android updates, matching Google’s Pixel 8 series. But also included in that leak from Android Headlines was mention of Samsung charging a fee to use AI features.

According to the report, Samsung’s AI features are free through 2025, about a year after release. While it’s not said directly, that strongly implies that Samsung intends to charge for these features at some point or another, whether that’s a simple unlock fee or, more likely, a subscription.

Paid features in the world of AI are not a new idea. ChatGPT charges for its best products, and even Google seemingly plans to do the same with “Bard Advanced” in the not-too-distant future.

However, Samsung charging for AI features on its smartphones would be out of the ordinary, at least from what we’ve seen with these features so far. Google, for example, doesn’t charge for any of its AI features on the Pixel 8 series, and other brands haven’t charged additional fees for these either. It’s especially interesting that Samsung may be planning this as most of the features we’ve seen so far are thought to be handled on-device.

Most likely, I think, is that this leaked information is missing some context. Personally, I could absolutely see Samsung offering some sort of feature that requires an added fee – Live Translate, for example, seems impressive enough to warrant a small fee – but I can’t imagine the company would charge for all of its new features.