Samsung won’t give any real answers about paid Galaxy AI but hints it could be ‘more powerful’

Ben Schoon | Jan 30 2024 - 2:30 pm PT

Galaxy AI is the big selling point of this year’s Galaxy S24 series, but Samsung’s new features are only confirmed to be free for about a year. In a new interview, Samsung hints at “more powerful” additions to Galaxy AI in the future, but the company still won’t answer any important questions about a future where this is all paid.

Shortly after Samsung’s reveal of the Galaxy S24 series, it became clear that the Galaxy AI features the company is touting won’t be free forever. Disclaimers from Samsung say that the features are only guaranteed to be free through 2025, but make no mention of specifics around this supposed paid future.

Speaking to ET Telecom, Samsung’s TM Roh commented on paid Galaxy AI features, hinting that the company could offer “more powerful” features when they are paid, and that many customers will be satisfied with the existing free features.

According to our analysis, there are various needs for mobile AI. So, there will be consumers who will be satisfied with using the AI capabilities for free. Then there could also be customers who wish for even more powerful AI capabilities, and even pay for them. So, in the future decision making, we will take all these factors into consideration.

Roh’s statement is the first response Samsung has really given about paid Galaxy AI features, but it still leaves a lot on the table.

When will these features be paid? Will any of them be free? How much will it cost? Those are a few of the actually important questions around the idea of paid Galaxy AI, but Samsung remains silent on the matter beyond Roh’s comments here.

In a recent statement to 9to5Google, Samsung said:

We are committed to making Galaxy AI features accessible to our users and will provide them for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices. Different terms may apply for AI features provided by third parties.

For now, we really don’t know much about the future of these features, but hopefully we’ll learn more as that 2025 deadline approaches.

You can read our Galaxy S24 Ultra review now to learn more about how existing Galaxy AI features actually work.