Samsung never promised Galaxy AI would stay free forever. It just let everyone assume it would. That assumption is now looking shaky, because the company is preparing a $4.99 per month Galaxy AI Premium plan.
According to SamMobile, which cites SammyGuru, Samsung is setting up an early access program for the subscription. Subscribers would get higher usage limits across Galaxy AI features and a way to see how much AI they actually use. The test is opt-in, and any money spent during it will be refunded. Pricing is reportedly $4.99 monthly or $47.99 billed annually.
The free tier stays, but with caps. Browsing assist, Now Brief, Creative studio, Smart capture, Samsung Keyboard, Photo assist and Personal agent all remain free, with usage limits. Hit the limit and you either buy credits or move up to a Max plan with 4x the usage. Credit pricing is still unknown. Behind the paywall would be AI video generation, a Bixby Action feature that automates tasks across apps, and Daily Briefing.
Here’s why this matters. Generative AI is expensive to run, especially video. Somebody pays for that compute, and so far Samsung has absorbed it to sell hardware. That works when AI is a launch-event talking point. It works less well when millions of people use it daily.
The competition is already charging. Google bundles Gemini Advanced into Google One AI Premium at $19.99 per month, and Apple is expected to keep Apple Intelligence free while leaning on partners for heavier tasks. OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft all run tiered subscriptions. At $4.99, Samsung would undercut nearly all of them, though it would also be offering a narrower set of features.
The pricing is the smart part. Five dollars is easy to ignore, and the credit and Max options give Samsung several ways to upsell heavy users. The risk is perception. Samsung marketed Galaxy AI as a reason to buy a flagship phone. Telling those buyers that the good parts cost extra, after they paid $1,300 for a Ultra, will annoy some of them.
Samsung hasn’t announced a launch date, and this could stay a test. But I wouldn’t bet on it. The economics point one way, and the usage caps on the free tier suggest the plumbing is already being built. If you buy Samsung phones for the AI features, expect to budget for them eventually. If you don’t care about AI video or app automation, the free tier will probably be enough.
