Apple Intelligence has been free since the day it shipped. That ended today — quietly, inside a music app.
With Logic Pro's latest update, Apple is now selling a $49.99 one-time "intelligence usage pack," according to 9to5Mac. Open Logic Pro, go to Intelligence Features, then Show Usage, and there's a new option: Buy More Usage. Hit your monthly AI allowance in the app's assistant — the chatbot that sets up vocal tracks, starts songs from a prompt, and refines projects — and Apple will sell you more.
The terms are pure Apple. The pack is a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and it's tied to the Apple Account you were using for iCloud when you bought it — no Family Sharing. Unused usage rolls over month to month but expires 12 months after purchase, and it's only consumed after you've burned through your monthly limit. It's available to Creator Studio subscribers in the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, India, and Mexico.
This is not a random upsell. Apple has been telegraphing it for months: the company has said expanded access to select server-based AI features will eventually cost extra, and earlier this month it confirmed Siri AI's server features will carry usage limits with paid expanded access to follow. Logic Pro is simply where the meter starts running first — and the meter, notably, is running on other companies' models. The Logic Pro assistant draws on Google Gemini for image and shape generation and OpenAI for presentation generation, alongside Apple's own models.
That's the tell. Apple's AI bill is now a line item it can pass on, and the mechanism it built for that is a refillable pack, not a tier. Final Cut Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and the iWork apps are expected to get the same option when their Creator Studio updates land later this month. After that, the obvious candidates are the features Apple itself has already flagged: Siri AI, Image Playground, Photos editing.
The free-AI era at Apple lasted about two years. The paid one starts at $49.99 a pack — and the only real question now is which of your daily features gets metered next.
— via 9to5Mac