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Galaxy AI has arrived<\/a>, as Samsung has declared in the loudest way possible<\/a>, but the company left one small detail out of its presentation earlier this week: it might come at a cost. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, S24 Plus, and S24 all include a smorgasbord of new AI features \u2014 everything from translating phone conversations to removing objects from photos. They\u2019ll even be coming to many<\/strong> older phones<\/a>, too. But as spotted by Android Central<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>the fine print on Samsung\u2019s website reveals that they might not be free forever. And that might be a tough sell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The footnote at the bottom of the Galaxy S24 Ultra product page<\/a> is vague, but clearly leaves a door open for Samsung to charge later: \u201cGalaxy AI features will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices. Different terms may apply for AI features provided by third parties.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Samsung didn\u2019t offer much clarification, either. Drew Blackard, Samsung US\u2019s vice president of mobile, tells The Verge<\/em>, \u201cWe are committed to making Galaxy AI features available to as many of our users as possible. We will not be considering any changes to that direction before the end of 2025.\u201d The coast is clear for now, but many of the S24\u2019s Galaxy AI features are enabled by Google Cloud<\/a>, so either company \u2014 or both! \u2014 could eventually put their features behind a paywall. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s not too <\/em>surprising when you consider how expensive it is to offer these features and run the large AI models that power them. Business Insider<\/em> points out<\/a> that manufacturers might look to subscription models to pay for these ongoing costs, since you can\u2019t exactly offset them with advertising the way Google does with search. But it\u2019s a bit of a shift in how we think about purchasing a phone \u2014 right now, they don\u2019t come with extra fees on top of the purchase price, unless you elect to add a protection plan or extra cloud storage through iCloud or Google One, for example. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n But \u201cHow much does this phone cost?\u201d has been an infuriatingly difficult question to answer in the age of \u201cfree\u201d or heavily subsidized carrier phones, which is how a lot of people in the US get their devices. It\u2019s not too hard to envision a future where monthly fees for advanced AI features are tacked on to your wireless bill or folded into a paid cloud subscription. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n So why wait until 2025? The<\/em> Korea Herald<\/em> reported on some comments<\/a> from Samsung\u2019s head of mobile, TM Roh, who said that charging for AI services could become an option when they become more advanced \u2014 and more costly to run. That\u2019s the thing about AI; the way it has shown up so far on our phones has been pretty unimpressive<\/a>. These features can take a lot of time to process, but more importantly, they just haven\u2019t been very useful. If Samsung does want to charge for AI options in the future, the door seems to be wide open \u2014 they\u2019ll just have to prove themselves to be worth the price. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n