HomeKit Secure Video: AI camera descriptions become very expensive
With release of iOS 27, Apple informed users about how many HomeKit cameras will provide AI information for each iCloud+ subscription. Pricing is off-putting.
HomeKit Secure Video, here with an older Logitech camera.
(Image: Apple / Logitech)
Apple seems to want to make good money with AI services in the future. At least one decision in the context of a new feature for the camera service HomeKit Secure Video (HKSV) suggests this. With iOS 27, Apple Intelligence can notify in writing what is visible in a surveillance video. The so-called AI Video Summaries are intended to make it unnecessary to review every single video for motion alerts. Users had expected Apple to follow the familiar HKSV billing via iCloud+ subscriptions, which support one camera for 99 cents a month, five cameras for 2.99 euros a month, and an unlimited number of cameras for 9.99 euros a month. But this is not the case. Instead, the AI video summaries will be much more expensive – and thus almost unusable.
60 dollars a month for the most expensive package, which still has limits
EU users will initially be left out anyway. The technology, just like Siri AI, will initially be blocked in our region for regulatory reasons. However, in the USA, it is already possible to hear where the journey is heading. After installing iOS 27, Apple shows the different tariffs, as can be read on Reddit. These start with the previously most expensive HKSV subscription, the iCloud+ offer with 9.99 US dollars (2 TByte storage, unlimited number of HKSV cameras). According to Apple, this only includes a single camera for the AI video summaries.
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Users will have to choose a particularly important camera for which they want to have the AI summarize what is visible in the future. Anyone who wants to AI-process two cameras will have to purchase the 6-TByte iCloud+ plan. This costs 29.99 dollars. Those who want to use five cameras for AI video summaries will have to dig deepest into their pockets at 59.99 dollars a month, which is then the 12-TByte iCloud+ package. Apple, on the other hand, does not plan to allow the use of an unlimited number of cameras with AI Video Summaries.
Push for expensive subscriptions in the style of ChatGPT and Claude?
The AI video descriptions are now not a feature aimed at a mass market. However, the planned approach shows the direction Apple Intelligence subscription models seem to be heading at Apple. The company had already warned that there could be surcharges for iCloud if the use of Siri AI and other features like image generators increases.
The tariffs for AI Video Summaries now suggest that the company is aiming for subscription prices in the style of OpenAI and Anthropic. Here, 20 euros are still considered cheap, but there are also Max subscriptions for 200 euros a month, which still do not cover unlimited usage – simply because AI inference in data centers remains a massive loss-making business.
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