Just about every company on the planet is rapidly developing artificial intelligence features, even the ones you wouldn’t expect. However, they’re still working out how to monetize it. In other words, how will companies make a profit off of all the research and development funding they put into AI features? It could be through ads, data collection, or direct-to-consumer subscriptions, but no one really knows which option is best.
When you buy any of the best smartphones, you’re getting a ton of AI features bundled with them. For now, those are made available free of charge, included with the price of the phone itself. That might not be true forever, though. There are many hints that Samsung, Nothing, and Apple could eventually lock mobile AI tools behind a paywall.
It seems like a matter of when, not if, the biggest smartphone brands start charging a subscription fee for AI features. Whether customers are actually will pay for Apple Intelligence, Galaxy AI, or Essential Space is a lot less clear.
Apple, Samsung, and Nothing can’t offer a good enough AI value proposition
I’ve tested all the best mobile AI suites, and many of them offer useful features. For instance, I recently wrote that Nothing’s Essential Space on the Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro is my favorite AI feature yet. That’s still true, but it comes with a crucial caveat — it’s currently a free AI premium. If or when Nothing decides to charge a monthly subscription for Essential Space, the entire value proposition changes.
This isn’t just a hypothetical, because a report from Android Authority recently uncovered Nothing OS code strings that reveal Essential Space could cost $120 per year at some point in the future. In a statement, Nothing said the following about the rumored pricing for Essential space: “No decisions have been made yet around potential pricing and our focus remains on improving the product.”
While the company didn’t confirm or deny the price listed in the code strings below, the signs point to Nothing going the subscription route. Will it work?
<string name="settings_ai_claim_hint">AI credits are used to analyse an item recorded and saved in Essential Space.</string>
<string name="settings_ai_hint">Your free trial will expire on %s.</string>
<string name="free_trial_message">Ready to explore Essential Space? Tap 'Continue' to unlock all features and get early access to what's coming next, like Smart Collections, Focused Search, Flip to Record, and Camera Capture.</string>
<string name="free_trial_start_one_year">Start 1 year free trial</string>
<string name="free_trial_title">Join our early access program</string>
<string name="early_access_hint">Join early access to experience the full potential of Essential Space and help shape our Al-powered features.</string>
<string name="account_already_claimed">the fact that this account has already joined Early Access through another Nothing phone</string>
<string name="ai_credits">Limited Access</string>
<string name="ai_credits_insufficient">You reached your monthly processing limit</string>
<string name="ai_credits_usage">Early Access Status</string>
<string name="claim_free_trial">Continue</string>
<string name="claim_now">Enroll</string>
<string name="claim_price">(USD 120)</string>If I had to guess, I would say probably not. Building up a user base of people who want to use AI features regularly is hard enough. A perfect example of this is Apple Intelligence, which hasn’t seemed to captivate audiences the way the iPhone maker expected. To that end, Apple is sending out regular emails to anyone with an Apple Account promoting Apple Intelligence, seemingly in an effort to encourage more people to use it.
Getting enough people to regularly use and enjoy AI features is a tricky endeavor. Taking that a step further, finding enough smartphone users willing to pay for those AI features is just that much more difficult. People are very hesitant to pay for software, especially at a time when almost everything is trying out a subscription model.
While I loved using Essential Space as a way to organize my screenshots, notes, and voice recordings, I loved it as a free service. As a paid one, it’s almost certainly a non-starter. I can’t see myself paying for Essential Space, or Galaxy AI and Apple Intelligence for that matter.
For a mobile AI subscription to work, it has to successfully offer AI that’s useful on your smartphone and features that extend beyond the smartphone. That’s where all these mobile AI suites fall short. Essential Space and Galaxy AI provide great mobile AI tools, but that’s all they offer.
Meanwhile, Apple has the capability to offer a more well-rounded subscription — with perks like streaming services or cloud storage included — but can’t seem to figure out the mobile AI part of it.
Why Google One AI Premium is different
To me, there’s only one company that can offer an AI subscription service, and that’s Google. To be clear, the Google One AI Premium subscription isn’t exactly cheap, costing $20 per month. It just happens to provide the perfect balance of mobile AI features, desktop AI features, and other perks.
Google One AI Premium unlocks Gemini Advanced, which will soon give users access to Gemini Live with live video streaming and screen sharing. The feature is rolling out now, and it’ll enable users of the Google Pixel 9 or Samsung Galaxy S25 to have a natural conversation with Gemini about what’s on their screen or in their surroundings.
On top of that, you get access to the Gemini chatbot powered by the latest Gemini models. That’s important for AI fans because the newest Gemini 2.5 model is arguably the best we’ve ever seen. It crushes competitors like OpenAI, DeepSeek, and other top models in benchmarks. Plus, it supports document uploads and more with a two-million-token context window. Integration with Google Workspace is a perk no other company can offer, too.
The reason Google One AI Premium is so useful is that it extends to just about any device you’re using. You can use advanced features on your Android smartphone, or a tablet, or a desktop computer. Eventually, that’ll include your car with Android Auto and your TV with Google TV. It might just extend to your smart home devices and earbuds one day, too.
Paying for a subscription to use AI features on your phone just doesn’t make sense. However, an AI subscription that can work on all your devices might be a different story. It’s a much better value, and Google One AI Premium includes more than just AI. It also offers cloud storage and plenty of other features.
Until Apple, Google, or Nothing can replicate that kind of experience, those brands should hold off on paywalling AI features.