(Image credit: Future / Mike Lowe)

Samsung could be planning to charge users a monthly or annual fee to use its Galaxy AI services, seeing the bell toll for free AI.

A new report claims that Samsung is working on an AI Premium subscription that could cost $4.99 a month, or $47.99 when paid annually.

According to SammyGuru, the company appears to be testing the plan with an early access programme, outlining that there's a free tier and then a premium tier that will be paid for. Those sticking to the free tier will have limitations on usage, while the paid tier will include four times the usage, as well as giving access to advanced features like generative video creation.

Samsung launched Galaxy AI on the Galaxy S24 and it has remained free in subsequent devices. However, at launch, Samsung outlined that Galaxy AI would remain free until the end of 2025, so the move to a subscription should not surprise anybody.

How has Samsung Galaxy AI evolved over the years?

In recent years, Samsung's focus has been on pushing AI features, while marketing its Galaxy S phones as "AI phones". That's seen hardware changes take a back seat as new AI features are highlighted instead.

The focus has often been on Now Brief, summarisation, translation, and more recently Now Nudge, designed to keep the user informed and make daily tasks smoother. Samsung's AI strategy has also involved trying to reinvigorate Bixby, its much maligned voice assistant.

The downside of many of the brand's Galaxy AI offerings is that they rely on using the Samsung Keyboard, so anyone switching to a different keyboard app disables a lot of the inline AI services. On top of that, Now Brief hasn't really established itself as an essential feature, with many users on Reddit saying that they disable it.

Photo editing remains popular, although this is likely to remain free under the plans outlined.

Samsung faces another challenge from Google, with Gemini integrating many AI features (albeit with a charge for higher use), while Google Photos offers comparable photo editing features, as well as smart platform-level AI options like Circle to Search.

The introduction of a paid tier will allow Samsung to keep offering AI services, while those heavy users will find themselves facing a subscription charge. User data probably means that Samsung knows how many people are using Galaxy AI, the question is whether they would continue to do so if they're asked to pay.