You might have noticed that over the last several years, more and more companies have shifted to a subscription model for their products and services, and Apple has slowly begun to follow suit. As Apple hardware continues to improve, customers are keeping their devices for longer. Meaning that Apple is earning less per customer on their hardware purchases. This has pushed Apple to add more products to its services. Today, Apple offers subscriptions like cloud storage, media, productivity tools, AppleCare, and now products like Creator Studio. This suggests the company is willing to expand subscriptions into areas that were traditionally one-time purchases, a trend that we need to keep a close eye on. The easiest way to see how far Apple has leaned into subscriptions is to simply lay out everything the company currently offers.
Be sure to check out our video essay below talking about the state of apple products and their serveis revenue and what it means in the future!
Apple’s current subscription lineup
As we mentioned in the intro, Apple now has a slew of different subscription services that I wanted to shed some light on. Let’s start with the oldest of them all, iCloud storage.
iCloud+
Apple still includes 5GB of free cloud storage with every account, which seems insanely low for 2026. This usually forces users to quickly move to paid tiers as photos, backups, and files accumulate.
Offerings with monthly pricing:
- 50GB for $0.99
- 200GB for $2.99
- 2TB for $9.99
- 6TB for $29.99
- 12TB for $59.99
One thing to note is that once you upgrade to paid iCloud storage, it becomes iCloud+, which includes useful features like Private Relay, Hide My Email, and HomeKit Secure Video storage.
Apple media services
Apple now has a slew of media streaming services, from things like Apple Music, to Apple TV and more.
- Apple Music is $10.99 per month
- Apple TV+ is $12.99 per month
- Apple Arcade is $6.99 per month
- Apple Fitness+ is $9.99 per month
- Apple News+ is $12.99 per month
Now these prices are for the plans individually. I personally think these are priced pretty competitively. Apple Music is on par with Spotify, Apple TV+ has the same quality as services like HBO, and even Apple Arcade at $6.99 is a steal. But if you start adding these up, it gets up to $100+. So Apple created a few bundles to help discount the overall price.
- Apple One Individual is $19.95 per month
- Apple Music
- Apple TV+
- Apple Arcade
- 50GB iCloud+
- Apple One Family is $25.95 per month
- Same services as Individual
- 200GB iCloud+
- Family sharing support
- Apple One Premier is $37.95 per month (this is what I subscribe to)
- Apple Music
- Apple TV+
- Apple Arcade
- Apple Fitness+
- Apple News+
- 2TB iCloud+
Again, if you use Apple services and have family members to share them with, the Premier bundle is by far the best option for most. So, from a value standpoint, it actually works out great.
AppleCare One subscription
This one is one of the newer offerings Apple gave us. This allows you to also bundle and save on AppleCare for your products. It is $19.99 per month, and you can add up to three eligible Apple devices. You can also add more devices for an additional cost if needed.
Creator Studio
Up to this point, all the subscriptions mentioned were more on the consumption side. It was about getting more storage for your media or giving you access to unlimited music streaming. So this was mostly something I would consider fun to have. But Creator Studio is Apple’s first attempt at getting into pro software tools as a service. The pricing for Creator Studio is $12.99 per month or $129 per year, and it includes amazing apps like:
- Final Cut Pro
- Logic Pro
- Pixelmator Pro
- Motion
- Compressor
- MainStage
- Numbers, Keynote, Pages
- FreeForm
People’s gut reaction was worry when this was announced. We thought that since these apps were now part of a subscription service, we would lose the ability to buy them as a one-time purchase. The good news is that if you could buy it as a standalone app before, you can still do so now. You can still go into the App Store and purchase apps like Final Cut Pro and continue to get updates forever. But one thing stood out to me about this announcement: Apple’s iWork suite. These applications have been free to all Apple users for decades, and for the most part, they will remain free to everyone. But you gain access to additional AI-powered creative and productivity features exclusively through the Creator Studio subscription. And that is the slippery slope that we need to look at.
Subscription exclusive features
My biggest long-term concern here is not the subscription or the pricing. I actually think Creator Studio has great value for those who would rather try it for a few months than spend hundreds of dollars and then find out they don’t like it. I also love that Apple is still letting us buy apps outright. My concern is the idea of exclusive features being part of a paid service when they were previously free. Creator Studio introduces a model in which core apps remain available to all, while certain advanced or AI-powered features are tied to subscriptions. If this pattern continues, we can see more of this coming to apps that have been free for years. Imagine if Apple started charging us for a better, faster Safari experience, or for the ability to edit our photos in the Photos app. We have to keep an eye out for this to see where Apple takes this new exclusivity model.
Final take
For the most part, I am happy with Apple’s current subscription services. They are not the only ones that are relying on this type of revenue to grow. Apple’s bundles and services offer great value, especially if you use all of them and share them with your family. You can share your subscriptions with up to six family members!
However, the introduction of subscription-exclusive features, particularly around AI, suggests a pattern that may expand over time. Is Apple going to charge us to use the new, revamped Siri built with Gemini? Where else could Apple try and justify charging us for features or apps that were previously free? Let me know what you think of all this. Do you have subscription fatigue as I do?
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