Apple has started charging for extra use of its artificial intelligence features, with a $49.99 one-time purchase now on sale inside Logic Pro for Mac.

The option, spotted by 9to5Mac on Monday, 9 November 2026, appears in the latest Logic Pro update. Choosing Logic Pro from the menu bar, then Intelligence Features and Show Usage, reveals a Buy More Usage button offering a single $49.99 intelligence usage pack. It is the first time Apple has put a price on additional use of its AI features, which until now have come free with its devices or inside a subscription.

Apple has said it will eventually charge for expanded use of some cloud-based Apple Intelligence features. The usage pack is the first concrete example of that plan reaching customers.

How the packs work

According to Apple's support pages, an intelligence usage pack is a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and all sales are final. The extra usage is drawn down only after a subscriber has reached their monthly limit for the relevant features in a given month. Unused usage rolls over from month to month and expires 12 months after purchase.

The packs are tied to the Apple Account that was signed in to iCloud at the time of purchase. They do not work with Family Sharing, so only the buyer can use the extra allowance.

Apple does not say how much extra usage a $49.99 pack buys. The company says the exact amount varies with the complexity of requests and with server and network availability. For the Logic Pro assistant, Apple gives no figure at all, saying only that its limit depends on the complexity of conversations with the assistant.

Monthly limits behind the paywall

The packs sit on top of the monthly allowance included with an Apple Creator Studio subscription, which covers AI tools in Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Freeform, Logic Pro and Pixelmator Pro, including image and shape generation, presentation generation in Keynote and the assistant in Logic Pro for Mac.

Apple sets out minimum monthly allowances for several features. Used on their own, the allowance covers at least 50 image generations, 250 shape generations, 50 generated presentations of eight to ten slides each, or presenter notes for 700 slides. That allowance resets each month.

The packs are available only to active Creator Studio subscribers in eight countries: Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. Subscribers elsewhere who hit the cap must wait for the next month's allowance. Everyday Apple Intelligence features such as Siri and Image Playground are not part of the packs, although Apple says extra access to those will cost money in future.

More apps to follow

For now, Logic Pro is the only app selling the packs. 9to5Mac expects them to reach Final Cut Pro, Pixelmator Pro and Apple's iWork apps when the rest of the already-announced Creator Studio updates arrive later this month, although Apple has not confirmed that timing.

There are also technical limits on the Logic Pro assistant itself. It needs a Mac with Apple silicon running macOS 27 or later, and it works in US English only. The assistant and some other Creator Studio AI features are powered by Google Gemini models, and those Gemini-powered features are not available in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Russia, Belarus or Venezuela, among other places.

The move marks a shift in how Apple charges for AI. Until now, the cost of running its AI features has been absorbed into device prices and subscriptions. With usage packs, heavy users of its creative apps will now pay directly for going beyond the included allowance, and Apple has signalled that the same approach will spread to more of its AI features over time.