Apple has quietly opened a paid path into Apple Intelligence. According to 9to5Mac on November 9, Apple has begun selling a paid expansion plan for some AI features called the "Smart Usage Pack," with Logic Pro the first to roll it out.
Logic Pro Leads the Way: One-Time Purchase Covers a Full Year
Priced at $49.99 (about RMB 334), the plan does not follow the usual monthly subscription route. Users buy a 12-month usage pack that only starts being consumed after the monthly base allowance runs out, and unused amounts can roll over from month to month. Buying it is simple: in the Logic Pro menu bar, go to "Smart Features" → "Show Usage" → "Buy More Usage." It does not support Family Sharing and is tied only to the iCloud account used at purchase.
From Music Production Software to the Whole Suite
Apple clearly has no intention of using Logic Pro just to test the waters. Foreign media expect this mechanism to roll out to Final Cut Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and the iWork suite under Apple Creator Studio; later it may even spread to cloud-intensive features such as Siri, Image Playground, and photo editing. Basic AI remains free, while heavy creators' extra appetite for generative and creative capabilities is being explicitly priced by Apple.
Currently, Creator Studio's monthly smart feature quotas are not generous: 50 images, 250 shapes, 50 presentations, and 700 pages of speaker notes, resetting every month. In eight countries—the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Canada, Brazil, India, and Mexico—once users hit the cap, they can buy one-time usage packs to keep going; these expire after 12 months.
