Apple has put two significant things in the same footnote of the iPhone 18 Pro press release. The first is a product name it has never used in consumer material before, “AFM 3 Cloud models.” The second is a flat statement that expanded Apple Intelligence access “will be available for a fee in the future.”
Both sit in footnote 2, the block of small print that explains what Siri AI is and where it works. Neither was mentioned on stage on September 9, and neither appears in the body of any Apple press release.
| Item | What Apple’s footnote says |
|---|---|
| New name used | “AFM 3 Cloud models in Shortcuts” |
| Features with daily limits | Siri AI, intelligent photo editing tools, Image Playground, AFM 3 Cloud models in Shortcuts |
| How limits vary | By feature, request complexity, system demand, system policies and other factors |
| Paid tier | “Expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future” |
| Price of that tier | Not published |
| Siri AI status | Beta, available in English to start |
| Age restriction | Not available to users under 13 |
Where the AFM 3 name appears
The name turns up inside a list of the features that run on Apple’s servers rather than on the phone. Apple writes that daily usage limits apply to server-side features “including but not limited to Siri AI, intelligent photo editing tools, Image Playground, and AFM 3 Cloud models in Shortcuts.”
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Two details are worth pulling out. The name is attached specifically to Shortcuts, which is where Apple exposes model access as an action users can build with. And Apple does not expand the initials or explain the name anywhere on the page, so the reader gets the label and nothing else.
The daily limits, in Apple’s words
Apple states that the limits “may vary by feature, request complexity, system demand, system policies, and other factors.” That is a description of a moving ceiling rather than an allowance.
Apple does not publish a number of requests, a reset window, a warning threshold or any indication of what happens when a limit is reached. The phrase “including but not limited to” also means the four named features are examples rather than the full list.
The line that confirms a paid tier
The sentence that follows is the one with the most consequence: “Expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future.”
That is Apple, on the record, saying a paid Apple Intelligence tier is coming. It is not a rumour and it is not an analyst note. It is also the entire disclosure. There is no price, no name, no bundle, no date, no country list and no statement about whether it will be a standalone subscription or part of an existing one.
For anyone weighing up an iPhone 18 Pro at $1,199 partly on its intelligence features, the useful reading is that the free tier as it ships on September 14 is metered, and Apple has already told you the meter has a paid version behind it.
A language list that does not match across Apple’s own pages
The same footnote carries the Apple Intelligence language list, and Apple’s pages do not agree on it. The press release and the Apple Intelligence page give 16 languages:
- Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Danish, Dutch
- English, French, German, Italian
- Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese
- Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese
| Apple page | Chinese entries listed | Implied total |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro press release, footnote 2 | Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional) | 16 |
| apple.com/apple-intelligence | Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional) | 16 |
| apple.com/iphone-18-pro/specs | Chinese (Simplified, Traditional, Traditional – Hong Kong) | 17 |
The extra entry, Chinese (Traditional – Hong Kong), appears only on the iPhone 18 Pro tech specs page. Until Apple aligns the two, the press release wording and its 16 named languages are the safer figure to work from, and the discrepancy is worth flagging rather than papering over.
What Apple has not said
- What AFM 3 stands for, what the models do differently, or how they relate to on-device processing.
- Any number attached to the daily limits, or what a user sees when one is reached.
- The price, name, launch date or markets for the future paid tier.
- Whether the paid tier lifts every capped feature or only some of them.
- Which page is correct on the language count, 16 or 17.
iOS 27 arrives on Monday, September 14 with Siri AI in beta, and that is when the limits described in this footnote start applying to real devices. The A20 Pro handles the on-device half of Apple Intelligence; the metered half is the part with a price tag attached to its future. Our event recap covers everything else Apple announced.
