Apple bets cheaper AI will woo small developers

Apple is hoping to draw in newer developers with lower AI infrastructure costs, the company announced during its developer keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. The tech giant said that developers with fewer than 2 million first-time App Store downloads will be able to use its Foundation Models running in Private Cloud Compute, with no cloud API cost.

“It’s access to frontier-tier level intelligence with unparalleled privacy protections, because getting started exploring ideas shouldn’t be held back by infrastructure costs,” the presenter noted.

The “under 2 million” figure is another means of capturing the indie developer audience, similar to Apple’s efforts with the Small Business Program, where the company offers lower commission rates to smaller developers who are just starting to build their applications and aren’t yet earning millions.

Apple also noted that the Foundation Models framework is expanding this year to include image input and support for server models. That means the API can now integrate with the cloud model provider of developers’ choice, to ensure getting started with a large cloud model is as “accessible as possible,” as needed for more complex tasks, said Apple.

The move reflects a growing reality in the AI industry that experimentation is no longer cheap. By waiving infrastructure fees for smaller developers, Apple is positioning its models as a lower-cost alternative for those developers who don’t want to take on additional cloud bills.

Small developers aren’t the only ones tightening their belts these days. Tech giants like Meta and Amazon have discontinued their internal AI token usage leaderboards, where developers once competed to burn cash by experimenting with AI tools. Uber, meanwhile, recently said it had run through its 2026 AI budget in just four months, news that some have taken as a need for more fiscal responsibility when it comes to AI.