Apple has agreed to pay $250 million to settle a class action accusing it of misleading consumers about the AI Siri features it advertised alongside Apple Intelligence. The proposed settlement, filed Tuesday in California federal court, covers US buyers of any iPhone 16 model and the iPhone 15 Pro between June 10, 2024 and March 29, 2025. Qualifying claimants get a presumptive $25 per device, scaling up to $95 depending on claim volume.
It is one of the largest settlements Apple has ever reached, and the second Siri-linked payout in 12 months. In May 2025, Apple paid $95 million to resolve a separate class action alleging Siri eavesdropped on private conversations. The new $250 million figure is roughly 2.6x that prior settlement.
The complaint, brought by Clarkson Law Firm, centers on the personalized Siri Apple previewed at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2024, months before the iPhone 16 shipped. Plaintiffs argued Apple's marketing created a 'clear and reasonable consumer expectation' that the features would be available at launch. They were not.
Key facts
- 01Apple agreed to a $250 million settlement in California federal court over Apple Intelligence and Siri advertising claims.
- 02Eligible US buyers of iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 between June 10, 2024 and March 29, 2025 can claim $25 per device, scaling up to $95.
- 03This is Apple's second Siri-related settlement in a year, following a $95 million payout in May 2025 over private-conversation claims.
- 04Apple admitted no wrongdoing; spokesperson Marni Goldberg said the company 'resolved this matter to stay focused' on shipping products.
- 05The personalized Siri promised at WWDC 2024 is now expected to arrive later this year, after Apple confirmed delays in March 2025.
Instead, the iPhone 16 arrived branded 'built for Apple Intelligence,' with capabilities rolling out gradually — Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools, Clean Up, Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, and a ChatGPT integration inside Siri. The headline feature, a Siri that could pull personal context across apps, was pushed back. In March 2025, Apple spokesperson Jacqueline Roy told Daring Fireball it was taking 'longer than we thought' and that the rollout would slip into the coming year.
“The $250 million fund pays a presumptive $25 per device, scaling up to $95 depending on claim volume — the second Siri-related payout for Apple in 12 months, after a $95 million settlement in May 2025.”— Jaeden Schafer
The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division weighed in last April, concluding that Apple's claim that Apple Intelligence was 'available now' conveyed that the updated Siri shipped at launch when it did not. The division recommended Apple discontinue or modify the language. Apple also pulled an iPhone 16 ad starring Bella Ramsey, in which the actor asked Siri to recall the name of someone she met months earlier at a fictional café — exactly the kind of contextual recall Siri still cannot reliably perform.
Apple denied wrongdoing in the filing. In a statement to The Verge, spokesperson Marni Goldberg said Apple has 'introduced dozens of features across many languages that are integrated across Apple's platforms' since launching Apple Intelligence, and that the company 'resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best.' Apple framed the settlement as covering 'two additional features' it has yet to ship.
Court documents note the $250 million common fund 'reflects that Apple anticipates delivering additional Siri Apple Intelligence features in future software updates at no additional cost.' In other words: cash now, software later. The settlement still requires a judge's approval.
The timing is awkward. Apple is expected to unveil another version of an AI-overhauled Siri at its developer conference next month — its second swing at the same pitch, roughly two years after the original WWDC reveal. Settling the suit before that keynote clears the most embarrassing legal overhang from the room.
Skeptics will note the per-device math. A $25 default payout on a phone that starts at $799 is closer to a goodwill gesture than restitution, and the $95 ceiling only kicks in if claim volume stays low. The settlement also caps Apple's exposure without forcing any change to how it markets unreleased features — the practice that drew the National Advertising Division's attention in the first place.
For Apple, $250 million is rounding error against the iPhone franchise. The harder cost is reputational: Apple sold the 2024 iPhone cycle on AI capability it could not ship, and is now writing a check tied directly to that gap. Coming weeks after reporting that Apple plans to let users pick third-party AI models in iOS 27, the settlement reads like a company quietly conceding it lost the first lap of the AI race and is trying to clear the runway before the next one.
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