Key Takeaways
- Apple agreed to a $250 million settlement over claims that it promoted Apple Intelligence and upgraded Siri features before they were ready, though the company denies wrongdoing.
- Eligible U.S. customers who bought certain iPhone 15 or 16 models from June 10, 2024, through March 29, 2025, can claim an estimated $25 and up to $95 per device by Dec. 21.
- Claimants need an eligible phone’s serial number or their Apple Account ID, must file separately for each device, and must attest that they expected a Siri Apple Intelligence feature they did not receive.
Apple’s $250 million Siri settlement is officially entering the part iPhone owners care about most: getting paid.
According to Wired, eligible U.S. customers who purchased certain iPhone 15 or iPhone 16 models between June 10, 2024, and March 29, 2025, can now file claims worth up to $95 per device.
The money comes from a settlement in a class-action lawsuit accusing Apple of hyping Apple Intelligence and an upgraded Siri to sell new iPhones before some of the biggest promised features were ready. The deadline to submit a claim is Dec. 21.
Getting a piece of the settlement doesn’t require a claim notice. Customers can head to smartphoneaisettlement.com, hit “File A Claim,” and proceed without a Claim ID or PIN. They will, however, need either the serial number of the eligible iPhone or their Apple Account ID before completing the process.
You can find the serial number under Settings, General, and About. Anyone with more than one qualifying device has to submit a separate claim for each phone.
The payout isn’t guaranteed to hit the $95 maximum. Court documents call for a presumptive payment of $25 per eligible device, with the amount potentially increasing to $95 depending on the number of valid claims. Payments can be sent via PayPal, Venmo, electronic bank transfer, or a paper check.
The Apple lawsuit grew out of the company’s splashy 2024 introduction of Apple Intelligence, which promised to turn Siri into a far more capable personal assistant. Apple promoted features that would allow Siri to understand a user’s personal context, work across apps, and retrieve information more intelligently.
In one high-profile ad, The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey asked Siri to identify someone they had met months earlier — exactly the kind of personalized functionality Apple was pitching as part of its AI overhaul.
One major problem: some of that Siri functionality wasn’t there when consumers started buying the new phones.
Apple shipped the iPhone 16 in September 2024 while several heavily promoted Apple Intelligence features were still being rolled out. Its notification summaries also ran into accuracy problems, and the company later delayed the more personalized version of Siri. The Ramsey commercial demonstrating one of those unreleased abilities was subsequently pulled.
That disconnect fueled the litigation. One complaint accused Apple of deceiving “millions of consumers into spending hundreds of dollars on a phone they did not need, based on features that do not exist.” People submitting settlement claims must attest, “I expected to receive a Siri Apple Intelligence feature and did not receive it.”
Apple has denied wrongdoing. When the settlement was announced in May, the company said it had already introduced “dozens of features across many languages” through Apple Intelligence.
“We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users,” Apple said.
Siri has since moved forward, with its revamped AI features now available to owners of newer iPhones through iOS 27.
