$250 Million Apple iPhone AI Settlement: Who Qualifies, $25 to $95 per iPhone, and How to File

When Apple launched the iPhone 16 in 2024, it promoted "Apple Intelligence," including a more capable, personal version of Siri. Buyers later learned that some of those Siri features would arrive much later than expected. The class action lawsuit alleged that Apple's marketing pushed people to buy phones for features that did not yet exist, and that buyers either would not have bought the phones or would have paid less had they known.

According to the court-approved notice, the plaintiffs brought claims under various states' consumer protection laws on behalf of buyers of the iPhone 16, 16e, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, 16 Pro Max, 15 Pro, and 15 Pro Max. Apple denies all of the allegations, and the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing; the court never decided who was right. In a public statement reported by the Associated Press, Apple said it settled to stay focused on its products.

The settlement was announced in May 2026, and Judge Noël Wise granted preliminary approval on July 17, 2026. The AP reported that the filing described roughly 37 million covered devices sold in the United States. For other open Apple claims and investigations, see our Apple lawsuit tracker.

You are in the settlement class if all of these are true:

• You live in the United States.
• You bought an iPhone 16, iPhone 16e, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, or iPhone 15 Pro Max in the United States.
• You bought it between June 10, 2024 and March 29, 2025 (the class period).
• You bought it for personal or business use, not to resell it.

The website says you must be the original purchaser. Businesses that bought eligible iPhones for company use can file too, using a separate business claim form. The standard iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, and older models are not covered, and neither are phones bought after March 29, 2025.

Excluded: Apple, companies Apple controls, Apple's directors, officers, and employees, and the judges on the case and their staff and immediate families. If you received a used or gifted phone, you probably are not the original purchaser; check with the administrator before filing.

The settlement sets a baseline of $25 per eligible device, adjustable pro rata up to a maximum of $95 per device, or down, depending on the number of valid claims, the devices claimed, and what the court awards in fees and costs. You can claim each eligible iPhone you bought, so someone who bought two qualifying phones for their household files for two devices.

Before anyone is paid, the $250 million fund covers notice and administration costs, taxes, attorneys' fees and litigation costs, and service awards of up to $2,000 each for the class representatives. Class counsel's fee motion is due to be posted on the settlement website by November 17, 2026, so the exact fee request is not public yet.

Scenario	Per device	Two devices
Baseline set by the settlement	$25	$50
Maximum allowed	$95	$190
Heavy claim volume	Below $25	Below $50

The payout stays near the low end when many people file, which is common in phone settlements with tens of millions of eligible devices. In the Apple Siri privacy case, for example, per-device payments came in well under the stated cap; see the Apple Siri $95 million settlement page. Our guide to how class action money is divided explains why.

1. Go to the official site. Claims are filed at SmartphoneAISettlement.com, the website named in the court notice. Choose the individual or the business claim form.
2. Have your device details ready. The form asks for information sufficient to confirm your purchase or ownership of each device. The website links instructions for finding your iPhone's serial number (Settings, then General, then About).
3. Confirm the three statements. You confirm that you bought an eligible device, that you bought it in the U.S. between June 10, 2024 and March 29, 2025, and that you expected at the time of purchase to receive certain Siri Apple Intelligence features that you did not receive.
4. Pick a payment method. The claim form offers a physical check or a digital payment.
5. Submit by December 21, 2026. Online claims must be in by that date; mailed claims must be postmarked by it.

You must personally submit the claim; the settlement says anyone who does nothing gets no payment but is still bound by the release. Nobody legitimate charges a fee to file. See our general guide on how to file a settlement claim and our warning on settlement scams.

Event	Date
Preliminary approval	July 17, 2026
Claim period opened	September 21, 2026
Fee motion posted	By November 17, 2026
Claim, opt-out, and objection deadline	December 21, 2026
Final approval hearing	February 24, 2027, 9:00 a.m.
Payments	After final approval and any appeals

The final approval hearing is set for February 24, 2027, at 9:00 a.m. in Courtroom 3 of the San Jose federal courthouse. The court can move that date without new notice, so check the official site. If the court approves the settlement and nobody appeals, the notice says benefits will be processed promptly; an appeal can delay payments by months or longer.

If you do nothing, you stay in the class, get no money, and give up the right to sue Apple over these claims. To keep your right to sue, you must opt out by mailing a signed, dated request to the Settlement Administrator at P.O. Box 301132, Los Angeles, CA 90030-1132, postmarked by December 21, 2026. The request must include the case name and number (Landsheft, et al. v. Apple Inc., No. 5:25-cv-02668), your name, address, and phone number, and a clear statement that you want to be excluded. Group or mass opt-outs are not allowed.

If you stay in and think the deal is unfair, you can object by the same December 21, 2026 deadline. You cannot both opt out and object. Our guide to opting out or objecting covers the trade-offs. For most buyers, the stakes are a phone-sized price premium, so an individual suit rarely makes financial sense. If you miss the claim deadline, you generally cannot be paid, although administrators sometimes accept late claims at their discretion.

Apple has settled several consumer class actions in recent years. The Siri privacy settlement paid people whose Siri devices allegedly recorded them without a wake word, and the Google Assistant privacy settlement covered similar claims against Google. You can browse every claim that is still accepting filings on our open settlements list.

If you qualify here, file on the official settlement website linked above before December 21, 2026. Keep a copy of your confirmation and your claim ID, and watch the site for the final approval decision in early 2027.