Apple is now accepting claims in a U.S. class action over the delayed rollout of a "more personalized Siri," with the claims process opening on September 21. The settlement site, smartphoneaisettlement.com, went live on the 20th, and eligible users can submit a claim through December 21 by providing information including their device's serial number.
The total settlement is $250 million, which Apple agreed to pay this past May. Under the settlement terms, each eligible iPhone is expected to receive around $25, with the final amount depending on how many valid claims are filed, up to a cap of $95. Apple has denied all the allegations in the lawsuit, saying it agreed to settle to avoid the cost and risk of a trial.
Who can file a claim
Eligibility is limited to the United States: it covers people who purchased one of the following models in the U.S. between June 10, 2024 and March 29, 2025 — the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 16, 16e, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max.
That list is essentially every iPhone Apple said at the time could run Apple Intelligence. The start date is significant too: June 10, 2024 was the opening day of WWDC 2024, when Apple first publicly demoed the new version of Siri. Devices bought outside the United States are not covered by this settlement.
What the lawsuit alleges
The core claim from plaintiffs is false advertising. According to the complaint, Apple ran heavy advertising across TV and online channels that led consumers to believe new iPhones would ship with an upgraded Siri and the full Apple Intelligence feature set — features that did not actually exist at the time. Apple is accused of both overstating the scope of Apple Intelligence's capabilities and leading users to believe advanced AI features would arrive sooner than they actually did.
The personalized Siri Apple demonstrated at WWDC 2024 was described as being able to answer questions using personal context, understand what's on a user's screen, and take actions across apps on a user's behalf. Marketing for the subsequent iPhone 16 lineup leaned heavily on the phrase "built for Apple Intelligence." In March 2025, Apple said this version of Siri would take longer than expected to ship, and the lawsuits followed.
A two-and-a-half-year timeline
Laid out together, the key dates look like this:
- June 2024: WWDC gives the first demo of personalized Siri
- September 2024: The iPhone 16 lineup launches, marketed around Apple Intelligence
- March 2025: Apple announces personalized Siri is delayed, and class actions begin piling up
- May 2026: Apple agrees to a $250 million settlement
- September 21, 2026: Claims open
- February 24, 2027: The court holds its final approval hearing, with payouts to follow
More than two and a half years separate the on-stage demo from users actually getting paid. The new AI-powered version of Siri only shipped as a beta this month, and it launched with English-only support.
This also isn't the first time Apple has paid out over Siri. In early 2025, Apple agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit alleging Siri recorded users without their knowledge. That case was about privacy; this one is about the gap between marketing promises and what actually got delivered.
Doing some rough math: if every claim gets the estimated $25 payout, $250 million works out to roughly 10 million devices. For every claim to hit the $95 cap, valid claims would need to number under about 2.6 million. Neither figure accounts for attorneys' fees or administrative costs, so the amount actually available to distribute will be lower — how much each device ends up getting won't be known until the claims window closes and the court signs off.
Sources: MacRumors, CocoLoop, settlement site smartphoneaisettlement.com, CBS News; the settlement site was checked for the claims deadline and eligible models, and MacRumors was checked for the final approval hearing schedule and per-device payout range.