Samsung will start charging $4.99 a month for individual SmartThings API access in October 2026, while the SmartThings app remains free. This is not a new service for the ecosystem. It is a subscription for an existing feature: allowing other IoT platforms and software to reach Samsung hardware. No one is stopping Samsung from selling services, nor do I believe the company should stay away from them. The only question is whether the hardware giant has a solid service to sell.

IoT as a platform service is not a new idea. Tuya sells manufacturers the cloud and white-label infrastructure behind connected products. Its revenue grew 7.8 percent in 2025. Tuya isn’t some startup fresh out of Silicon Valley. Product manufacturers are its customers. They pay Tuya for IoT infrastructure much as they pay a cloud provider.

In Samsung’s case, the company owns both its hardware and the IoT ecosystem. It is a vertically integrated system: within the Samsung-branded ecosystem, Samsung is the sole provider of both hardware and software. However, the announcement moves away from Tuya’s battle-tested model by turning individual interoperability into a monthly subscription. Once Samsung treats interoperability as a paid service, SmartThings has to earn its keep beyond being a mere remote control app.

When I choose an appliance costing several hundred dollars, IoT takes a back seat. I expect a dishwasher to be silent, power-efficient, and obviously good at cleaning dishes first and foremost. Maybe light fixtures are the only exception, where connectivity makes or breaks the product. Buyers who never wanted a smartphone app will not suddenly start paying a monthly subscription. Prosumers already invested in the ecosystem may be torn at first, but they will soon find a way around it.

IFTTT already tested that direction for me when it moved some features into Pro. I had created multiple free accounts and spread my Applets across them while deciding whether one paid account would be worth it in my home. It was not. Delays and missed actions were tolerable when IFTTT was free, but not with a price tag. No matter how beautifully the platform integrated things, it still required handiwork. So I quickly dismantled it and moved the work to Homebridge. I also upgraded my robot vacuum from iRobot to Roborock. iRobot’s staggered product releases and financial trouble left many customers looking elsewhere. As for IFTTT, I have yet to see it as a subscription success story.

What makes Samsung’s case even more bizarre is its support system. In 2025, Samsung promised up to seven years of software updates for Wi-Fi-enabled appliances launched from 2024. The promise is too new to have a meaningful track record, and appliances released before 2024 fall outside it. Yet Samsung is already moving an existing software feature into a paid category. This may not violate its support promise, but it does expose its limits: most people do not expect continuous software support to mean paying for access that used to be free. Over those seven years, API access at $4.99 a month would cost roughly $420 — nearly the price of a $500 dishwasher. If you already own many Samsung products, the free SmartThings app already covers the ecosystem. But if this is your first or second Samsung IoT purchase, interoperability is what lets it fit into the home you already have. The subscription works against the newcomer who needs API access most.

My fear is that the subscription will create an internal corporate spreadsheet: API revenue against the cost of maintaining old appliances, integrations, and endpoints. Weak conversion could then become evidence that support is not worth maintaining, even when the fee itself suppressed adoption. Samsung may collect $4.99 a month from a few committed enthusiasts. It may also accelerate the obsolescence of its own IoT and teach the customers who valued SmartThings most how to leave it.