Apple waives cloud API costs for developers with fewer than 2 million first-time App Store downloads to lower AI infrastructure barriers

Apple announced during its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday that developers with fewer than 2 million first-time App Store downloads can use its Foundation Models running in Private Cloud Compute with no cloud API cost.

The Foundation Models framework is expanding this year to include image input and support for server models, allowing the API to integrate with cloud model providers of developers' choice for more complex tasks.

The move reflects a broader industry shift toward cost control: Meta and Amazon have discontinued their internal AI token usage leaderboards, and Uber recently reported running through its 2026 AI budget in just four months.