Apple’s $250 Million Siri Check Comes Due in December

U.S. buyers of seven iPhone models can claim a share of Apple’s $250 million Siri settlement through December 21, 2026. The starting check is $25 a phone. It rises to $95 only if claims stay thin.

The bill is for a Siri Apple Intelligence pitch Apple made on June 10, 2024, then delayed on March 7, 2025. That Siri is now rolling out as a waitlisted beta on iOS 27. The cash is for the wait.

Seven iPhones Inside a 10-Month Sales Window

The class is narrow on purpose. It covers original U.S. buyers of Apple Intelligence phones sold from June 10, 2024, through March 29, 2025, for personal or business use, not resale. Judge Noël Wise of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California signed a preliminary approval order in San Jose on July 17, 2026, in Landsheft v. Apple Inc., case 5:25-cv-02668-NW.

The seven phones are the iPhone 16, iPhone 16e, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The regular iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are out, because they did not run Apple Intelligence at launch. One cash payment is allowed per device. A person who bought two eligible phones files twice.

THE ELIGIBLE IPHONE LIST

Colin B. Weir, the plaintiffs’ damages expert, put an expert count of 37,078,131 devices in that window. Apple sales data in the same filing put the average price at $1,110. Weir’s trial-damages model ran to $2,264,064,781, or $61.06 a phone, if the class had won a full price-premium case. The $250 million fund is about 11 percent of that figure.

Why $95 Is the Ceiling, Not the Check

The settlement pays a presumptive $25 per valid device from the net fund, with a hard cap of $95. That $25 figure can move either way. If few people file, each check grows toward $95. If the claim pile is large, every check shrinks below $25. Apple’s $250 million does not come back to the company if turnout is low. Unclaimed dollars stay in the fund and get spread among the people who actually file, up to the cap.

Notice and administration costs, taxes, lawyer fees, litigation costs, and service awards all come out before anyone is paid. Verita Global, LLC, the court-appointed administrator, has an administration cap of $5,444,056. At a July 8, 2026, hearing, the parties told the court there is a low chance anyone hits the $95 cap, because the notice plan is built to reach a lot of owners. The $95 number is the lid, not the working check.

THE MONEY ON THE TABLE

• Total fund: Apple pays $250 million into a fund that cannot revert to the company.
• Starting check: Valid claims begin at $25 per eligible iPhone.
• Hard cap: No device is paid more than $95, even if turnout is tiny.
• Class size: Weir counted 37,078,131 eligible phones in the sales window.

Ryan Clarkson, co-lead counsel at Clarkson Law Firm, called the $250 million fund “the largest false advertising settlement in history.” The line is a lawyer’s ranking of the pot, not a promise about the check that lands in a PayPal account. Filing is free. Any service that charges a fee to fill in a serial number is taking a cut the court did not authorize.

Class Counsel Can Ask for $70 Million First

Clarkson Law Firm, Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP, and Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy LLP will ask the court for lawyer fees of no more than 28 percent of the fund, or $70 million, plus up to $600,000 in expenses. As of April 30, 2026, co-lead counsel reported a lodestar of $11,912,039.50 on 12,723.69 hours. The long-form class notice spells out how the lawyers will be paid from the same $250 million. Named plaintiffs may seek service awards of up to $2,000 each. The consolidated complaint named 69 of them.

The deal has no clear-sailing clause. Apple did not promise to stay quiet if the fee request is too high, and there is no side agreement locking in a number. The fee motion is due to be posted by November 17, 2026, so class members can read it before the December 21 deadline to object or opt out. Until Judge Wise rules, $70 million is an ask, not an award. It is still the first large number that leaves the pot.

That is the part of the bill that does not care how many owners type a serial number. A low claim rate fattens each surviving check, up to $95. A high claim rate thins it. The fee request does not shrink with turnout. Owners who treat the $95 figure as a coupon, and skip the form so “other people don’t dilute it,” are playing the same math from the other side. Every valid claim is one more split of a net fund that has already been billed for lawyers, postage, and the help desk at 1-888-988-8945.

The WWDC Demo That Became a Federal Case

Apple put a rebuilt Siri at the center of Apple Intelligence on June 10, 2024, the first day of the class period. The demo showed Siri using personal context from Mail and Messages, including a mother’s flight and a lunch plan, and taking action across apps. Those clips then ran in product pages, store pitches, and a TV spot with actor Bella Ramsey when the iPhone 16 went on sale in September 2024. Apple later pulled the ad. The phones still sold against that pitch for months.

On March 7, 2025, Apple spokeswoman Jacqueline Roy said the company had been “working on a more personalized Siri, giving it more awareness of your personal context, as well as the ability to take action for you within and across your apps,” and that it would “take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features.” The class period ends on March 29, 2025, three weeks after that admission. Peter Landsheft filed the first complaint on March 19, 2025. Seven related cases followed. The court appointed the three firms as interim co-lead counsel on May 22, 2025.

THE PATH FROM THE KEYNOTE TO THE CLAIM

1. June 10, 2024: Apple shows the more personal Siri at WWDC, and the class period opens.
2. September 2024: The iPhone 16 goes on sale as a phone “built for Apple Intelligence.”
3. March 7, 2025: Roy says the personal Siri will take longer than Apple thought.
4. March 19, 2025: Landsheft files in San Jose; the sales window closes on March 29.
5. May 5, 2026: Settlement papers for the $250 million fund are filed with the court.
6. July 17, 2026: Judge Wise grants preliminary approval after a July 8 hearing.
7. September 21, 2026: Claims open; they close on December 21, 2026.

The consolidated complaint, filed July 21, 2025, ran more than 200 pages, named 69 plaintiffs, and pleaded 54 state consumer-protection counts. Apple moved to dismiss on September 25, 2025, arguing that two delayed Siri features could not carry “sweeping claims” when other Apple Intelligence tools had already shipped. Plaintiffs said Apple “promoted AI capabilities that did not exist at the time.” The National Advertising Division found that an “available now” line on Apple Intelligence read as if the updated Siri was present at launch, when it was not. The motion for preliminary approval puts the $250 million in a non-reversionary fund and states that Apple still denies every allegation.

Siri AI Landed on a Waitlist in September

Apple announced Siri AI at WWDC in June 2026 and shipped iOS 27 on September 14, 2026. The new Siri runs on iPhone 15 Pro models and newer, which is the same hardware list as the settlement class, plus later phones. Installing iOS 27 does not turn it on. Apple is letting people in through a waitlist, and the company still tags Siri AI as a beta even though the system software is out of beta.

The claim form still asks each filer to confirm that, at the time of purchase, they expected a Siri Apple Intelligence feature and did not receive it. That attestation is about 2024 and early 2025, not about a waitlist in September 2026. A buyer who now has the beta in the queue can still file, because the case is about how the phone was sold. Apple’s own May statement treated the fight as a dispute over “two additional features,” not over the rest of Apple Intelligence.

Since the launch of Apple Intelligence, we have introduced dozens of features across many languages that are integrated across Apple’s platforms, relevant to what users do every day, and built with privacy protections at every step. These include Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Clean Up and many more. Apple has reached a settlement to resolve claims related to the availability of two additional features. We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.

Marni Goldberg, Apple spokesperson

Asking Siri to “pay me my money” is the joke the waitlist invites. The form does not care. It cares about the serial number, the purchase window, and that one sentence about what the buyer expected in 2024 or early 2025.

Who Qualifies for the Apple Siri Settlement?

A U.S. resident who originally bought one of the seven eligible iPhones in the United States from June 10, 2024, through March 29, 2025, for personal or business use, and who will attest that they expected a Siri Apple Intelligence feature they did not get, can file through December 21, 2026. A Claim ID and PIN from an email or postcard help, but they are not required. Buyers outside the United States are not in the class.

WHAT THE CLAIM FORM ASKS

• Who you are: Name, address, and email; a phone number is optional.
• The phone: Serial number from Settings, General, About, or an Apple Account email and the device’s number.
• The attestation: You expected a Siri Apple Intelligence feature at purchase and did not receive it.
• The payout rail: PayPal, Venmo, electronic bank transfer, or a paper check.
• Repeat filings: One form per eligible device; a business files once and attaches a device list.

People can submit a claim on the settlement site without a mailed notice. The administrator will reject duplicates and fraud. The form is not signed under penalty of perjury, which keeps the bar low and will, if history is a guide, pull in enough claims to keep most checks nearer $25 than $95. Opt-outs and objections use the same December 21 date. Nobody should pay a third party to type a serial number that is already on the phone.

The February 24 Hearing in San Jose

Judge Wise set final approval for February 24, 2027, at 9:00 a.m. in San Jose. No claim gets paid before that order, and appeals can push the date. Valid payments are due within 60 calendar days after the settlement’s effective date. Checks go stale 120 calendar days after they are issued. The money, if it moves on that timetable, arrives in 2027, not with the December 21 filing rush.

Apple still denies that it did anything wrong. The settlement papers say the company expects to deliver more Siri Apple Intelligence features in later software updates at no extra cost. For the 37,078,131 phones in Weir’s count, that update is no longer a 2024 keynote slide. It is a waitlist on iOS 27, and a claim form that closes on December 21, 2026, for a delay Apple has already started to close.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on a pending class-action settlement and is for information only. It is not legal advice, tax advice, or a recommendation to file, opt out, or object, and it does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Anyone who wants advice on a specific claim, a business filing, or the tax treatment of a payment should consult a licensed attorney or a qualified tax professional before acting. Figures, deadlines, hearing dates, and eligibility rules are those in the court papers and on the administrator’s site as of the sources used here, and the court can still change the fee award, the net fund, and the payment timetable.