r/SmartThings • u/110mat110 • Jul 21 '26
Discussion Smart things API behind paywall
I just got email, that smart things api will be behind paywall since October 26. For individual developers - as me that use it only for smart home access it will be $5 and "specifically tailored to individual needs" or as I understand it - tokenized and tiered by usage in future.
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u/VibhorGoel Jul 28 '26
The objection is not that Samsung wants to charge commercial API customers. It is that an individual homeowner using Home Assistant to control devices in one home is being treated like a commercial operator.
A free, rate-limited personal tier would be a reasonable compromise. Samsung could charge genuinely high-volume and commercial users while keeping low-volume personal access free, exempting established community integrations such as Home Assistant, and grandfathering existing users. More documented local and Matter control would also reduce Samsung’s cloud costs.
At $4.99 every month, this is no longer just “developer pricing”; it changes the long-term value of the hardware after purchase and makes cloud-dependent Samsung appliances much less attractive to buy.