The more features Samsung Health gets, the more I dread the inevitable AI subscription

Samsung has big things in store for Samsung Health this summer, some official and some leaked. But the clock is ticking on Samsung's "free" AI features. And at some point, Galaxy Watch owners may have to ask themselves whether they're willing to pay for the best version of Samsung Health.

It started last year when Samsung revealed Galaxy AI and wearable insights like Energy Score and AI-based Wellness Tips for the Watch 7. It promised at the time that its AI tricks "will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices."

At the January Unpacked, Samsung revealed a much longer list of AI-based health features coming this summer: Vascular Load tracking to determine daily "strain on your heart," a "personal health coach" for LLM-based "insights" for your health questions, an "antioxidant index" with "tailored meal plans and recipes," and mood check-ins.

These are all confirmed features coming to One UI 8 Watch. And we can expect even more, based on this recent leak about a Samsung "Running Coach" that'll have you run for 12 minutes to judge your fitness baseline and then build a "personalized training plan" for you.

Additionally, the One UI 8 beta introduced food log reminders and a "Together" feature that challenges your friends to match your weekly running distance.

Until we hear otherwise, all of this should be free for Galaxy Watch 8 owners. I've been waiting for Samsung to pair its dual-band GPS accuracy with better running guidance and an equivalent to the training load info that Garmin, Apple, and Fitbit offer. That's why the Running Coach-Vascular Load combo sounds tantalizing.

My worry, though, is that this is all bait on the hook for an eventual Samsung subscription. I could easily see Samsung building up its stockpile of health tools before making a Fitbit Premium or Google One AI equivalent very soon.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

In an ideal world, we'd trust that Samsung simply wants to improve its app to make it more competitive against Apple Health, as a boon for people who pay for its products. But we live in a world of shareholder demands and tariff volatility.

In its recent earnings call, Samsung's reps promised "unique tailored AI experiences for wearables" and "AI and health capabilities" that will "strengthen product competitiveness and differentiation."

They're pushing Galaxy AI to make Galaxy Watches look futuristic and boost sales, but the earnings call didn't hint at subscriptions. At least, not yet.

We've seen two famously subscription-free watch brands — Garmin and Polar — add their first mainline fitness subs in 2025 with Garmin Connect Plus and Polar Fitness Program. Garmin, in particular, held back on releasing new features so that it could shove them all into its subscription and mitigate profit losses from tariffs.

I'd guess Samsung is taking the reverse approach: It wants to hook us with free Galaxy AI perks, then throw them behind a paywall and deal with the blowback then. After all, it did warn us it would charge for AI eventually.

Perhaps I'm worrying over nothing, and we'll still receive free auto-generated nutrition plans, running plans, and the health coach's services even after 2025. However, Samsung will examine its health and AI competitors, which charge $10–20 per month, and see that its customers have few alternatives left to turn to.

If Samsung starts to paywall even some of these tools in 2026, it'll make the Samsung Health experience very different, closer to the free, watered-down version of Fitbit.

Would you pay for a Samsung Health subscription?

Maybe this speculation is premature. But when I saw that rumor about the Samsung Health Running Coach, exactly what I'd been waiting for, I had to remind myself to look this gift horse in the mouth before letting myself geek out. It's AI-generated, like the other new features.

I could see Samsung offering one overall Galaxy AI plan for all your devices, similar to the Google One AI Pro plan. Or else it could keep the phone AI subscription separate from the Samsung Health Coach subscription.

So let's assume that Samsung Health goes from a free app to a paywalled one sometime next year. Are you excited enough by AI coaching, nutrition, and health data that you'd pay for it after the free trial ended? Would you continue using Samsung Health but ignore the AI tricks entirely? Or would a paywall push you to look elsewhere for a different fitness app?