Samsung SmartThings API fees could impact your favorite smart home apps

Many smart home developers rely on Samsung’s SmartThings API to connect their third-party apps and platforms to the SmartThings ecosystem. While access to this API has long been free, it won’t remain that way for much longer. Samsung plans to start charging for use of its API.

The tech giant announced this week that it is making changes to its infrastructure. According to Samsung, it will introduce a new structured API model and start investing in enterprise-grade features. These features include improved platform stability, optimized integrations, and expanded capabilities.

Additionally, it will provide two new tools:

• Upgraded developer experience: A new Developer Center experience and refreshed documentation for API users to make the API as easy to use and implement.
• The API usage dashboard: A new API Dashboard will be available in the Developer Center. This dashboard will allow partners and individual developers to track API call volume with flexible time-series data. The dashboard will give you current usage and data points to optimize your code.

To help pay for these upgrades, the company will soon roll out paid commercial API tiers. For individual developers, there will be a personal plan that charges $4.99 per month. Samsung says that the API usage dashboard can help you determine which pricing tier fits your needs.

It looks like Samsung is targeting October 2026 to implement its new payment plans. Until then, the company says you’ll have free access to the API through Q3. It will not start applying usage limits or phasing out free access until October.