Apple has not changed iCloud storage prices in the UK for three years, so it is easy to assume nothing about the plans has moved either. Something has. From iOS 27, the 2TB tier stops being purely a storage decision and turns into a features decision, because a new set of Home app AI tools only switches on for accounts paying for at least that much space.
That is a quiet shift, and it changes how you should think about the plan you are on. Until now the question was simple arithmetic: how big is your photo library, and which tier holds it. From this autumn there is a second question sitting underneath it, and it has nothing to do with how full your storage is.
iCloud storage prices in the UK, as they stand today
Here is what Apple charges per month in the UK, tax included:
- 5GB: free, and still far too small to be useful
- 50GB: £0.99
- 200GB: £2.99
- 2TB: £8.99
- 6TB: £26.99
- 12TB: £54.99
Those figures have been stable since June 2023, when Apple raised the three main tiers from £0.79, £2.49 and £6.99. It is worth being precise about them, because plenty of the comparison pages that rank for this question still quote the old UK prices or convert the American ones badly. If you see £6.99 or £9.99 listed for 2TB, you are reading something out of date.
The gap that matters is the one between 200GB and 2TB. That is £6 a month more, which is £72 a year by my own arithmetic, in exchange for ten times the space. Most people land on 200GB and stay there for years, and that is exactly the group Apple has just handed a new reason to move.
The 2TB tier just stopped being about storage
MacRumors reported on 11 August that people running the iOS 27 beta found a group of Home app features working only on accounts with at least 2TB. The addition is Apple Intelligence applied to your HomeKit Secure Video footage, described in the reporting as "generated video descriptions" for each clip. Apple has not documented the tier requirement publicly yet, so this comes from the beta rather than from a support page.
There are three parts to it. Your cameras get written descriptions of what they recorded, you can search that footage in plain language instead of scrubbing a timeline, and the Home app pushes clips it judges noteworthy to the top rather than leaving you to find them. Anyone who has hunted through six hours of driveway footage looking for one delivery will understand why the search part is the useful bit.
Apple has also signalled that paying for iCloud+ will raise the daily limits on Apple Intelligence tools such as Image Playground, with the allowance varying by plan. The specific numbers have not been published, and they are expected around the time iOS 27 ships in September. Treat that half as announced rather than confirmed.
What £8.99 a month actually buys you now
iCloud+ has always included more than space. Private Relay, Hide My Email, a custom email domain and HomeKit Secure Video come with any paid tier, and most subscribers never touch three of the four. The point is that those extras were identical whether you paid £0.99 or £54.99 a month.
That is no longer true. These Home features are the first case I can point to where a storage tier gates a software capability that has almost nothing to do with how much room it takes up. The descriptions are generated on Apple's servers rather than on your iPhone, so there is a genuine cost behind the gate, but the precedent is the part worth watching.
The camera limit is the part people miss
Apple already tiers the Home app by storage plan, and hardly anyone notices until they buy a second camera. The 50GB plan supports one camera, 200GB supports five, and 2TB and above are unlimited. What iOS 27 does is extend that logic from how many cameras you can connect to how clever those cameras are allowed to be.
If you run two or three cameras on the 200GB plan you have been perfectly well served until now, and the basics carry on working. What changes in September is that the layer of intelligence sitting on top of the footage will be switched off for you. It fits the wider pattern I wrote about when the HomePad and Apple's smart home push came into focus, where the hardware is cheap to get into and the recurring subscription is where the money is.
If you pay for Apple One, check which tier you are on
Apple One muddies this, because the storage arrives bundled and most subscribers could not tell you how much they have. In the UK, Individual is £18.95 a month with 50GB, Family is £24.95 with 200GB, and Premier is £36.95 with 2TB. Only Premier clears the bar on its own.
The detail worth knowing is that the storage appears to stack. One beta tester quoted in the reporting had 6TB of iCloud+ sitting alongside the 2TB from Apple One, and the combined figure is what counted. If that holds, an Apple One Family subscriber could add a standalone 2TB plan for £8.99 instead of jumping to Premier, which is £33.94 a month against £36.95 by my own arithmetic, and leaves you with more space rather than less.
I would check your own account total before rearranging anything, because that stacking behaviour comes from one tester rather than from Apple. It is the kind of thing that quietly changes between a beta and a release.
Who should move to 2TB, and who should leave it alone
If you have HomeKit cameras and you actually use the footage, £6 a month is a fair price for being able to search it in plain language. Scrubbing timelines is the single most tedious thing about home security cameras, and this is aimed squarely at that. You also get ten times the storage as a side effect, which most people on 200GB will use eventually.
If you have no cameras, none of this should move you. There is nothing else in the announcement that changes what 200GB does for a normal photo library, and upgrading for a feature you will never open is how subscription costs creep. The only reason to move is that you are running out of room, which is the same reason it always was.
The group I would actually worry about is people already stacking Apple subscriptions without adding them up. Between iCloud+, Apple Music, Apple TV and AppleCare One at £16.99 a month, the monthly total gets away from people quickly. Adding £6 for a feature you have not tried is worth ten minutes of checking what you are already paying for.
My take
iCloud storage prices are not going up, and that is the reassuring headline. The thing to notice is the change in what those prices buy, because Apple has found a way to make a storage tier feel like a features tier without touching the number on the invoice. Most of the smaller iOS 27 changes are free to everyone, and this one is not.
My recommendation is boring and I stand by it. If you own HomeKit cameras, wait until iOS 27 actually ships in September, try the features on someone's 2TB account or read a proper hands-on, then upgrade if the search is as good as it sounds. If you do not own cameras, leave your plan alone and let the storage decide, exactly as it always has.
FAQ
Do I need 2TB of iCloud storage to use the new Home app features in iOS 27?
Based on what beta testers have found, yes. The Apple Intelligence features for HomeKit Secure Video, including generated clip descriptions, plain-language search and automatic surfacing of noteworthy clips, only appear on iCloud+ accounts with at least 2TB. The existing recording and viewing still works on the cheaper tiers, so nothing you already pay for is being removed. Apple has not published the final rules, so this could shift before iOS 27 leaves beta in September.
How much is 2TB of iCloud storage in the UK?
£8.99 a month, with tax included. That sits above 200GB at £2.99 and below 6TB at £26.99. The price has not changed since June 2023, when Apple raised the 2TB tier from £6.99. Plenty of comparison pages still quote £6.99 or convert the American $9.99 figure, so ignore anything that does not say £8.99.
Does Apple One storage count towards the 2TB requirement?
Apple One Premier includes 2TB, so it clears the bar on its own. Individual at 50GB and Family at 200GB do not. Testers running the beta have reported that Apple One storage and a separate iCloud+ plan add together, which would let a Family subscriber top up rather than move to Premier, but check your own account total before rearranging anything.
Source: iPhone Users Who Pay for Enough iCloud Storage Get New iOS 27 Perks, MacRumors
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