Samsung Galaxy AI is the centerpiece of Samsung Galaxy phones' newest smarts. They span from camera tricks and live translation to health insights and easier note-taking.
Galaxy AI isn't the same as Bixby AI, Samsung's reworked virtual assistant with large language model (LLM) capabilities that's likely coming to the Galaxy S25 in 2025. It's fairer to say that Bixby falls under the Galaxy AI umbrella, with more smarts than just chatbot answers.
Samsung head of mobile TM Roh has discussed how the "AI phone" is the future of Samsung's business model, with "radically different" hardware to take better advantage of Galaxy AI. Basically, Samsung doesn't see it as a gimmick; Galaxy AI is here to stay.
Exclusive to recent Samsung phones, Galaxy AI is unrestricted on the flagships but has some missing features on its older phones. This guide will break down what kind of Galaxy AI features you can expect, whether you own the Galaxy S24 Ultra or a cheaper Galaxy A phone.
Here's everything you need to know about Samsung's Galaxy AI, from availability and features to how it compares to other popular AIs.
How Galaxy AI works
Samsung president TM Roh said after Galaxy Unpacked 2024 that "Galaxy AI is built on our innovation heritage and deep understanding of how people use their phones." While that's true to an extent, there's more to it than that.
In fact, the Galaxy S24 series relies on Google Gemini for many of the Galaxy AI tricks we'll describe below. Specifically, Samsung uses Gemini Pro to add smarts to its apps and the mobile Gemini Nano for on-device LLM tools. It also develops its own multimodal AI like Gauss 2, but it's primarily built on Google's foundation.
Because of this collaboration, the Galaxy AI offers many of the same tricks you get on a Pixel 9 Pro, such as generative AI wallpapers and Circle to Search.
Samsung also borrows Google's Imagen 2 on Vertex AI, which it calls "Google's most advanced text-to-image diffusion technology" in its press release. This tool is how the Galaxy S24 series uses its Generative Edit tool for photo processing.
Still, despite the Google/Samsung AI connection, Galaxy AI has its own unique take on AI tasks that you won't necessarily see on Pixel phones. You're still getting a unique experience.
Galaxy AI availability
Originally, Galaxy AI launched on the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus, and Galaxy S24 Ultra, requiring a flagship phone and a Samsung account login to access tools.
Since then, it's come to a much wider range of Samsung phones, foldables, and tablets. The list below currently has the full array of Galaxy AI features, as long as you're updated to One UI 6.1:
- Galaxy S24 / S24 Plus / S24 Ultra/ S24 FE
- Galaxy S23 / S23 Plus / S23 Ultra
- Galaxy Z Fold 6 / Fold 5
- Galaxy Z Flip 6 / Flip 5
- Galaxy A35 5G
- Galaxy Tab S10 Plus / S10 Ultra
- Galaxy Tab S9 / S9 Plus / S9 Ultra
In addition, some older Galaxy phones have access to an incomplete selection of Galaxy AI features: Circle to Search with Google, Chat Assist, Interpreter, Live Translate, Note Assist, Transcript Assist, Browsing Assist, Generative Edit, Edit Suggestion and AI-Generated Wallpaper.
- Samsung Galaxy S22 / S22 Plus / S22 Ultra
- Galaxy Z Flip 4 / Fold 4
- Galaxy Tab S8 / S8 Plus / S8 Ultra
Of course, some Samsung peripherals have access to a handful of relevant Galaxy AI features, but not most of them because they're mobile-specific. For example, any of the Wear OS Galaxy Watches from the Watch 4 through the Watch 7 and Ultra — plus the Galaxy Ring — get access to Galaxy AI insights like Energy Score. But you'll need a Samsung phone to access the data.
Similarly, if you own a Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Buds 3, Buds 2 Pro, or Buds FE, you get the specific Galaxy AI tools for live translation or interpreter mode, but nothing else, and you'll once again need a Samsung phone to see the translation.
Key Galaxy AI features
Here are the key Galaxy AI features you can enjoy on current phones, with links to how-to guides for getting started with each particular feature:
Generative Edit: Any Android phone has a button to auto-edit photos to provide better color balance, brightness, detail, and so on. The Galaxy AI is no exception, with an Edit Suggestion for each photo that should make it look more professional.
Generative Edit, like Google's Magic Editor, goes a step further. It analyzes the components of a photo, lets you select something (like a person, pet, or object), and transform, move, or remove that element. You can even tilt the entire photo and have the Galaxy AI fill in the empty portions of the canvas.
Because of the potential for people to abuse this feature with misleading photos, Samsung watermarks Generative Edit photos so people can tell that they're altered.
Live Translate: Your Galaxy S24's Phone app can understand and translate 13 languages in real-time, one of the few Galaxy AI features that works without an internet connection.
You'll find it under Call Assist whenever you make or answer a phone call, but your phone will only have one or two language packs downloaded by default. Our guide on how to use Live Translate walks you through how to download language packs and assign them to specific contacts so your phone auto-translates any time you talk to them.
Chat Assist: While using your favorite messaging app, you can have the Galaxy AI Chat Assist fix your spelling and grammar, change the tone to be more professional or casual, or translate the text into the same 13 languages — all through the default Samsung Keyboard. You'll have to enable it so you can follow our how-to guide to get started.
Instant Slow-Mo: One of our absolute favorite Galaxy AI features so far, this allows you to add slow motion to any video, including ones taken on older phones; it works by creating new frames to fill in the gaps, using AI tricks behind the scenes.
You no longer have to decide to film in slow-motion mode ahead of time to get this cool effect, and you can restrict the effect to specific portions of the video. Check out our Samsung slo-mo guide for more guidance.
Summarize notes and recordings: After typing or sketching out a Samsung Note, you can tap a sparkle icon and find options to translate or summarize what's written, so you can better parse the highlights later.
The same applies to voice notes: After recording speech, the Galaxy AI can transcribe the words to text, then summarize or translate them as needed. Our how-to guide runs through how to use these features.
Google AI features: Google has shared several AI tricks with Samsung that Pixel 9 users will recognize, such as Circle to Search — the option to highlight a specific object or text in an image and have Google Search interpret what you're trying to recognize.
Other familiar AI tricks for Google fans will be Magic Compose for recommending text responses and an Android Auto upgrade that summarizes long text chains while you're driving and suggests responses based on your past texts.
Do you have to pay for Galaxy AI?
Every Samsung article or help page about Galaxy AI has the disclaimer "Galaxy AI features by Samsung will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices," or some phrasing like it. What's unclear is what happens in 2026.
Google itself charges $20/month for its Gemini Advanced service, but that specifically includes pro-level functions like analyzing work spreadsheets or generating code. It's nothing that "normal" people would need to pay for.
So is Samsung merely reserving the right to charge people for higher-end AI functions, or does it actually plan to make Galaxy AI features like Circle to Search a subscription, or something only available for the first couple of years of owning a new Galaxy phone? It's hard to say.
What's next for Galaxy AI?
When it comes to the best Android phones, Samsung claims the "best premium phone" slot in part because of its Galaxy S24 Ultra's AI smarts and excellent genAI tools for superior photography. Most of the current Galaxy AI tools are quite practical and work well enough to be very useful in certain contexts.
In the near future, Samsung will use Google's Android XR platform in smart glasses and XR headsets, with an AI assistant as the centerpiece for the experience. Whether it's Gemini or Bixby AI powering it, Samsung will undoubtedly call it Galaxy AI; it'll analyze your surroundings with the built-in camera for multimodal applications, such as answering a question like "What am I looking at?"
We expect to see new Galaxy AI features once the Galaxy S25 series launches, with the next Galaxy Unpacked expected to take place in early 2025. Samsung's next flagship phones should pack the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm's powerful new SoC with a 45% increase in NPU performance; we'll see if any new Galaxy AI tricks are exclusive to the S25.
Samsung has also hinted that it wants to make Galaxy AI so smart that it'll predict your needs, analyzing your habits so you don't need to go into the settings menu as often. This sounds like a futuristic goalpost, not something to expect in the near future; still, we may see more adaptive AI tools on your phone in future updates.
AI excellence
With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 powering its neural processing to new heights, the Galaxy S24 gives you all of the Galaxy AI tools above for $500 less than the S24 Ultra. It's comfortable to hold, has a gorgeously bright display, and all of the tools like Live Translate and Generative Edit that put the power of AI in your hands.
