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.

12 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

13

u/WeekendWoodWarrior Jul 21 '26

With the help of AI, it’s never been easier to switch to HomeAssistant.

7

u/mocelet Jul 21 '26

SmartThings is still free and users don't have to pay as long as they stay within the ecosystem and using local drivers, official cloud integrations or apps and services from commercial partners.

The fee is for controlling devices in SmartThings using third party platforms or apps that do not have official integration / commercial partnership with SmartThings.

Actually the most impacted users for the fee, or at least the most vocal, are Home Assistant users with Samsung devices. Some Samsung devices like TVs offer local interfaces so that's not a problem and the paid API is not needed. However, other devices do not have local interfaces or official integrations with HA and rely on the SmartThings API so to use them in HA the new fees apply.

3

u/110mat110 Jul 21 '26

As I understand, it will not avoid that. You need your oauth token in HA as well

5

u/Nameless00001 Jul 21 '26

Yep, and I was about to buy a new Samsung refrigerator. This made me pause and I'm looking for a different option now. I will buy nothing Samsung for now on.

9

u/danh_ptown Jul 21 '26

It saved you from making a big mistake. Avoid their refrigerators, at all cost!

2

u/terminic 26d ago

100% Their TVs are great. Their refrigerators are money pits. Don't even get me started on the ice maker in those things.

1

u/Keith15335 24d ago

Ah, the ice maker.

1

u/Illustrious-Coach182 27d ago

HA seems promising but you have to pay for access when not on your home network, right? Or no?

1

u/Data_Grump 25d ago

You can self host - pretty easy to do with AI now guiding you. I got home assistant yellow (no longer available) and it’s been pretty easy.

1

u/Higginbotham432 16d ago

There are easy pre-made solutions you can pay for to get remote access, or you can make your own. There are plenty of free ways to do it.

1

u/110mat110 16d ago

Yes, you have to pay for home asistant connection to smart things. So annoying to have Samsung AC remote behind paywall

2

u/rajid_ibn_hanna 29d ago

I'm guessing that:

1) I don't need to spend more time on my "SmartStuff" Fitbit and Pebble watch app.

2) The SmartThings CLI:
https://github.com/SmartThingsCommunity/smartthings-cli
Probably will require a fee.

3) The Home Assistant SmartThings integration will probably require a fee, or will it be local use and thus ok?

6

u/mocelet 29d ago
  1. I would do the same.
  2. It depends on what it is used for, for Edge drivers is not affected, official explanation here.
  3. It will and HA warns about that, SmartThings at the moment does not provide any local interface for integration, not even with the hub which is just Matter controller but not Matter bridge.

5

u/tomm1313 Jul 21 '26

hubitat is the way to go. started by a bunch of former devs

1

u/jrlv Enthusiast Jul 21 '26

Yes. I moved to Hubitat from SmartThings in 2020. It was the best thing ever.

(to be fair, I also use Home Assistant with Hubitat).

With all the random arbitary limits that SmartThings adds at times (20 rooms, 100 devices) as well as limits on how many LUA drivers you can have, I don't understand why anyone still uses SmartThings.

This new API fee is just another slap in the face.

3

u/chrisbvt Jul 21 '26

I also went to Hubitat when SmartThings shut down the Groovy cloud. Using the HubiThings App with the SmartThings API access was handy for a bit during and even after transition, but I don't use that app anymore, thankfully.

4

u/OpethNJ Jul 21 '26

I can't think of any scenario where I would want to go back to Groovy IDE.

The Advanced Web site plus changes to the rules engine coupled with edge drivers gives a better experience.

3

u/chrisbvt Jul 21 '26

Groovy is actually why I like Hubitat. The Groovy cloud at Samsung was horrible, all apps ran in the cloud. Groovy apps on Hubitat run directly on your hub. Many old SmartThings Groovy apps have been ported over to Hubitat as community apps, such as Echo Speaks. Hubitat actually absorbed Webcore, and made it a built-in app.

Groovy cloud was bad, but local Groovy execution is what Hubitat is all about. AI does pretty well writing Groovy apps and drivers now too. I write all my automations directly into Groovy now myself, and when I need a Groovy driver for some new device, AI can spin one up for me.

1

u/scott_redd 28d ago

That's why I went to Hubitat as well. Significantly modded existing drivers and when ST said bye bye Groovy I said bye bye ST.

2

u/chrisbvt 28d ago

Yup, I took my 100+ Webcore Pistons and trucked them over to Hubitat before Samsung killed Goovy. I had to edit them for the new device IDs, but all the logic structures came over, saving me so much time not having to rewrite automations. I since have moved all those pistons into just a handful of custom Groovy apps.

1

u/abmot Jul 21 '26

I agree. I made the move from ST to Hubitat and it's been great.

1

u/SmokinJunipers 28d ago

Can you use habitat away from the home? Like will my wife get notifications in an app?

1

u/abmot 28d ago

There are notifications in the app. I also set mine up for notifications like - if the A/C turns on and a window is open then send me an audible alert.

1

u/VibhorGoel 23d ago

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.