If you run Samsung SmartThings devices through Home Assistant, your setup has a deadline: December 15, 2026. Samsung is moving its SmartThings cloud API to paid plans, and the Home Assistant integration you rely on today will stop working unless you switch to the new one and subscribe to a Developer Plan. The plans went live on November 4, and the clock is now ticking on a change that affects one of the most popular bridges between the two platforms.
What Samsung Announced on November 4
Samsung launched its new SmartThings API plans on November 4, 2026, for both individual developers and business partners. The move replaces free access to the SmartThings cloud API with a structured, paid model built around two offerings: a Developer Plan for individuals and a usage-priced Business Plan for larger partners.
The Developer Plan is aimed at individual users who connect to SmartThings through OAuth API apps — a category that includes Home Assistant’s built-in SmartThings integration. It is billed as a flat monthly rate per developer account and includes up to 100,000 cloud API calls per month and support for up to 10 active app installs. Samsung has not published a final price in its November announcement, but its earlier June announcement described the individual plan at $4.99 a month for non-commercial developers.
The change has been coming for months. Samsung first told developers in July that paid API pricing was on the way, and an October 30 update filled in the schedule. The November 4 launch makes the transition official — and sets a firm cutoff.
The Timeline: Three Dates That Matter
Samsung laid out a three-stage transition, and each date changes what you can do:
- November 4, 2026 — Plans go live. From this date, SmartThings accounts without a paid plan can no longer create new API apps or edit existing ones. Integrations that are already installed keep working for now.
- December 2, 2026 — New Home Assistant integration ships. Home Assistant’s December release introduces a rebuilt SmartThings integration designed for the new API plans, and removes the ability to configure the old one. This is the first release the new integration can ship in, which is why Samsung built in a two-week window.
- December 15, 2026 — Free access ends. After this date, accounts without a paid plan face API access that “may be limited, paused, or discontinued.” Active API keys tied to those accounts will be deactivated, and automated calls from those apps — and from their downstream users — will be paused at the gateway level. In plain terms: the current Home Assistant integration stops working.
The window between December 2 and December 15 is the time Samsung and Home Assistant expect users to make the switch. Samsung recommends completing the move before December 15 so devices stay connected.
What Home Assistant Users Need to Do
Home Assistant’s SmartThings integration is cloud-based: it signs in to your Samsung account and reads and controls device state through Samsung’s cloud API. That is exactly the access the new plans cover, so the integration is directly affected.
To keep your SmartThings devices working in Home Assistant after December 15, you will need two things:
- An active SmartThings API Developer Plan on your Samsung account.
- An active 24-hour personal access token, used when you reconfigure the integration.
Once Home Assistant’s December 2 release is out, you will need to remove the old SmartThings integration and set up the new one. Samsung says your devices and automations carry over — you only need to reconfigure the integration itself. Home Assistant’s own documentation already warns that its SmartThings connector will require a paid plan, so check the integration’s setup page for the latest steps once the December release lands.
There is one catch worth knowing about early: the individual Developer Plan will be limited to certain countries at launch, and Samsung has not yet published the list. Samsung says the December 15 cutoff applies to all Home Assistant users, including those in countries where the Developer Plan is not available — a detail that has frustrated users who may have no way to pay even if they want to.
What Stays Free
Not everything SmartThings is going behind a paywall. Samsung says the SmartThings app itself, automations built in the app, and local hub integrations stay free. The fee only touches direct cloud API access — the route used by third-party platforms and custom dashboards.
That distinction points to the alternative many Home Assistant users are already weighing: move devices off the SmartThings cloud entirely. Zigbee and Z-Wave devices paired directly to a local coordinator in Home Assistant never touch Samsung’s API, so they are unaffected by the change. For users with a handful of Zigbee sensors and switches, a local coordinator costs roughly what a few months of the new fee would — and removes the cloud dependency for good. Matter devices are another escape route, since they can connect to Home Assistant directly without a Samsung account in the middle.
The trade-off is effort. Moving devices room by room takes an afternoon of re-pairing and rebuilding automations, while paying the fee keeps everything working as it is. Which path makes sense depends on how many devices you have routed through SmartThings and how much you value a setup that keeps working when the internet does not.
Why This Matters Beyond Home Assistant
SmartThings is not the only platform making this move, but it is one of the most visible. The change turns a free cloud bridge that thousands of hobbyists built their homes around into a subscription — and it does so with a hard cutoff rather than a gradual phase-out. The reaction in the Home Assistant community has been predictably sharp: users point out that reading the state of an appliance they own now requires a monthly fee, while the much heavier cloud usage of the SmartThings app itself remains free.
For Samsung, the logic is commercial: the cloud API costs money to run, and the company wants the developers and platforms that depend on it to help pay for it. The Business Plan, priced by usage tier, is aimed at companies building on SmartThings. The Developer Plan is the concession to individuals — but at a price that, multiplied across a year, adds up to a real cost for a hobby.
The episode also highlights a structural risk in cloud-dependent smart homes. When a platform can change the terms of API access, every integration built on it inherits that risk overnight. Local-first standards such as Matter and Thread, and platforms that run automations on hardware in your own home, are increasingly the answer for users who want their lights to keep working no matter what a vendor’s pricing page says.
The Bottom Line
If you use the SmartThings integration in Home Assistant, mark December 15, 2026 on your calendar — and plan to act in the two weeks after December 2, when the new integration ships. Either subscribe to the Developer Plan and reconfigure, or start moving devices to local control before the cutoff. Doing nothing is the one option that guarantees your SmartThings devices go dark in Home Assistant. Samsung has given the dates; the rest is up to you.