Siri AI is not available in the EU on iPhone: what Apple says and what still works

Siri AI is not available in the EU on iPhone. Apple said in June that the Digital Markets Act stops it from shipping Siri AI with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 in the European Union, and its launch note of September 14 kept that line. The rest of Apple Intelligence did ship to EU iPhones. Apps can still use Apple's on-device model and Private Cloud Compute there, and Siri can still hand a question to an app.

Why Siri AI is not available in the EU

Apple's newsroom post of June 8, 2026, "Due to DMA, Siri AI delayed in EU for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27", says: "Unfortunately, due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Apple will not be able to ship Siri AI in the European Union with the release of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27." Apple writes that it designed "a solution called Trusted System Agent", "an intermediary that would allow virtual assistants to safely access the same features and capabilities as Siri AI for devices in the EU", and shared a plan to launch Siri AI in the EU "while gradually rolling out this new solution over an 18-month period." Its next sentence is "The European Commission said no." That is Apple's account; the Commission's reasoning is not on Apple's page.

In the same post Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering, says "we do not currently have a timeline for Siri AI's availability on iOS and iPadOS in the EU." Apple's launch note for iOS 27 on September 14 kept the line: "Siri AI will not be available initially in the EU in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS."

What Siri AI capabilities EU iPhones miss

According to the June post, "users in the EU will not have access to Siri AI and its advanced capabilities", which Apple lists as:

• "the new dedicated app to revisit conversations"
• an expanded Visual Intelligence experience
• integrated tools for writing
• Siri mode in Camera
• "other Siri AI capabilities announced at WWDC26"

Apple's September 14 launch note describes some of them: Siri AI "can understand personal context across messages, emails, photos, and more" and can "answer questions related to the content on a user's screen", and the Siri app "uses iCloud to privately sync conversational history across a user's products".

Siri AI on Apple Watch needs a paired iPhone with Siri AI, so EU users do not get it on watchOS 27 either, and developers in the EU cannot test the new Siri AI features for their apps. Siri itself still works on EU iPhones without Siri AI: "Ask Orvena" in Siri was tested working on iPhones in Denmark running iOS 27.

Apple Intelligence in the EU: what iOS 27 includes

Apple's support page How to get the next generation of Apple Intelligence has a section for European Union residents. It says the next generation of features across apps, with advanced photo editing, the reimagined Image Playground and intelligent features for browsing as examples, "are available for users based in the EU with iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 on supported iPhone and iPad models". Apple Intelligence itself first reached EU iPhones with iOS 18.4 in March 2025.

The same page gives the requirements: an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16 models or later, or iPhone Air; up to 8 GB of storage, or up to 14 GB on iPhone 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max and Air; and the device language and Siri language set to the same supported language. Apple Intelligence supports English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Japanese and Korean. Polish, Czech, Greek, Finnish and several other EU languages are not on the list.

Siri AI and Apple Intelligence features on an EU iPhone

For Apple's features, "Yes" means Apple's iOS 27 support page lists the feature and its EU section excludes nothing. The Siri row and the last row rest on Apple's developer pages and on tests on iPhones in Denmark running iOS 27.

Siri AI on Mac and Vision Pro in the EU

The block covers iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Apple's How to get Siri AI page says Siri AI "is available for macOS 27 Golden Gate and visionOS 27 if your Apple Account region is in the EU and your device language and Siri language are both set to English." Turning it on "will add you to a waitlist, and wait times can vary." Siri AI started as a beta in English, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish due in October, and it is not available for users under 13.

Siri AI in the EU with a VPN or a region change

Apple frames the rule by residence. The support page's heading is "For European Union residents", and on Mac and Vision Pro the condition it names is the Apple Account region. None of the Apple pages cited here mentions VPNs, says how an iPhone is judged to be in the EU, or describes a setting that brings Siri AI to an iPhone there.

A Siri AI alternative for EU iPhones: Apple's models in an app

Apps get Apple's models wherever Apple Intelligence is available, not only where Siri AI is. The Foundation Models documentation says "Model availability depends on whether the device and region supports Apple Intelligence", and Apple's developer page says "Where Apple Intelligence is available, eligible developers can use PCC in their apps distributed on the App Store."

Orvena, a free iPhone assistant from Orvena Labs in Denmark, has used both since version 2.0: Apple's on-device model for free, and Apple's larger model on Private Cloud Compute with Premium Unlock. Either one gets the phone's tools, including calendar, reminders, alarms, timers, travel times and places from Apple Maps, weather, photo search, Health, contacts, files, Music, Shortcuts and web search. Both engines, and "Ask Orvena" in Siri, were tested working on iPhones in Denmark running iOS 27. It is not Siri AI, and nothing in the "No" rows above comes with it.

1. Update to iOS 27 and turn on Apple Intelligence in Settings. Orvena needs an iPhone 15 Pro or newer with 8 GB of memory.
2. Install Orvena. On the PICK YOUR BRAIN page of setup, the Apple Intelligence card says "Built into iOS. Ready now, with nothing to download." A checkmark means it already answers. If the card shows Use, tap it. Choosing it keeps Apple Intelligence as the engine even after you download Orvena's own model.
3. For Private Cloud Compute, get Premium Unlock, a one-time purchase listed at $14.99, then open Settings (top-left menu), Models, and tap Use on Private Cloud Compute under Cloud. A one-time alert explains that each answer sends your conversation and the tool results it needs to Apple's servers, that "Apple doesn't keep them", and that health and financial data still ask every time.

With Apple Intelligence, "How long is the walk from the Colosseum to the Trevi Fountain in Rome?" returned a travel-time card, 1.6 km and about 20 minutes, with a route map. With Private Cloud Compute, a request for a day's walking tour of Rome from the Colosseum searched the web, read a page and made one card per leg: 0.2 km to the Arch of Constantine, 1.2 km to Trajan's Column, 0.4 km to Piazza Venezia and 0.2 km to the Capitoline Hill, about 24 minutes of walking in all.

Ask Orvena through the classic Siri

Siri on an EU iPhone can still hand a question to an app. Say "Ask Orvena" and Siri asks "What would you like to ask Orvena?" The phrase is translated into 29 languages, such as "Spørg Orvena" in Danish or "Frag Orvena" in German, and whether Siri catches it depends on Siri's support for your language.

If Apple Intelligence or Private Cloud Compute is your engine, the answer comes back in Siri without opening the app, with a card listing up to three actions Orvena took, the engine and an Open in Orvena button. If you use Orvena's downloaded model, Apple Intelligence answers instead when it is on and supports your language; otherwise Orvena opens with "Orvena answers this in the app." The iPhone must be unlocked, and an action that needs your approval opens Orvena with "Orvena needs your OK to continue." The same action runs from Shortcuts, Spotlight and the Action button.

What Orvena does not do that Siri AI does

For photo editing, proofreading and translation, the Apple features in the table are the better tools. Compared with Siri AI:

• It cannot replace Siri as the system assistant, has no wake word of its own and does not answer from the lock screen.
• It has no personal context across apps. It cannot read Messages or Mail or see your screen. It reads only what its tools cover: calendar, reminders, photos, Health, contacts, your Music library and location after iOS asks your permission, files and folders you add, the web pages it searches and opens, and services you connect with Premium Unlock.
• There is no Visual Intelligence or camera mode, though it reads a photo you attach when the active model supports images.
• Conversations do not sync. The history is a file on that iPhone, encrypted and excluded from backups.
• It adds nothing to other apps' text fields, which is what Writing Tools does.

Limits of Apple's models in Orvena

On iOS 27 Apple's on-device model reported a context window of 8,192 tokens. Apple's documentation still says 4,096, and Orvena reads the size from iOS at runtime. Private Cloud Compute has 32,768 tokens, and Orvena's downloaded model, Qwen 3.5 4B at 3.1 GB, has 16,384. In a long conversation Orvena keeps whole recent turns within the window and drops the oldest, and it shortens long tool results, more tightly for Apple's smaller window. It does not summarize. When even that does not fit, Apple Intelligence shows "This conversation is too long for Apple Intelligence. Start a new chat, or switch to Orvena's downloaded model in Models." and Private Cloud Compute shows "This conversation is too long for Private Cloud Compute. Start a new chat to continue."

In a language Apple Intelligence does not support, Orvena points you to its downloaded model; there is more on that in using an assistant in your own language. Private Cloud Compute has a daily limit set by Apple. When it is used up, Orvena says the requests "reset tomorrow, and iCloud+ raises the limit", and, if no tool has run yet in that answer, it answers on the iPhone instead with Apple Intelligence when your language is supported. Both Apple engines need iOS 27.

Common questions

Why don't I have Siri AI on my iPhone?

In the EU, Apple says the Digital Markets Act keeps Siri AI off iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, with no timeline, and Siri AI on watchOS 27 needs a paired iPhone with Siri AI, so it is off there too. Elsewhere, Siri AI started as a beta in English, needs a supported iPhone with the device and Siri language set to a supported language, and turning it on adds you to a waitlist. Apple also says it is not available in China for now.

Does Apple Intelligence still work in the EU on iOS 27?

Yes. Apple's support page says the next generation of Apple Intelligence features across apps, such as advanced photo editing, the reimagined Image Playground and intelligent features for browsing, "are available for users based in the EU" on supported iPhones. The page lists no EU exclusion for Writing Tools, Live Translation or Genmoji. Only Siri AI is held back.

Can I get Siri AI in the EU with a VPN or by changing region?

Apple documents no way to do it. Its pages describe the rule for European Union residents, and for Mac and Vision Pro they name the Apple Account region and English as the conditions. None of them mentions VPNs or a setting that brings Siri AI to an EU iPhone.

When will Siri AI come to the EU?

Apple has not said. Its June 8, 2026 post states that "there is currently no timeline for Siri AI's availability in the EU on iOS and iPadOS." On Mac and Vision Pro, EU users can use Siri AI now, in English and through a waitlist.

What can EU iPhone users use instead of Siri AI?

The Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27, which do work in the EU, and apps built on Apple's models. Orvena, for example, answers with Apple's on-device model for free and with Private Cloud Compute through Premium Unlock, uses the phone's tools, and takes questions from Siri when you say "Ask Orvena". It is not Siri AI and has no personal context across apps.