Wyze’s security camera pay-what-you-want subscription accepts $0

Wyze has officially launched a new pay-what-you-want subscription tier for its lineup of home security cameras called Cam Plus Lite. In a forum post, the company explains that Cam Plus Lite includes Person Detection, which alerts you when it detects a human being rather than just motion, as well as cloud recordings that are limited to 12 seconds in length, with a 5 minute cooldown period between them. Users can choose to pay as little as $0 a month for the new tier.

Wyze also says it’s removing the 32GB microSD card size limit on its cameras, and is adding new rewind and skip buttons to make it easier to scrub through locally-saved footage.

Regarding subscriptions, Wyze started experimenting with its pay-what-you-want model for its person detection feature back in 2020, hoping (correctly) that some users would be willing to pay to allow Wyze to provide the service for free to others. Person detection was originally added as a free service in 2019, but the company was forced to temporarily remove it the following year after the company providing its AI technology terminated its licensing deal when it was acquired by Apple.

Smart home companies are currently split on whether to charge for person detection. Google and Eufy currently offer similar features for free, while Arlo and Ring charge. Wyze’s big selling point has always been the affordability of its security cameras, and the $0 payment option helps to preserve that. Its Wyze Cam v3, for example, is currently on sale for just $35.98.

Cam Plus Lite sits below Wyze’s other existing subscription tiers: Cam Plus and Cam Plus Pro. Cam Plus costs $1.99 per camera per month and removes the 12-second limit and 5-minute cooldown on cloud recordings while expanding the AI detection feature to also recognize packages, pets, and vehicles. Cam Plus Pro, meanwhile, costs $3.99 per camera per month and includes 24/7 professional monitoring, as well as the ability to recognize specific faces.

Cam Plus Lite will be available for Wyze Cam v2 and v3, Wyze Cam Pan v1 and v2, and Wyze Cam Outdoor. That’s an expansion compared to the cameras that had access to the previous pay-what-you-want subscription, which only included the Wyze Cam v2 and Wyze Cam Pan v1. Cam Plus Lite support for Wyze video doorbells will be coming soon, the company says. According to its FAQ, Person Detection is not available outside of the US.