Hello @SmartThings , this is my 2nd request. Please provide a response. Thanks.
@kingsfan - It’s been said over and over… This is a community forum for users helping users, not a direct channel to Samsung. (But I do agree that they could provide much more clarity on this!)
I understand that maintaining cloud infrastructure costs money, and I have no objection to Samsung charging commercial users or developers with heavy API usage.
However, I believe there should be a free tier for private users with very limited usage.
In my case, I own only a single Samsung washing machine. I don’t use the API to continuously monitor it, and I don’t use it for home automation on a large scale.
The only reason I use the SmartThings API through Home Assistant is because SmartThings itself cannot do something very basic: automatically start the washing machine at a fixed time.
For example, I load the washing machine in the morning before leaving for work, but I want it to start automatically around noon when my solar panels are producing the most electricity. This helps me maximize the use of my own renewable energy instead of drawing power from the grid. Unfortunately, SmartThings cannot schedule the machine to start at a specific time, so I use Home Assistant to send a single start command around 12:00.
Notifications when the cycle is finished already work perfectly in the SmartThings app, so I don’t rely on the API for that either.
This means my API usage is extremely low—typically just a single command a few times a week. Charging €5 per month for this kind of personal use feels completely disproportionate.
The SmartThings ecosystem was one of the reasons I chose a Samsung appliance. Removing affordable API access for existing customers makes the platform less attractive and will certainly influence my future purchasing decisions.
Please consider introducing a free personal-use tier with a limited number of API requests per month. This would support customers who use SmartThings responsibly while still allowing Samsung to charge commercial users and applications with high API usage.
I know this is a community forum for users helping users, but I’m sure Samsung looks at this page every now and then 
Out of curiosity, what exactly is it that SmartThings is lacking to allow that?
I have a neff dishwasher and can schedule its start from SmartThings at a specific time using the home connect integration. Assuming the Samsung dishwasher is smart can you not do similar ? I don’t often do this because I need to ensure there’s detergent in it first so usually just set the delay start action on the machine itself so it runs on the off peak tariff.
@art_333 , I agree with you. I addressed @SmartThings directly as my review of the nearly 2 month old thread showed lack of clarity from @Smartthings. This is something owed to their user base. Ignoring user concerns is not a strategy for long term success.