tado open window detection gets AI, the automatic heating pause stays behind a subscription

On 22 October 2026 tado announced a software package for its app and the X thermostats. It is meant to improve open window detection and, according to heise, arrives next month. The headline there already names the catch: the automatic heating pause stays in the subscription. We read the two available reports, tado's help page on the feature and the documentation of Home Assistant and Loxone. We have no test of our own, because the feature has not been rolled out yet.

What is announced

The following points appear in both heise and ComputerBase, both dated 22 October 2026. Both reports rest on the same tado announcement, and ComputerBase reports under NDA. There is no independent confirmation.

• The package arrives next month, rolled out in stages during that month according to ComputerBase.
• Room-specific learning applies to all tado X devices. Customers with V3+ get only the new home screen, heise says.
• Apple Live Activities for Boost come at no extra cost.
• A mould index with the levels "Low", "Raised" and "High" is subscription-only. ComputerBase says it is based on a growth model from Finland's VTT, and heise says it evaluates temperature and humidity over time.

What tado only claims

Learning is the core of the update. heise writes that the thermostats are meant to learn "the typical patterns of each room" (our translation of the German original). ComputerBase relays tado's statement that this makes detection more precise and reliable. tado gives no measurements for this. Neither source says how many open windows the system catches or how quickly.

The only practical statement comes from heise itself: in its tests so far, tado's detection did not always trigger. The report adds that how well this works has to be proven in practice. Whether learning changes that is open.

What was already true

The method is not new. According to iphone-ticker.de, tado introduced open window detection as a beta with app 3.12 (report of 30 May 2017, default pause 15 minutes). The article does not say how it detects. heise says it is about temperature and humidity while airing, and a video from tado from 2018 confirms that. What is new, per the announcement, is the room-specific learning.

The split between detection and switch-off is not new either. The tado help page carries only the date "Updated this week" (retrieved on 24 October 2026). It says detection does not need AI Assist, only the automatic switch-off: "If you have AI Assist, tado° automatically switches off your heating." Without the subscription, the "Turn off heating" button stays in the Quick Actions. From this we infer that the update does not change the subscription model for switch-off. It is confirmed only for the state of the help page.

What the subscription costs

The reports differ on prices without contradicting each other. heise rounds to 4 euros a month or 30 euros a year, and ComputerBase gives 3.99 euros a month and 29.99 euros a year. The subscription is called AI Assist. If you want it only for the automatic window pause, you pay about 30 euros a year for behaviour a contact sensor also delivers. Twelve monthly payments of 3.99 euros come to 47.88 euros, so the yearly plan saves 17.89 euros.

A contact sensor instead of a subscription

A sensor on the window reports "open" or "closed", with no learning phase and no threshold for temperature jumps.

Home Assistant has the binary sensor class window for this, which according to its documentation shows whether a window is open. You can attach an automation to it: if the window stays open longer than X minutes, the thermostat drops to frost protection and returns when the window closes. Which radio protocol the sensor speaks, Matter or Zigbee, is up to you. For context on the tado side: the tado integration in Home Assistant is classed as "Cloud Polling" in its documentation and polls every 5 minutes by default. Parts of it work only in tado's Assist mode, and the API limit differs by subscription type. An automation that waits for tado's cloud therefore reacts after the next poll at the earliest.

For Loxone, the datasheet for the Door and Window Contact Air says: "When an open window is detected, the heating in the room is automatically turned down" (our translation from the German page). The datasheet is undated and the statement comes from the vendor. In the Loxone forum (thread 143826, around 2017), users write that the contact reports only to the Intelligent Room Controller and that the name of the input is contradictory there. This is user opinion, no evidence. One point from the same discussion holds regardless of vendor: with underfloor heating, switching off achieves little because the system is slow. There, an alarm after the window has been open too long often makes more sense.

What we would check

We say nothing here about our own installations, because nothing was measured for this post. These steps help before you decide:

1. Find out whether a window pause brings anything in your house at all. With slow underfloor heating, hardly.
2. Compare the costs: 29.99 euros a year for AI Assist against the one-off cost of contact sensors. We did not look up sensor prices.
3. In Home Assistant, create a sensor of class window and build the automation with a delay.
4. In Loxone, bind the window contact to the Intelligent Room Controller and check the input name in the current documentation.
5. After the November rollout, measure the detection yourself: open a window ten times and note the delay until the reaction. Only then is it worth trusting the learning model.

Further sources

• heise online: Tado, AI should detect open windows better, heating pause still subscription-only: announcement, push without subscription, own test, rounded prices
• ComputerBase: tado, AI-assisted open window detection and new mould index: schedule, mould index, prices 3.99 and 29.99 euros
• tado Help: Open Window Detection: detection without subscription, switch-off with AI Assist
• iphone-ticker.de: tado update adds open window detection: detection since app 3.12, state of 2017
• Loxone forum: window handle Air, does the smart home turn the heating down?: user opinion on room controller input and underfloor heating
• YouTube, tado°: Open Window Detection - How it works: manufacturer video from 2018, detection via temperature and humidity drop
• Simple Icons: tado.svg: logo, CC0, trademark stays with tado
• Home Assistant: tado integration: cloud polling, 5-minute interval
• Home Assistant: Binary Sensor: class window
• Loxone: Door and Window Contact Air, datasheet: vendor claim on heating switch-off