The current consumption of an AC solenoid is determined by the inductance. As the stroke increases, the inductive resistance decreases, thus causing increasing power consumption. This means that a high electric current flows at the switch-on instant. AC solenoids consume far more power at the switch-on instant - at maximum air gap - than they do with the armature picked up.
Current consumption of AC solenoids
An AC solenoid features a higher pick-up force than a comparable DC solenoid at the same stroke values.