Apple
The 2026 iPhone Price Sheet
Apple's new iPhones start at $1,199. The bigger story is the $100 it quietly added to every older model on the same day.
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Apple announced three phones on 9 September — the iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max, and its first foldable, the iPhone Duo. It also quietly raised the price of every other iPhone it sells. Here is what each model costs at every tier, and what the numbers reveal.
The new phones, every storage tier
| Model | 256 GB | 512 GB | 1 TB | 2 TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 18 Pro | $1,199 | $1,399 | $1,799 | $2,399 |
| iPhone 18 Pro Max | $1,299 | $1,499 | $1,899 | $2,499 |
| iPhone Duo | $1,999 | $2,199 | $2,599 | $3,199 |
US list prices, before state tax. The 128 GB tier is gone — every 2026 iPhone starts at 256 GB.
The Pro Max premium is a flat $100 at every tier, so choosing the bigger screen never costs more just because you also wanted more storage. The headline increase is modest too: the 18 Pro is $100 above where the 17 Pro started.
That framing only survives at the bottom of the table. Compare like for like at 1 TB and the gap widens to $300 — $1,499 last year, $1,799 now. The base price went up a little; the storage went up a lot.
Everything else got $100 more expensive
| Model still on sale | Was | Now | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 17e | $599 | $699 | +$100 |
| iPhone 16 | $699 | $799 | +$100 |
| iPhone 17 | $799 | $899 | +$100 |
| iPhone Air | $999 | $1,099 | +$100 |
Starting prices. The iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 figures include a $30 carrier-activation discount — unlocked, they are $929 and $829. That discount does not apply to anything launched in 2026.
This is the part that did not get a slide at the keynote. On 8 September the cheapest iPhone Apple sold was $599. On 9 September it was $699, and every rung above it had moved up by the same $100. The lineup did not get a new budget option — it lost the one it had.
Apple says it is memory, not margin
"A hundred-year flood. I've never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years." — Tim Cook, on memory-chip costs, to The Wall Street Journal
Cook's explanation for the across-the-board increase is the memory market. AI and neocloud companies filling data centres have bid up DRAM and NAND to the point where Apple says it can no longer absorb the component cost, and the increases are the result.
Whether or not you accept that, it does explain the shape of the price sheet. If memory is the constrained input, you would expect the storage tiers to carry the increase — and they do, harder than the base models.
The storage ladder is identical on all three new phones
Stack the three rows of the first table and a pattern falls out. Apple charges one fixed rate for storage regardless of which phone you put it in. Going from 256 GB to 512 GB costs exactly $200 on the cheapest new iPhone and on the foldable that costs nearly twice as much.
- 256 GB → 512 GB: +$200
- 256 GB → 1 TB: +$600
- 256 GB → 2 TB: +$1,200
Identical on iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and iPhone Duo.
The practical reading: the jump from 256 GB to 2 TB costs $1,200 — more than an entire iPhone 16, and more than the difference between an iPhone 17 and an iPhone 18 Pro Max. Unless you are shooting ProRes every week, buying the base tier and paying for cloud storage for four years is still the cheaper answer by a wide margin.
When each one lands
- 9 Sep 2026 — "Surprise and Shine" event: iPhone 18 Pro, 18 Pro Max and iPhone Duo announced; older models repriced the same day
- 12 Sep 2026 — Pre-orders open for iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max
- 18 Sep 2026 — iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max ship
- 16 Oct 2026 — Pre-orders open for iPhone Duo
- 23 Oct 2026 — iPhone Duo ships
Three short answers
If you want the best phone and don't need it to fold. iPhone 18 Pro, 256 GB, $1,199. Same A20 Pro chip and same camera system as the Pro Max — the only differences are screen size and battery. Four finishes: black, blue, silver and burgundy red.
If the foldable is the point. iPhone Duo, from $1,999. A 7.6-inch inner display, a 5.4-inch cover display, 5.2 mm thick unfolded, IP68, and Touch ID in the side button instead of Face ID. The trade-off is the camera: a 48 MP dual system that is merely adequate next to the Pro Max.
If price is the deciding factor. iPhone 17 at $899, or iPhone 17e at $699. Both still run iOS 27 with Apple Intelligence, and both save you $300–$500 against the cheapest Pro. Both are also $100 worse deals than they were a week ago, which is worth knowing before you decide the discount is generous.
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Sources: Apple · MacRumors — 18 Pro pricing · MacRumors — price increases · Mac Observer — every iPhone on sale · Mac Observer — storage tiers · BGR · Engadget