Apple advertises the iPhone 18 Pro Apple Upgrade lease at $34.99 a month over 24 months. That figure buys the phone and nothing else: Apple’s own footnote says the lease excludes AppleCare, and a customer who wants coverage “can add an AppleCare subscription” as a separate charge. Add the only AppleCare subscription Apple has actually priced for this launch, AppleCare One at $19.99 a month, and the real monthly figure becomes $54.98. That total is our own arithmetic, not a number Apple prints anywhere, because Apple has not published what a lease plus coverage costs together.
The comparison worth making is with the program Apple retired to create Apple Upgrade in the first place.
Key facts on the iPhone 18 Pro lease and coverage
| Payment route | Apple’s published monthly figure |
|---|---|
| Apple Upgrade lease, 24 months (256GB) | $34.99, excludes AppleCare |
| Apple Upgrade lease, 12 months (256GB) | $49.99, excludes AppleCare |
| Apple Card Monthly Installments, 24 months, 0% APR | $49.95, a purchase, ends in ownership |
| AppleCare One (only priced coverage available) | $19.99, up to 3 devices |
| Retired iPhone Upgrade Program (for comparison) | More than $42, included AppleCare |
What $34.99 a month buys, and does not
Apple’s newsroom release and iPhone 18 Pro price page both quote $34.99 a month for a 24-month Apple Upgrade lease on the 256GB model, run through Klarna. The lease requires an eligible carrier at checkout, the same requirement as Apple Card Monthly Installments, and Apple states plainly that AppleCare is not part of that payment. This is the single biggest change from the retired iPhone Upgrade Program, which bundled AppleCare into its own monthly figure.
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Adding the only coverage Apple has priced
AppleCare One is the only AppleCare subscription with a confirmed price anywhere in this launch, at $19.99 a month for up to three devices. Apple has not published a lease-plus-AppleCare combined figure, so adding the two is arithmetic we are doing, not a number Apple states: $34.99 plus $19.99 comes to $54.98 a month for a leased iPhone 18 Pro with coverage attached, on top of whatever else AppleCare One is already covering if the plan is shared across other devices.
What the old program and the ownership route cost by comparison
The iPhone Upgrade Program, retired on July 28, 2026, cost more than $42 a month over 24 installments and included AppleCare in that price. Our $54.98 combined figure for the new lease route runs roughly $13 a month higher than that old bundled cost, though the comparison is not exact: AppleCare One can also cover two other devices for the same $19.99, which the old program’s AppleCare never did.
Buying with Apple Card Monthly Installments at 0% APR runs $49.95 a month over 24 months and ends in ownership rather than a lease decision. Adding AppleCare One to that route, again our own arithmetic, comes to $69.94 a month, the highest of the three combined figures, because it is the only one of the three that is not renting the phone back to Apple at the end.
| Route, with AppleCare One added | Our combined monthly total |
|---|---|
| Apple Upgrade lease (24 mo) + AppleCare One | $54.98 |
| Apple Card Monthly Installments (24 mo) + AppleCare One | $69.94 |
| Retired iPhone Upgrade Program, AppleCare already included | More than $42 |
What happens when the lease ends
Apple’s Apple Upgrade terms describe three options at the end of a lease: upgrade to a new device, buy the current one outright with a one-time payment, or return it. If the customer does none of those, “the lease will convert to a month-to-month lease for up to six months.” Apple has not published what happens if that six-month window also passes with no decision made, and has not published what the one-time buyout payment actually is.
What Apple has not said
- No published combined price for an Apple Upgrade lease plus an AppleCare subscription.
- No per-device AppleCare+ price to compare against AppleCare One’s shared rate.
- No stated buyout amount if a lease is not converted, returned or upgraded at term end.
- No published rate for the month-to-month period beyond the six-month window Apple names.
Pre-orders for iPhone 18 Pro opened at 12:00 UTC on September 12, with checkout offering the lease, installments and outright purchase side by side. Our iPhone 18 Pro versus Pro Max comparison and battery and charging breakdown cover the device itself; this is the bill on top of it.
