iPhone 18 Pro comes in four capacities at $1,199, $1,399, $1,799 and $2,399, and the three steps between them cost $200, $400 and $600. Priced by the gigabytes each step actually adds, the first two steps cost the same and the 2TB step is the cheapest of the three, at roughly 59 cents a gigabyte against about 78 cents for the two below it.
Every per-gigabyte figure on this page is our arithmetic on Apple’s four published prices. Apple prices the tiers and stops there. It publishes no cost per gigabyte, no usable capacity once iOS 27 is preinstalled, and no file size for any video format, so the sums below are the only way to compare the tiers with each other.
iPhone 18 Pro storage prices and what each step adds
| Tier | iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | Step above the tier below | Gigabytes added | Our cost per gigabyte added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 256GB | $1,199 | $1,299 | Base tier | Base tier | Base tier |
| 512GB | $1,399 | $1,499 | $200 | 256GB | about $0.78 |
| 1TB | $1,799 | $1,899 | $400 | 512GB | about $0.78 |
| 2TB | $2,399 | $2,499 | $600 | 1,024GB | about $0.59 |
Those are Apple’s advertised US prices, which require activating with AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon at checkout. Buying without a carrier adds $100 at every tier, so the steps, and every per-gigabyte figure here, stay the same either way. Apple never prints that $100 delta as a number, as our iPhone 18 Pro price breakdown sets out.
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
Pro Max prices sit $100 higher at every capacity, so the ladder itself is identical on both sizes. That is the useful part of the Pro and Pro Max comparison: size and capacity are priced separately and never interact.
The first two steps cost exactly the same per gigabyte
$200 for 256GB more and $400 for 512GB more both land on about 78 cents a gigabyte. The step doubles and so does what it buys, which is why the price per gigabyte does not move.
We treat each tier as double the one below it, so 1TB is 1,024GB and 2TB is 2,048GB, which is how Apple spaces the labels. Read a terabyte as 1,000GB instead and the same sums give about 82 cents and 60 cents. Apple publishes neither convention.
As multiples, 2TB is eight times the storage for twice the money
| Tier | Capacity vs 256GB | iPhone 18 Pro price vs 256GB | iPhone 18 Pro Max price vs 256GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 256GB | 1x | 1.00x | 1.00x |
| 512GB | 2x | 1.17x | 1.15x |
| 1TB | 4x | 1.50x | 1.46x |
| 2TB | 8x | 2.00x | 1.92x |
A 2TB iPhone 18 Pro at $2,399 is almost exactly double the 256GB model at $1,199, and it holds eight times the nominal capacity. On the Pro Max the price multiple is gentler, 1.92 times for the same eight times the storage, only because the base price starts $100 higher.
The same pattern shows up on Apple’s foldable. The iPhone Duo runs $1,999, $2,199, $2,599 and $3,199, which is the same $200, $400 and $600 ladder on a higher base.
Where the per-gigabyte view stops being useful
Cheapest per gigabyte is not cheapest. The 2TB step is still $600 on top of a phone that already costs $1,799 at 1TB, and capacity you never fill returns nothing.
It is also the one choice at checkout you cannot revisit. Color is free, a case can wait, and a carrier can be changed, but capacity is fixed when the order is placed and Apple sells no way to add storage afterwards.
The upper tiers exist because of what the iPhone 18 Pro camera system records. Apple’s tech specs list 4K Dolby Vision at up to 120 fps and ProRes at up to 4K 120 fps with external recording, and they give no bit rate or file size for either. Any table of hours per capacity, including ours, is a model rather than an Apple figure.
What Apple has not said
- Usable capacity. Apple publishes no figure for how much of a 256GB or a 2TB iPhone is free once iOS 27 is preinstalled.
- Bit rates or file sizes for 4K Dolby Vision, ProRes, Cinematic mode or spatial video, which the specs list at 1080p and 30 fps.
- Any per-gigabyte or value framing of its own. The four prices are the whole of what Apple publishes about the tiers.
- Anything that differs inside the higher tiers. Apple’s tech specs are identical across all four capacities apart from the capacity itself.
- Per-device AppleCare+ pricing for iPhone 18 Pro, which is still unpublished at every capacity.
Pre-orders open at 5 a.m. PT on Saturday, September 12, with availability from Friday, September 18, and the capacity is chosen at checkout. Running these sums before the store opens costs nothing, which is more than can be said for running them afterwards.
