Vintage status does not carry its own price list. What Apple does publish, on a separate battery-replacement page, is an out-of-warranty fee that would apply to an eligible older iPhone the same way it applies to a current one: $99, or $0 under AppleCare+.
This is the one repair Apple prices in public in any concrete way, so it is the clearest place to look at what owning an older device actually costs, while being careful not to invent figures Apple has not published for any specific model.
Key facts
| Item | What Apple publishes |
|---|---|
| Out-of-warranty battery fee, US | $99 |
| Fee under AppleCare+ | $0 |
| Free replacement threshold | Battery capacity below 80%, under warranty or AppleCare+ |
| Per-model price list | Not published; Apple uses an online estimator instead |
| Additional charges possible | Tax, and a shipping fee if Apple needs to ship the device |
| Source | support.apple.com/iphone/repair/battery-replacement |
What vintage status actually governs
Apple’s vintage and obsolete page defines vintage as a product Apple stopped distributing for sale more than five and less than seven years ago, and obsolete as more than seven years ago. Both labels govern hardware service and parts availability, not a separate price schedule. The battery-replacement page reviewed here does not reference vintage or obsolete status by name anywhere on it. The connection between the two pages is practical rather than published: older devices are the ones most likely to need this particular service, not that Apple prices a vintage device differently from a current one.
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Losing eligibility for hardware service and losing eligibility for the newest operating system are two different things Apple tracks on two different schedules. A device can be old enough to count as vintage while still receiving current software, or it can fall off the newest operating system well before it reaches vintage age, depending on the product. Apple’s battery page sits on the hardware-service side of that split, and it applies by the terms below regardless of which software branch a given device happens to be running.
Apple’s published battery service fee
Apple states its out-of-warranty iPhone battery service fee as $99. Apple’s own caveat on the same page reads: “Estimated fees are for out-of-warranty service from Apple and may be subject to tax, and a shipping fee may be added if Apple needs to ship your device.” That is the complete fee structure Apple has published; there is no separate published figure for any individual model.
When the fee drops to zero
| Scenario | Fee |
|---|---|
| Out-of-warranty replacement, no coverage | $99 |
| Any replacement under AppleCare+ | $0 |
| Replacement under standard warranty when capacity is below 80% | $0 |
AppleCare+ covers battery service at no extra charge in every case. Separately, Apple replaces the battery at no charge under standard warranty or AppleCare+ once measured capacity drops below 80 percent. Those are the only two zero-cost paths Apple has published; outside of them, the $99 figure applies.
Apple’s page does not describe parts availability for battery service in any more granular way than that, and it does not say whether a vintage or obsolete iPhone remains eligible for the same $99 fee on the same terms as a current model. Where Apple’s own documentation is silent, this article treats the fee structure as published, general terms rather than extending it, one way or the other, to any specific vintage or obsolete model by name.
Why there is no price list by model
Apple has moved away from a published, model-by-model battery price table and now directs customers to a personalized estimator behind its repair page instead. That means no per-model figure quoted elsewhere, for any iPhone, current or vintage, should be treated as something Apple itself has published. The $99 out-of-warranty fee, the $0 AppleCare+ waiver and the 80 percent threshold are the figures Apple confirms; anything more specific than that is not.
That also means a claim that a particular vintage iPhone costs a particular dollar figure to repair, beyond the general $99 and $0 terms above, is not something readers can verify against anything Apple currently publishes. The estimator Apple points customers toward is personalized per device at the time of the request, which is a deliberate design choice on Apple’s part rather than an oversight, and it is why this article stops at the terms Apple has actually printed.
What Apple has not said
Apple has not published per-model battery prices, has not stated whether vintage or obsolete status changes eligibility for battery service at all, and has not published how often the shipping fee it mentions actually applies. As of Saturday, September 12, 2026, this fee structure sits well apart from the financing terms around Apple’s newest phones; iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders are open now, and the two subjects are not the same repair page at all.
