The standing advice was to hold your old iPhone until the new one is announced, on the theory that trade-in credit peaks in launch week. It did not hold in 2026. Apple’s iPhone trade-in values fell on September 9, the day of the event, and the largest recorded drop was $120.
Apple did not announce the change and does not publish a per-model table, so the figures below are values recorded for individual models before and after the change rather than a price list Apple issues. What Apple does state in its own words is the range: an iPhone 13 or later now gets “$175 to $885 (U.S.) in credit instantly”.
| Item | What we can state |
|---|---|
| Direction on September 9 | iPhone values down. iPad and every Mac except Mac Pro up |
| Largest recorded iPhone fall | $120, on iPhone 16 Pro |
| Second largest | $110, on iPhone 16 Pro Max |
| Apple’s published range | “$175 to $885 (U.S.) in credit instantly” for an iPhone 13 or later |
| Apple’s Trade In page headline | Get $35 to $885 when you trade in an iPhone, reaching back to older models |
| Where the ceiling sits | iPhone 17 Pro Max |
| What the per-model figures are | Values recorded for individual models, not a table Apple publishes |
| What every figure means | An up-to maximum for a device in good condition |
| Did Apple announce it | No |
The drop, model by model
| Model | Recorded before September 9 | Recorded after | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 16 Pro | $630 | $510 | -$120 |
| iPhone 16 Pro Max | $720 | $610 | -$110 |
| iPhone 15 Pro Max | $530 | $455 | -$75 |
| iPhone 16 Plus | $485 | $430 | -$55 |
| iPhone 16 | $480 | $430 | -$50 |
| iPhone 15 Pro | $420 | $370 | -$50 |
| iPhone 14 Pro | $335 | $285 | -$50 |
| iPhone 14 Pro Max | $405 | $360 | -$45 |
| iPhone 16e | $310 | $270 | -$40 |
| iPhone 14 | $235 | $195 | -$40 |
| iPhone 13 Pro | $285 | $255 | -$30 |
| iPhone 13 | $205 | $175 | -$30 |
The pattern is consistent: the newer and more expensive the phone, the more credit it lost. The models that fell hardest are the ones whose owners were most likely to be waiting for launch week in the first place.
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What waiting cost an iPhone 16 Pro owner
Our arithmetic on the recorded figures, against the $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro at 256GB and before tax. At the earlier value of $630 the phone came out at $569. At $510 it comes out at $689. The wait cost $120 and bought nothing.
An iPhone 16 Pro Max owner is $110 worse off on the same basis, and an iPhone 15 Pro Max owner $75. None of those figures is guaranteed to anyone, because each is an up-to ceiling for a device in good condition, but the direction is the same at every point on the list.
iPad and Mac went the other way
The same day’s changes pushed iPad and Mac values up. Recorded values moved from $855 to $1,315 on MacBook Pro, $580 to $705 on MacBook Air, $480 to $620 on Mac mini and $720 to $905 on iPad Pro. Mac Pro was unchanged.
So the instinct to wait was not wrong everywhere. It was wrong for iPhone specifically, in the year Apple also raised the prices of the older iPhones it kept selling rather than cutting them. Apple has explained neither move on any page we can cite.
Why the ceiling is still not your number
The $885 top of Apple’s range requires an iPhone 17 Pro Max in good condition, and Apple’s footnote to the iPhone 18 Pro release states that values “will vary based on the condition, year, and configuration of the eligible trade-in device”. The estimate is confirmed only after Apple verifies the hardware.
Apple’s credit is at least instant, applied at the point of sale. The carrier alternative in Apple’s footnotes reaches $1,200, but it arrives as bill credits over 24 to 36 months on a qualifying plan, and it stops if you leave. A number that takes three years to arrive is not comparable to one applied at checkout.
What has not been confirmed
Apple did not announce the September 9 change, publishes no per-model trade-in table, and gives no notice period or schedule for future changes. It has not said whether values move again when the phones ship. AppleCare+ pricing for the new products is unpublished, and neither AT&T nor Verizon has published its own iPhone 18 Pro offer as of September 10.
Pre-orders open Saturday, September 12 at 5 a.m. PT, with delivery from Friday, September 18. Values changed once without warning already, so take a fresh estimate on the day you order rather than budgeting from a number you saw last week. Our iPhone 18 Pro against iPhone 17 Pro comparison and the event recap cover what the credit is going toward.