iPadOS 27 arrives on Monday, September 14, 2026 as a free update, and Apple lists four iPad families as compatible: iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad and iPad mini. Each one carries a chip qualifier in the same footnote, which is why the iPad list reads nothing like the plain model-by-model list Apple publishes for iPhone.
That difference matters more than it sounds. On the iOS 27 page Apple published alongside the September 14 date, every supported iPhone is named. On the iPadOS 27 page, Apple gives a generation range and a chip name for each family, and those two halves do not always describe the same set of iPads.
Key facts
| Item | What Apple publishes |
|---|---|
| Release date | Monday, September 14, 2026, free update |
| Apple’s wording | “iPadOS 27 available starting 9.14” |
| Release candidate | iPadOS 27.0 RC, build 24A435, issued September 9 |
| Compatible families | iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad, iPad mini |
| Siri AI | Beta, English first, not initially available in the EU on iPadOS |
| Release time | Not published |
The compatibility line Apple publishes
Apple’s footnote, as it stands on the iPadOS 27 page, reads: “iPad Pro (4th generation and later, M1 and later), iPad Air (4th generation and later, M2 and later), iPad (9th generation and later, A16), iPad mini (6th generation, A17 Pro).”
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That is the whole of it. There is no expanded list, no support document naming individual models, and no statement about which iPads are being dropped this year. Apple has framed iPadOS 27 compatibility entirely through that one sentence.
Where the chip qualifiers come from
The chip names in that footnote track Apple’s separate Apple Intelligence device list closely, but not exactly. Apple’s Apple Intelligence page describes iPad support in its own shorthand: iPad mini (A17 Pro) and iPad models with M1 and later.
| iPad family | iPadOS 27 footnote | Apple Intelligence page |
|---|---|---|
| iPad Pro | 4th generation and later, M1 and later | M1 and later |
| iPad Air | 4th generation and later, M2 and later | M1 and later |
| iPad | 9th generation and later, A16 | Not listed |
| iPad mini | 6th generation, A17 Pro | A17 Pro |
Read across those rows and the iPad Air entry is the one that will not settle. One Apple page says M2 and later for iPad Air, the other says M1 and later. Apple has not published a note reconciling them, so we are not going to pick a winner for you.
What the list does not tell you
Running iPadOS 27 and getting everything in iPadOS 27 are different questions. Apple Intelligence has its own device requirement, and a second, narrower tier sits above that.
- Baseline Apple Intelligence on iPad: iPad Pro and iPad Air with M1 or later, and iPad mini with A17 Pro.
- The higher tier, which Apple ties to an advanced on-device model, covers Siri voice customisation and improved on-device Dictation. On iPad it requires M4 or later with 12GB or more of unified memory.
- Siri AI itself is a beta, English first, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish following in October.
- Siri AI is not initially available in the EU on iPadOS. Apple says it is working on a path forward and has given no date.
Apple Intelligence covers 16 languages across all of these platforms, counting Simplified and Traditional Chinese separately. The full picture of what shipped on September 9 is in our event recap and the live blog from Apple Park.
What Apple has not said
Apple has not stated a release time for iPadOS 27. It has not published a per-feature requirements table for iPad, so there is no Apple source that tells you which of the new Photos, Safari or accessibility tools need an Apple Intelligence iPad and which do not.
There is also no consumer facing “About iPadOS 27 Updates” note. The equivalent documents for iOS 27 and watchOS 27 had still not appeared when we last checked Apple Support on September 10, and no new iPad hardware page went up alongside the iPhone 18 Pro announcement.
The update is due on Monday, September 14. Apple has not committed to a time in writing, though its recent iOS releases have landed around 10 a.m. Pacific, and the iPadOS 27 release candidate has been with developers since September 9.
