Apple’s own Product Environmental Report for iPhone 18 Pro puts the 256GB model at 63 kg of CO2e and the 2TB model at 109 kg. That is a 73 percent increase in a phone’s carbon footprint for choosing more storage, published by Apple in a PDF dated September 2026 and never mentioned in the press release.
The Pro Max table runs the same way, 69 kg at 256GB to 114 kg at 2TB, a 65 percent increase. Storage is the one choice at checkout that cannot be changed later, and Apple publishes both halves of its cost.
| Capacity | iPhone 18 Pro | iPhone 18 Pro Max | Added over 256GB (Pro) | US price (Pro) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 256GB | 63 kg CO2e | 69 kg CO2e | Baseline | $1,199 |
| 512GB | 72 kg CO2e | 79 kg CO2e | 9 kg | $1,399 |
| 1TB | 81 kg CO2e | 87 kg CO2e | 18 kg | $1,799 |
| 2TB | 109 kg CO2e | 114 kg CO2e | 46 kg | $2,399 |
The last step is the expensive one twice over
Read the steps rather than the endpoints and the shape changes. Going from 256GB to 512GB adds 9 kg on the Pro. Going from 512GB to 1TB adds another 9 kg. Going from 1TB to 2TB adds 28 kg, which is three times either of the earlier steps.
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The Pro Max follows the same pattern, at 10 kg, 8 kg and then 27 kg. Apple publishes the numbers and no explanation for the jump, and there is nothing in the report that attributes it to a particular component or process.
The price ladder does something similar. The first two steps cost $200 each on the Pro, and the last one costs $600. Whichever measure you care about, the 2TB tier is where the curve turns.
Where the 63 kg actually comes from
Apple breaks the baseline 256GB iPhone 18 Pro into life-cycle stages, and production dominates every other stage combined.
| Life-cycle stage | kg CO2e | Share of the 63 kg |
|---|---|---|
| Production | 46 | About 73 percent |
| Renewable energy infrastructure | 1 | About 2 percent |
| Transportation | 3 | About 5 percent |
| Customer product use | 13 | About 21 percent |
| End-of-life processing | Under 1 | Under 2 percent |
Inside that 46 kg of production, Apple splits 17 kg of non-electricity emissions from 29 kg of electricity. It is worth sitting with the customer use figure for a moment: charging the phone for its whole life accounts for 13 kg, less than half of what the jump from 1TB to 2TB adds before the phone is switched on.
This year’s numbers may not compare with last year’s
One methodology note in the report deserves more attention than it will get. Apple states that in fiscal year 2026 it is implementing life-cycle assessment model updates in two areas, display panels and the system on chip, and gives new average carbon intensities of 0.16 kg CO2e per square centimetre for OLED and 0.03 kg for LCD displays.
Changing the accounting model in the same year you publish the figures does not make the figures wrong, but it does mean a straight year-over-year comparison against an older iPhone report may not be like for like. Apple has not published a restated set of prior-year numbers on the new model.
What Apple does claim for the phone
The rest of the report is the part Apple does put on the marketing pages: 40 percent recycled content overall, 85 percent recycled aluminium in the enclosure, 100 percent recycled cobalt and 95 percent recycled lithium in the battery, 100 percent recycled gold plating and tin solder in all printed circuit boards, 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets, and 50 percent of manufacturing electricity sourced from renewable energy.
Packaging is 100 percent fibre-based using only recycled or responsibly sourced fibres, and Apple says all final assembly supplier sites are Zero Waste to Landfill, verified by UL to the UL 2799 standard, which requires at least 90 percent diversion by methods other than waste to energy. Apple has also published separate environmental reports for iPhone Duo, Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4 and AirPods 5.
What Apple has not said
- Why the 1TB to 2TB step adds roughly three times the carbon of the two steps below it.
- Any carbon neutral designation for iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone 18 Pro Max. The claim does not appear in the material published for these products.
- A restated prior-year figure on the updated life-cycle model, which would make a year-over-year comparison possible.
- Any figure for how much of the storage penalty is manufacturing and how much is anything else.
- Any mention of the storage figures in the press release, the product page or the specifications page. They exist only in the report.
iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders open on Saturday, September 12 at 5 a.m. PT, with the phone in stores on Friday, September 18. Storage is locked at checkout, so the choice between sizes and capacities is made this weekend, and the camera formats that fill a phone fastest are the reason most people reach for the higher tier in the first place. The wider September 9 announcement covers the rest of the lineup.
