Buying iPhone 18 Pro in the UK: £1,199 Is the Whole Price, and £455 Is Apple’s Only Trade-In Number

Apple iPhone 18 Pro color lineup
Image: Apple

Apple UK sells iPhone 18 Pro from £1,199 and iPhone 18 Pro Max from £1,299, pre-orders open at 1:00 pm BST on Saturday 12 September, and the phones go on sale on Friday 18 September. In the UK that headline figure is the whole price, with no carrier attached to it.

Apple iPhone 18 Pro 2up
iPhone 18 Pro starts at £1,199 in the UK and iPhone 18 Pro Max at £1,299. Image: Apple

That is the real difference between the two storefronts this year. In the US, Apple’s $1,199 applies when a carrier is selected at checkout and the unlocked 256GB model is listed at $1,299, while Apple UK’s newsroom figure and its store figure are the same £1,199.

Key factApple UK’s published figure
Pre-order1:00 pm BST, Saturday 12 September
On saleFriday 18 September, stated in the press release
iPhone 18 Pro, 256GB£1,199
iPhone 18 Pro Max, 256GB£1,299
Instalments30 months at 0% APR
Lowest monthly figure£39.96 for the 256GB iPhone 18 Pro
Apple Trade In wording£455 in credit instantly for an iPhone 16 Pro or later
VAT refund for visitorsNone. The scheme ended on 1 January 2021

Every tier, and what 30 months at 0% costs

Apple UK publishes a monthly figure against each storage tier, which the US store does not do.

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StorageiPhone 18 ProPer monthiPhone 18 Pro MaxPer month
256GB£1,199£39.96£1,299£43.30
512GB£1,399£46.63£1,499£49.96
1TB£1,799£59.96£1,899£63.30
2TB£2,399£79.96£2,499£83.30

Thirty months at 0% is a longer term than the 24 months Apple offers in the US, so the monthly number is lower without the total being lower. The 2TB iPhone 18 Pro Max comes to £2,499 whether it is paid at once or over 30 months.

Apple AirPods 5 hero
Apple's UK newsroom has not published a sterling price for AirPods 5. Image: Apple

The £455 trade-in line, read carefully

Apple’s UK wording is a single figure rather than a range: customers trading in an iPhone 16 Pro or later can get £455 in credit instantly.

Two things follow from that. The eligibility bar is higher than the US line, which starts at iPhone 13 or later, and there is no published per-model table behind it. Apple’s UK trade-in page serves the process explainer only, with no values in the page itself.

Treat any per-model figure you see as a value recorded for that handset rather than a number Apple publishes.

Apple Watch Series 12 2up
Apple Watch Series 12 is another UK price Apple has not printed. Image: Apple

Where the UK and US checkouts diverge

QuestionApple USApple UK
Price of the 256GB Pro$1,199 with a carrier, $1,299 unlocked£1,199, one figure
Instalment term24 months, Apple Card30 months at 0% APR
Trade-in wording$175 to $885, iPhone 13 or later£455, iPhone 16 Pro or later
Carrier step at checkoutAT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon or noneNot published by Apple
Pre-order time on the store page5:00 a.m. PT1:00 pm BST
Pre-order time in the press release5 a.m. PT5 a.m. PT

That last row is worth a moment. A UK reader who only saw Apple’s own press release would be given a Pacific time for a British pre-order, and would have to convert it themselves. The store page is the one with the local number.

VAT, and the refund that no longer exists

UK list prices include VAT, so £1,199 is the amount that leaves your account. US list prices exclude sales tax, which is the main reason a straight currency conversion makes the US look cheaper than it is.

Visitors cannot claim the VAT back. The VAT Retail Export Scheme was abolished on 1 January 2021 and has not been restored, so a tourist buying an iPhone in London pays the full £1,199 with no reclaim at the airport.

What has not been confirmed

  • UK network offers. Apple publishes no British carrier terms, and the sterling price does not move with a network selection the way the US price does.
  • UK prices for the rest of the lineup. Apple’s UK newsroom has not published the Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4 or AirPods 5 releases, so sterling figures for those are missing from Apple’s own pages.
  • AppleCare+ per device. Apple’s tables list the products and leave the price cells empty.
  • UK delivery estimates. Apple says only that a final delivery date follows once an order is placed.

Pre-orders open at 1:00 pm BST on Saturday 12 September and the phones arrive on Friday 18 September. iOS 27 lands on Monday 14 September as a free update, four days before the hardware.