For most people the iPad to buy is the iPad Air, recorded at $749 for the 11-inch model with M4 and $699 on Apple’s Education Store. It is the cheapest iPad that appears on every capability list Apple publishes, it takes the $100 Back to School gift card that the smaller and cheaper iPads do not, and that offer closes on Thursday, September 24.
The catch is a memory figure. Apple gates the top tier of Apple Intelligence, Siri voice customisation and improved on-device Dictation, on an iPad with M4 or later and 12GB or more of unified memory, and it has not published which iPad Air configurations carry 12GB. The chip clears the bar. Whether the memory does is unconfirmed.
Key facts on the iPad to buy
| Item | What Apple publishes |
|---|---|
| Our pick for most people | iPad Air, 11-inch, with M4 |
| Price | Recorded at $749 standard and $699 education. Apple does not print that delta itself |
| Software | iPadOS 27, free, Monday September 14, 2026 |
| Apple Intelligence | Apple lists iPad Pro (M1 and later), iPad Air (M1 and later) and iPad mini (A17 Pro) |
| Advanced on-device tier | iPad with M4 or later and 12GB or more unified memory. Per-model memory not published |
| Siri AI | Beta, English first, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish in October |
| Siri AI in the EU | Not available initially on iPadOS, by Apple’s own wording |
| Back to School gift card | $100 with an eligible iPad Air or iPad Pro, ending Thursday September 24, 2026 |
| Excluded from that gift card | iPad mini and the entry-level iPad |
| Monthly route | Apple Upgrade lists iPad from $11.99 a month over 24 or 36 months, AppleCare not included |
| Trade-in | Values recorded on September 9 of $905 for an iPad Pro, $510 iPad Air, $320 iPad mini, $280 iPad |
Why the iPad Air is the default
Three published lists decide this, and the iPad Air is the cheapest model that appears on all three. Apple’s iPadOS 27 footnote covers iPad Pro from the 4th generation, iPad Air from the 4th generation, iPad from the 9th generation and iPad mini in the 6th generation. Apple’s Apple Intelligence page names only iPad Pro with M1 or later, iPad Air with M1 or later and iPad mini with A17 Pro. Apple’s Back to School terms name iPad Pro and iPad Air and exclude iPad mini and the entry iPad.
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The iPad Air sits inside every one of those, with an M4 chip that also clears the chip half of the advanced on-device tier. Apple attaches chip qualifiers to its iPadOS 27 footnote that read as Apple Intelligence subsets rather than as compatibility floors, so treat the footnote as a list of families and the Apple Intelligence page as the harder line.
The cheapest iPad gets the update without the intelligence
| Family | On Apple’s iPadOS 27 list | On Apple’s Apple Intelligence iPad list | Advanced on-device tier | Back to School gift card |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPad Pro | 4th generation and later | Yes, M1 and later | Possible, needs M4 or later with 12GB | $100 |
| iPad Air | 4th generation and later | Yes, M1 and later | Unconfirmed, memory not published | $100 |
| iPad mini | 6th generation | Yes, A17 Pro | No, the tier requires M4 or later | Not eligible |
| iPad, entry model | 9th generation and later | Not listed | No | Not eligible |
That fourth row is the single most useful thing in this guide. The entry iPad is on Apple’s iPadOS 27 compatibility list and is not on Apple’s Apple Intelligence device list, so it gets the operating system arriving on September 14 and none of the Siri AI, Image Playground or intelligent editing features that most of the marketing is about. If Apple Intelligence is why you are buying, the entry iPad is the wrong purchase at any price.
The catch in each option
- iPad Air. Apple has not published its unified memory, so the advanced on-device tier is unconfirmed on it.
- iPad Pro. The only iPad Apple used to measure an iPadOS 27 claim, and no price for it appears in the material behind this guide, so none is quoted here.
- iPad mini. Runs iPadOS 27 and Apple Intelligence on A17 Pro, but cannot reach the advanced tier, which needs M4 or later, and is excluded from the gift card.
- Entry iPad. Cheapest, and absent from Apple’s Apple Intelligence iPad list. Also excluded from the gift card.
- Every iPad in the EU. Apple’s wording is that Siri AI will not be available initially in the EU on iPadOS, while Mac and Apple Vision Pro do get it. That is a regional catch no configuration can fix.
What iPadOS 27 actually adds on an iPad
Most of what arrives on Monday is shared with iOS 27, and Apple lists only a short set of iPad-specific gains. Browsing and transferring files to external drives is up to 5x faster, measured on an 11-inch iPad Pro with M4 and a USB4 SSD moving 10,000 JPEGs, comparing iPadOS 26.4.2 against a prerelease build of 27. Visual Intelligence arrives inside the screenshot experience. Ask to Browse works in Safari and needs the Screen Time update. Bill splitting with Apple Cash in Wallet reaches eligible iPads in the United States, meaning iPad mini with A17 Pro and iPads with M1 or later.
What Apple’s iPadOS 27 page does not surface is any change to Stage Manager, windowing or Apple Pencil. If those are what you were waiting for, nothing published so far says they are coming on September 14. No new iPad was announced at the September keynote either, as our event recap sets out, so the hardware you choose this month is the hardware Apple is already selling.
What has not been confirmed
Apple has not published unified memory figures per iPad model, which is what would settle the advanced on-device tier. It has not published a date for when Siri AI reaches the EU on iPadOS, only that Mac and Apple Vision Pro are in and iPadOS is not. Per-device AppleCare+ prices for the current generation are not published. This guide quotes one iPad price because one iPad price appears in the material behind it, and where a figure is not published it is left out rather than estimated.
iPadOS 27 arrives free on Monday, September 14. The Back to School gift card ends on Thursday, September 24, which makes the next twelve days the cheapest window of the year to buy an iPad Air or iPad Pro. If the tablet is competing in your head with a phone, the whole iPhone line went up $100 on September 9 as our price breakdown and launch coverage explain, and the folding iPhone Duo that arrives on October 23 from $1,999 is the device buyers keep weighing against a small iPad.
