AppleCare+ for iPhone Gets More Expensive
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A reliable report earlier this week suggested that Apple was planning to move away from upfront purchases of its AppleCare+ protection program. Now, Apple has made the new policy official — and added a price increase to boot.
“A notable change coming to AppleCare+ next week: Apple is dropping the 2-3 year pay in advance option … and will only offer monthly and annual subscriptions,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared in a tweet on Sunday. While Gurman didn’t provide too many additional details, the premise was that Apple would direct customers to sign up for monthly AppleCare+ payment plans via their Apple Account instead of offering it as a one-time purchase at checkout — at least in its retail stores; Gurman added that multi-year plans would still be available on the online store.
That prediction seems to have come true for the iPhone, at least. In a report at Bloomberg, Gurman shared a communication that Apple sent out to customer service staff telling them to advise customers that they’ll need to “pay monthly or annually” for an AppleCare+ plan for the iPhone.
Customers using an iPhone in the United States can only purchase AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss using the monthly or annual payment option. If the customer asks, AppleCare+ with recurring payments is no longer available for iPhone.
Internal Apple statement to customer service staff, via Bloomberg
The change only appears to affect US customers for now. However, while Gurman only mentions AppleCare+ for iPhone, Apple seems to have implemented the same policy for all of its AppleCare+ products. Even AppleCare+ plans for Headphones, Apple TV, and HomePod, which were previously solely available as one-time purchases, have now moved to subscription plans.
For the iPhone plans, Apple has also raised the monthly price by $0.50 across the board. AppleCare+ for an iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max now costs $13.99 per month, up from $13.49 previously. At the other end of the scale, coverage for an iPhone SE has gone up from $7.49 to $7.99 per month.
However, that $0.50 increase comes with another catch: it’s only for the AppleCare+ plan with Theft and Loss because Apple appears to have discontinued the lower-tiered plans. As of today, the AppleCare+ for iPhone page shows only the AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss packages; the older $3.99–7.99 monthly plans are gone and presumably no longer available.
AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss is only available in select countries and provides a replacement for $149 if your iPhone is stolen or lost, provided you had Find My enabled on your device and have filed a police report or other appropriate paperwork to support your claim. At this time, the US appears to be the only country where Apple is solely offering the Theft and Loss plan; others, including the UK, Australia, and Japan, still list it as an optional upgrade over a standard AppleCare+ plan, while some, like Canada, don’t offer it at all.
The other significant change is that customers can now subscribe to AppleCare+ annually instead of monthly. You’ll save about 17% by paying a year at a time, with an iPhone 16 Pro plan priced at $139.99 annually instead of $13.99 monthly. That’s still $11 more over two years compared to the one-time $269 plan Apple previously offered, but it’s a considerably better deal than a monthly subscription, which works out to $335.76 over the same period.
Prices for other AppleCare+ plans haven’t changed, perhaps because the iPhone is the only one that offers Theft and Loss coverage. However, the iPad and Apple Watch plans now gain the same annual options, while AppleCare+ for Mac and Apple Displays can now be purchased as a monthly subscription instead of just annually. AppleCare+ for Headphones are now priced at $14.99 annually, or $29.99 for AirPods Max, compared to the fixed two-year prices of $29 and $59, respectively. AppleCare+ for Apple TV goes to $9.99 per year, while HomePod coverage is $19.99 annually or $9.99 for a HomePod mini. As with the headphones plan, these prices roughly correspond to the amounts charged for the previous 2–3-year plans.
According to Gurman, AppleCare agents have been told to inform customers that “the change is designed to lower upfront costs and prevent future gaps in coverage.” Subscription-based AppleCare+ plans renew automatically and can be continued for the support life of your device. While customers could previously switch to a monthly plan at the end of a fixed term, some would forget to do so until it was too late and their coverage had expired. Monthly AppleCare+ plans are also much easier to cancel if you replace your iPhone before the two years are up.
As Gurman predicted, the one-time AppleCare+ plans remain available in the Apple Online Store (for now). Apple is steering iPhone buyers toward subscription plans, but you can select a two-year plan by clicking on the AppleCare+ with Theft or Loss at checkout to see the full list of options, as shown above. You can also decline AppleCare+ coverage on this screen and you’ll still be given an option to add the two-year plan at checkout.
