Apple Quietly Raises AppleCare+ Prices Days After Mac and iPad Hikes

If you’re planning to buy a new Mac or iPad and add AppleCare+ coverage, expect to pay a little more than you would have a few weeks ago. Apple has increased AppleCare+ subscription pricing for new customers, while leaving rates unchanged for people already enrolled in the plan.

The 13-inch MacBook Air offers a clear before-and-after: its monthly AppleCare+ plan has gone from $7.49 to $7.99, and its annual plan from $74.99 to $79.99. Apple has applied the same pattern, a $0.50 increase on monthly plans and a $5 increase on annual plans, to the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, Mac Studio, iMac, the standard iPad, the M4 and M5 iPad Pro, and the iPad mini.

AppleCare+ covers technical support along with repairs for accidental damage and other eligible issues, making it a common add-on for buyers of higher-end devices. The subscription price change comes on the heels of Apple raising prices on the Mac, iPad, Vision Pro, HomePod, and Apple TV lineups by anywhere from $100 to $1,300, a round of hikes that notably skipped the iPhone 17 series.

Apple also introduced a three-year carrier financing option for cellular iPad models following the iPad price increase, giving buyers a way to spread costs over 36 months instead of the Apple Card’s usual 12-month plan.

Bloomberg has reported that the wider price increases are linked to rising component costs, with a global memory shortage pushing up DRAM and NAND prices as AI firms compete for supply. Apple has not directly attributed the AppleCare+ increase to the memory shortage, though the two changes have arrived within the same stretch of weeks.

Wikimedia Commons/by Kgbo