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There's been a lot of concern about how much the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max might cost following today's iPhone event — with some predictions suggesting we could see prices rise by as much as $300. Thankfully we may have just got some respite, thanks to a mammoth report from Bloomberg.
According to the report, Apple will not be adding multiple hundreds of dollars onto the new iPhones' price tag. The price will apparently still go up as expected, but only by $100. In other words, RAMageddon or not, this is a pretty typical price hike for a flagship phone.
We all knew a price hike was coming after Apple raised the prices of the majority of its products earlier this year — including Macs, iPads and various other devices. The only products saved from this fate were iPhones and Apple Watches, which kept their original prices.
At the time it was obvious that Apple was waiting for the September launch event to increase the prices of new models, but we couldn't predict the severity of the price hike. Nobody likes paying increased prices, but considering Apple hasn't implemented a serious price increase for a number of years (in contrast to its rivals), $100 more is easily the best we could hope for.
So how much are we likely to pay as a result? The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max start at $1,099 and $1,199, respectively — a price tag that gets you 256GB of storage space. That means we're looking at starting prices of $1,199 for the iPhone 18 Pro and $1,299 for the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
For reference the cost of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and Google Pixel 11 Pro XL both start at $1,299 for the same 256GB of storage. This means Apple is essentially bringing the iPhone 18 Pro Max's price in line with its rivals. However since the Pixel 11 Pro and Galaxy S26 Plus both start at $1,099, it means the iPhone 18 Pro is actually a little more expensive.
Obviously you don't necessarily have to eat the extra $100 right away. There's always the option to spread the overall cost as part of a multi-year phone plan, though your payments will no doubt rise by a few dollars a month to compensate for the higher price tag. Apple also launched its own iPhone leasing program earlier this year, which will also insulate customers from higher prices — albeit at the cost of never actually owning their devices. All that's before you take trade in credit into account as well.
Do we like the fact that iPhone 18 Pro's prices are going to increase? Not at all, life is getting incredibly expensive, and the last thing we need is one more extra bill to worry about. But in the grand scheme of things, I'm just grateful that things aren't a lot worse.
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