AppleCare+ is reportedly getting pricier, and it might not stop with Mac and iPad

Apple has reportedly bumped up AppleCare+ pricing for new Mac and iPad subscribers, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, tacking on 50 cents a month or $5 a year. A 13-inch MacBook Air plan would go from $7.49 to $7.99 monthly, and current subscribers keep their old rate. The $19.99 AppleCare One bundle isn't affected so far, so shopping for a new iPad just got one more line item to weigh.

What's changing with AppleCare+ pricing

According to Bloomberg's lead Apple reporter Mark Gurman, Apple has raised the individual AppleCare+ subscription price for Macs and iPads, and the change reportedly only touches new sign-ups. Per Gurman's numbers, monthly plans go up 50 cents and yearly ones climb by $5, moving that 13-inch MacBook Air plan I mentioned from $7.49 to $7.99 a month, or $74.99 to $79.99 annually.

Gurman's report suggests the same math applies across the rest of the lineup, though exact numbers for every model aren't out yet. This comes just weeks after we covered the bigger round of Mac and iPad price hikes tied to the memory chip shortage, so Apple's Services arm is getting a small top-up too.

Why this feels like part of a bigger pattern

This wouldn't be the first time Apple has nudged an AppleCare+ price up by exactly 50 cents a month. It did the same to iPhone plans back in early 2025, and doing it again for Mac and iPad now would fit a familiar playbook, one Apple reaches for whenever it wants more services revenue without touching hardware sticker prices.

Gurman's report says Apple isn't touching the flat-rate AppleCare One bundle from last year, which looks like a smarter deal for anyone juggling multiple devices.



If you're on Samsung Care+ or Google's Preferred Care for a Galaxy or Pixel device, none of this touches your plan. Still, it's worth watching whether your provider follows suit eventually, since these small hikes tend to spread once one company normalizes them.

I'm more curious whether this is a warm-up act. Gurman notes iPhone AppleCare+ pricing hasn't moved yet, but with new iPhones arriving this September, it wouldn't shock me if that changes too.

Who this affects, and who's safe

The people this would affect are shoppers about to buy a new Mac or iPad and add AppleCare+ at checkout, not anyone already covered. Fifty cents a month sounds trivial, but stacked against the memory-driven hardware price hikes, it's another small tax on buying into the Apple ecosystem right now.

If you already have AppleCare+ on your Mac or iPad, Gurman's report says none of this touches your bill, and your rate holds for as long as you own the device.

Small price bump, bigger picture

Fifty cents doesn't break anyone's budget, but I've stopped seeing these as one-off tweaks and started seeing them as Apple's go-to move to squeeze more Services revenue without touching a product's sticker price. It's a quiet way to raise revenue, and existing subscribers get to feel like they dodged something, which keeps the complaints down.

I'd rather Apple just confirm plainly that AppleCare+ pricing rises every year or so, the same way streaming subscriptions do, instead of letting it leak out first. Either way, if a new Mac or iPad is on your radar this year, I'd budget for it now rather than get surprised at checkout.

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