Apple charges iPhone 18 Pro buyers $600 to move from 256GB to 1TB of storage. A Wall Street Journal analysis estimates that the extra flash costs Apple about $192. On those numbers, buyers pay a little over three times Apple’s estimated direct cost for the upgrade.
That multiple is far lower than last year’s. The reason isn’t a change of heart at Apple. Memory chips have become much more expensive, so Apple’s cost per upgrade has climbed steeply. The price buyers pay has climbed too.
iPhone 18 Pro storage prices
Here is what Apple’s US store lists for the iPhone 18 Pro as of November 4:
- 256GB: $1,199
- 512GB: $1,399 ($200 more than 256GB)
- 1TB: $1,799 ($600 more than 256GB)
- 2TB: $2,399 ($1,200 more than 256GB)
A smaller markup, but a bigger bill
The WSJ compared the same 256GB-to-1TB step across two generations. The figures below come from its analysis as reported by 9to5Mac. Apple’s costs are the paper’s estimates, not numbers Apple has published.
- iPhone 17 Pro: $400 to the buyer, about $42 estimated cost to Apple
- iPhone 18 Pro: $600 to the buyer, about $192 estimated cost to Apple
Macworld, also citing the WSJ, says Apple charged 8 to 12 times its own cost for iPhone storage upgrades last year. This year, it puts the figure at about triple.
A falling multiple is easy to read as a better deal, but the numbers say otherwise. The 1TB step now costs buyers $200 more than it did a year ago. Subtract the estimated cost and Apple keeps about $408 on the upgrade, up from about $358. So the markup ratio shrank, yet Apple’s estimated dollar margin on the upgrade grew.
Apple warned this week that rising memory costs will squeeze its holiday-quarter margins. We covered that in Apple’s memory-cost warning. Apple hasn’t commented on the WSJ estimates in the coverage we’ve seen.
What it means if you’re choosing a tier
Storage remains one of the most marked-up choices on an iPhone order. Before paying $600 for 1TB, it may be worth asking how much of that space you would really fill. For some buyers, a cloud storage plan could cost less over the years they keep the phone. Compare that running cost against the one-time step before you pick a tier.
For wider context on phone pricing, Counterpoint says average smartphone selling prices hit a record $442 in Q3.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, via 9to5Mac, Macworld, Apple Store
This post was written with AI assistance from public sources and published under the editorial responsibility of AndroidPure’s editor. How we work.
