Apple Upgrade puts a 256GB iPhone 18 Pro in your hand for $34.99 a month over 24 months. Apple's own footnote is blunt about what that is: “This offer is for a consumer lease, not a purchase or loan.” A 12-month term runs $49.99. Apple publishes the monthly figure and names the ways the term can end. It does not publish the buyout price, the early termination charge, or the damage fees.
This is the first flagship iPhone launch since Apple retired the iPhone Upgrade Program on July 28 and handed the replacement to Klarna. Paying by installment on a $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro is $49.95 a month for 24 months, which comes to $1,198.80 and ends with the phone being yours. The lease is $34.99 a month for the same 24 months, which comes to $839.76 and ends with a decision. The $359.04 between those totals is roughly the size of the thing Apple has not priced.
A lease can end four ways and three of them have an unpriced element. Upgrading to a new device carries no published condition schedule beyond returning the old one in good shape. Buying it outright takes a one-time payment whose amount Apple does not state. Returning it may bring damage fees, described only as fees that may apply. Doing nothing converts the agreement to a month-to-month lease for up to six months, at a rate Apple has not printed.
Apple's footnote says you may incur a substantial charge if you end the lease before the term is up, and leaving early is the expensive door. Substantial is not quantified. There is no schedule showing how the charge shrinks as the months run down, and nothing on how it differs between the 12-month and the 24-month plan.
On Apple Card Monthly Installments at 0 percent APR, paying the balance early is just paying the balance. A lease is a commitment with a fee attached to breaking it, and Apple has priced the commitment and not the break.
You need to be 18 or older, a US resident with a Social Security number or an ITIN, an accepted credit or debit card, an Apple Account in good standing and a Klarna account. You have to be able to receive security texts and to pick an eligible carrier at checkout. AppleCare is not included, though you can add a subscription. Apple Upgrade is not offered in Apple's Veterans and Military storefront.
Apple Watch Series 12 42mm starts at $11.99 a month over 24 months, Mac at $24.99, iPad at $11.99, and the iPhone Duo at $57.99 when pre-orders open in October. Watch and iPhone leases run 12 or 24 months. Mac and iPad run 24 or 36. Across that range, not one lease footnote carries a buyout figure, per The Mac Observer.