Is AppleCare One cheaper than AppleCare Plus? It depends

Apple announced some big changes to its device protection plans this week with the introduction of AppleCare One. The new service lets you protect three devices for $19.99 per month. That means things like your Apple TV, AirPods Max, and iPad can be covered under one plan at a cost that doesn’t fluctuate. And every device after that costs $5.99 per month to add.

The company’s goal is to convince customers that this new service is easier and a better value compared to enrolling each device in its own AppleCare Plus plan. In reality, how much you save depends entirely on the Apple devices you have. People who buy its latest and greatest products will yield significantly more savings compared to those who buy its most affordable products. It’s a little confusing, so let’s break it down.

Apple claims that customers can save $11 each month by enrolling an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and an iPad in AppleCare One compared to paying for three individual AppleCare Plus plans for those devices. But that’s not true across the board for all of its models. For example, the monthly cost for iPhone coverage with AppleCare Plus starts at $9.99 for the cheapest and oldest eligible models, whereas the iPad and Apple Watch start at $4.99 and $2.99 (both of which are up slightly compared to prices before this week, when the Theft and Loss benefit was tacked on for either protection plan), respectively, totaling $17.97. In this case, AppleCare One is a slightly worse deal than buying plans a la carte.

Where the new service shines is if you own some of Apple’s most expensive products, like the iPhone 16 Pro, the Apple Vision Pro, and a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with the M4 chip. Paying for a monthly AppleCare Plus plan for each of those three would cost $47.47 altogether, according to a list of prices Apple PR manager Anna Mitchell shared with The Verge. AppleCare One, on the other hand, would still be $19.99 — for any mix of three products, Mitchell confirmed — which is obviously the better deal by a huge margin.

For a more typical product buildout — like the base iPhone 16, AirPods Pro, and the latest 13-inch MacBook Air — the savings are far more modest. With AppleCare Plus, the iPhone costs $11.99 per month, the MacBook Air costs $6.99 per month, and you can pay $14.99 upfront for a year of coverage for the AirPods Pro (monthly coverage isn’t an option, but this shakes out to $1.25 per month). AppleCare One would save you a quarter each month, thereabouts. Nothing to get excited about.

What’s important to keep in mind is, just like AppleCare Plus, AppleCare One only serves as the key to unlock cheaper repair and replacement prices. You still have to pay deductibles and fees for each and every repair, and those costs vary depending on the device, as well as the type of repair you need. How much you can expect to pay — which is in addition to your monthly AppleCare fee — is listed on Apple’s website. Either warranty plan you opt for yields significant savings versus paying out of pocket without coverage. For example, accidental damage to my iPhone 13 would cost $600 without AppleCare versus $100 with it.

The answer to “Is AppleCare One a good deal?” isn’t as simple as just having expensive, high-end gear. Apple hopes to lure those who don’t upgrade their tech with every release cycle with AppleCare One. One of its biggest selling points is that you can enroll devices up to four years old that are in good condition (or up to one year old for headphones). This beats the 60-day cutoff for adding AppleCare Plus to new purchases, which is generous but easy to forget about if you don’t enroll right away. In other words, if you missed the boat on enrolling your devices originally and want to reduce the upfront cost of repairs for eligible devices, AppleCare One seems like a great way to do that. Especially since there’s no mandatory amount of time you need to be a member before you can reap the benefits of cheaper repairs.

Apple has been going hard on its services in the past handful of years, and its efforts to get its customers further embedded in its walled garden seem to be paying off. Its most recent quarterly earnings showed that services earnings were at an all-time high, and AppleCare One might become an essential part of its plan moving forward. But whether it’s an essential subscription for you depends on the devices you own.