How much will iPhone 18 Pro cost? Latest leaks hint at Apple’s ‘aggressive’ pricing plans

Apple's iPhone 18 Pro is all set to launch later this year, but the leaks about the company's latest flagship devices show no signs of stopping.

How much will the iPhone 18 Pro series cost?

As per a new leak by analyst Jeff Pu (via 9to5Mac), Apple will use ‘aggressive pricing’ for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max this year. The report notes that this aggressive pricing should apply at least to the base models but does not attribute any specific price to the analyst.

Meanwhile, an earlier report by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had noted in a post on X earlier this year that Apple is planning to absorb the supply chain shocks and keep the price of the iPhone 18 Pro lineup unchanged in order to grab more market share.

“Higher memory costs will hit iPhone gross margins. But Apple’s playbook is clear: use the market chaos to their advantage—secure the chips, absorb the costs, and grab more market share. They’ll make it back later on the services side,” Kuo noted.

Notably, the demand for memory chips has been rising due to AI data centres, which has led to a shortage of these chips that are essential for making smartphones. As a result, Android smartphone makers have had to increase the prices of their devices, which is evident from almost every major release in the last four months.

Even major smartphone makers like Samsung have had to increase the prices of their Galaxy and A-series devices.

However, it seems like Apple, which will be debuting the iPhone 18 Pro lineup under its new CEO John Ternus, is willing to take a hit on its profit margins to grab a bigger chunk of the smartphone market.

If the leaks turn out to be true, we could see the iPhone 18 Pro starting at a base price of $1,099 and the iPhone 18 Pro Max beginning at $1,199. However, the iPhone Ultra/Fold could begin at a much higher price, with current leaks estimating it at over $2,000.

Just because the price of the iPhone 18 Pro lineup may not change in the US doesn't mean you will see the same prices for these phones in India as well. Apple has shown in the past, with the likes of the iPhone 17e, that it might keep the global price of its products unchanged while hiking the Indian variant prices.

What to expect from the iPhone 18 Pro lineup?

Rumours suggest that Apple will bring the same 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch OLED displays to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max as last year. The new flagships could come with a much smaller Dynamic Island, which could be around 35% narrower than last year.

The phones are expected to be powered by the new 2nm A20 Pro chipset with around a 15% increase in CPU speeds and around 30% better power efficiency.

The phones are also expected to come with a C2 modem, ditching the Qualcomm modem on their predecessors.

There isn't expected to be a major design change for the iPhone 18 Pro lineup, but we could see the phones coming in fresh new colour variants, which could include: Dark Cherry, Light Blue, Mist Blue, and Dark Grey.