Apple has less than a week left before it pulls the curtain back on the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max, and, for the first time ever, a folding iPhone widely tipped to be called the iPhone Ultra. The event lands on September 9, 2026, and in the run-up to it, pricing leaks have come thicker and faster than almost any other iPhone cycle in recent memory.
The numbers floating around are all over the place, which is exactly what makes this one interesting. Some leaks say Apple is holding the line at $999. Others put the base Pro model at $1,199. And the foldable? Estimates range from $1,928 all the way past $3,000 for the top storage tier. None of it is official yet, but enough carriers, analysts, and supply-chain sources have weighed in that a pattern is starting to form.
Why This Year’s Pricing Is So Unpredictable
Three things are colliding at once, and Apple can’t dodge any of them.
First, the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max are expected to be the first iPhones built on TSMC’s 2-nanometer process. That chip alone reportedly costs Apple around $85 per unit to produce, up from roughly $50 for the previous generation’s processor, a jump of about 70%.
Second, there’s the memory shortage the industry has taken to calling “RAMageddon.” Component analysts at TrendForce say the cost of a single 256GB storage module is now roughly four times what it was a year ago. That’s not a typo. Nintendo already passed a similar cost increase on to Switch 2 buyers earlier this year, and Apple is under the same pressure with RAM and NAND flash suppliers.
Third, Apple’s own recent behaviour is a tell. Macs and iPads that got refreshed earlier in 2026 saw average price increases of around 23%. If that pattern holds for iPhones, a $100–$200 bump across the Pro lineup wouldn’t be a shock; it would be consistent with what the company has already done elsewhere.
What Leakers Are Saying About the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max
Here’s where the numbers start to diverge. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, usually one of the more reliable names in this space, has pointed to a base iPhone 18 Pro starting around $1,199, up from the $1,099 the iPhone 17 Pro launched at last year. That’s a $100 increase, which Gurman frames as Apple trying to keep the hike “moderate” given how bad the component situation actually is.
A separate leak claims Apple might instead hold the starting price at $999, but with a catch: 128GB stays the base storage tier, which by 2026 standards is genuinely tight once you account for 4K ProRes footage and on-device AI models eating into local storage. If that’s the play, Apple isn’t cutting the price, it’s shifting the squeeze onto storage upgrades instead, which tend to be where the company makes its real margin anyway.
On the Pro Max side, a Weibo tipster pegged the China price at roughly 11,000 yuan, which converts to about $1,625, a jump of roughly $400 over the outgoing iPhone 17 Pro Max. And a Vodafone Egypt leak, one of the more concrete data points so far since it comes from an actual carrier price sheet rather than a forum post, suggests Egyptian pricing that converts to figures broadly in line with what the 17 series cost at launch, once Egypt’s roughly 38% import duty is stripped out.
| Source | Model | Leaked Price (USD equivalent) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bloomberg (Mark Gurman) | iPhone 18 Pro (base) | ~$1,199 | Up from $1,099; cited as a “moderate” hike |
| Techgenyz | iPhone 18 Pro (base) | ~$999 | Base storage held at 128GB as trade-off |
| Weibo tipster | iPhone 18 Pro Max | ~$1,625 | Roughly $400 above the 17 Pro Max |
| Vodafone Egypt | iPhone 18 Pro / Pro Max | Converts close to 17-series launch pricing | Egypt’s ~38% import duty baked into local figure |
Worth saying plainly: none of these are confirmed. Take the $999 figure with a decent amount of salt, it would be an unusual move for Apple given everything else pointing upward. The $1,199 figure from Gurman currently has the most credible sourcing behind it.
The Foldable iPhone Ultra: Apple’s First $2,000+ Phone
This is the bigger story, honestly. Apple’s first folding phone isn’t just new hardware, it’s set to become the most expensive iPhone the company has ever sold, by a wide margin.
The Vodafone Egypt leak put the Ultra at prices converting to roughly $1,928 and $2,065 depending on configuration. Other rumors circulating since earlier in the year had suggested a range anywhere from $2,000 to $2,500. Then TrendForce, a supply-chain research firm that tends to have decent visibility into component orders, threw out numbers that make even those look conservative: a 256GB base model starting somewhere between $2,099 and $2,299, with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB versions on top of that, some of which could cross $3,000.
For context, a maxed-out iPhone 17 Pro Max currently tops out just under $2,000. The Ultra would push the ceiling for an iPhone up by roughly another $1,000, before you even get into the higher storage tiers.
| Configuration | Estimated Price (USD) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 256GB (entry) | $2,099 – $2,299 | TrendForce |
| Mid-range (est. 512GB) | Above $2,300 | TrendForce projection |
| 1TB / 2TB (top tier) | Could exceed $3,000 | TrendForce projection |
| Alternate carrier leak | $1,928 – $2,065 | Vodafone Egypt (converted) |
TrendForce also makes an important point that’s easy to lose in the noise: foldables are expected to remain under 2% of the global smartphone market in 2026. This isn’t Apple trying to build a mass-market device. It’s a luxury flex product, priced like one, aimed at buyers who want the newest form factor and don’t need to think twice about the number on the receipt. The iPhone X crossed the symbolic $1,000 line back in 2017. The Ultra looks set to do the same thing to the $2,000 line, and maybe the $3,000 one too, depending on how you configure it.
A Twist: The Standard iPhone 18 Might Not Show Up At All
One detail that’s easy to miss in all the price talk: Apple may be skipping the standard iPhone 18 at this event entirely. Multiple reports suggest the base iPhone 18, and possibly the second-generation iPhone Air — could be pushed back to early 2027, leaving the Pro, Pro Max, and Ultra as the only new phones launching this September.
If that holds up, it means the cheapest brand-new iPhone available this fall is the Pro model, starting somewhere between $999 and $1,199. Anyone hoping to buy into the new generation at a lower price point may simply not have that option until next year.
What It Means for Nigerian Buyers
For readers in Nigeria, the dollar figures only tell half the story. At the current official exchange rate of roughly ₦1,370 to $1, a $1,199 iPhone 18 Pro converts to somewhere around ₦1.6 million before Nigeria’s own import duties, VAT, and retailer margins are added, and those additions typically push local iPhone prices well past a straight currency conversion. Historically, new iPhones have retailed in Nigeria for 30–50% above their US sticker price once landed costs are factored in. If the Ultra does launch near $2,100–$3,000, expect Lagos and Abuja retail listings, once they show up, to sit meaningfully higher than that.
The practical takeaway: if a $1,199 starting price for the Pro sounds steep in dollars, budget for it to feel considerably steeper by the time it’s sitting in a store display case on the Island or in Computer Village.
Apple’s event is set for September 9, 2026, and that’s when all of this stops being leaks and starts being an actual price list. Given how many different figures are circulating, $999 on the low end, north of $3,000 on the high end for the Ultra, the safest read right now is that Apple is raising prices across the board, the only real question is by how much, and the foldable is going to cost more than most people expect. We’ll have the confirmed numbers the moment Apple makes them official.
