Apple's 2026 Back to School Offer is Coming Soon

[MacRumors]

Apple's stores will be rolling out Back to School marketing materials this week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This suggests that the offer will begin in the U.S. in the next few days.

Last year, college students and educational staff could receive a free accessory like AirPods 4 or an Apple Pencil Pro with the purchase of a qualifying Mac or iPad model. The Back to School offer is in addition to the discounted prices already available through Apple's education store year-round, but it will be a bittersweet situation this year given that Apple recently raised prices on all Macs and iPads.

Article Link: Apple's 2026 Back to School Offer is Coming Soon

 

[EugW]

What I’m most curious about is what the promo will be for the MacBook Neo. Will it be excluded like the Mac mini? If not excluded, will the promo be of lesser value than the MacBook Air’s promo?

I likely won’t be getting the Neo this year but will hopefully get the 12 GB model next year.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

Does the offer include a free iPhone for life?

 

[coachgq]

What I’m most curious about is what the promo will be for the MacBook Neo. Will it be excluded like the Mac mini? If not excluded, will the promo be of lesser value than the MacBook Air’s promo?

I likely won’t be getting the Neo this year but will hopefully get the 12 GB model next year.

Same for me. I plan on buying the Neo this time next year as my daughter will be heading off to her 1st year of Uni.

 

[Geekett]

Hopefully in Europe too

 

[De4our]

I bought a MacBook Pro from the Education Store on 6/23, right before the price hike, I’m wondering if I can call them/go to the Apple Store and get a free accessory since it hasn’t shipped yet and likely won’t arrive for two more weeks (I bought the elusive 128GB of RAM option.)

 

[svish]

Will be interesting to see the offers this year. Think the Neo will be excluded along with the mini. Could be either gift cards of lower value than previous years or some free accessories.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

Apple's stores will be rolling out Back to School marketing materials this week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This suggests that the offer will begin in the U.S. in the next few days.

What I heard was promo was cancelled due to RAM prices but looks like it’s back on but likely significantly scaled back.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I was at the mall today, and they had back to school signage up.

 

[TwoBytes]

What bugs me is Gurman is saying this when it's known already 'it's coming soon' by the entire Apple community.

 

[andrewcool]

I was at the mall today, and they had back to school signage up.

what was the promo?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

what was the promo?

They didn't advertise anything specific, it was large signage on a stand and a QR code advertising back to school sales. Frankly it gave the impression that there weren't any. I thought it was a bit weird, overall.

 

[veeliam]

I was at the mall today, and they had back to school signage up.

Cool! Hopefully they will launch at the same time for ASIA too..

 

[hajime]

Every week we get this kind of post about BTS promotion. Everyweek no BTS promotion.

 

[JPack]

They didn't advertise anything specific, it was large signage on a stand and a QR code advertising back to school sales. Frankly it gave the impression that there weren't any. I thought it was a bit weird, overall.

We might have to walk back the assumption that promotional materials = BTS offer. Gurman's post doesn't mention it.

 

[veeliam]

They have launched in Malaysia, not sure if US timezone will follow.

 

[hajime]

I would be happier if they were going to launch “Back to Original Prices” promotion.

 

[De4our]

I bought a MacBook Pro from the Education Store on 6/23, right before the price hike, I’m wondering if I can call them/go to the Apple Store and get a free accessory since it hasn’t shipped yet and likely won’t arrive for two more weeks (I bought the elusive 128GB of RAM option.)

As a follow-up, because I think people thought I was absurd to suggest this, Apple just granted me the $150 gift card promo. Called support and it was a very straightforward ask.

So that’s $2,000 less than the new MSRP, and $150 credit on top to boot. I can’t complain too much that we didn’t get the M5 Ultra on time, this is a great investment.