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Apple's 2026 Back to School Offer Goes Live in the US: Up to $150 Gift Card With Mac or iPad

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Apple's annual Back to School promotion is now live in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, following earlier rollouts in Asia. This year's promotion offers a free Apple gift card with the purchase of an eligible Mac or iPad.

Apple 2026 Back to School Graphic
Apple is offering a $150 gift card with any new MacBook Pro, and a $100 gift card with any new MacBook Air, iPad Pro, and iPad Air. The gift card can be used towards purchases of Apple products and accessories, App Store apps, subscriptions to services like Apple Music, iCloud+ storage, and more.

The MacBook Neo is not an eligible product. Neither are the iPad mini, entry-level iPad, or any desktop Macs.

The promotion runs through August 27, 2026, in the U.S., according to Apple's terms and conditions. The gift card is offered in addition to Apple's standard education pricing, which provides discounts of roughly 5% to 10% on most Macs and iPads.

The offer is available through Apple's online Education Store and Apple Store locations. Eligible customers include current and newly accepted higher-education students, faculty and staff at higher-education institutions, parents purchasing on behalf of an eligible student, employees of K-12 institutions, and select other qualifying customers.

UNiDAYS verification is now required on Apple's education store in the U.S. and Canada.

Tag: Back to School Promotion

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Top Rated Comments

R
ricketysquire
9 weeks ago
Back in my day, you used to get the following:

1. A student discount on the MacBook Pro and AppleCare
3. A free printer
4. A free iPod touch

Man I feel old.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
svish
9 weeks ago
Offer has gone back to gift card unlike the previous year and also iMac misses out. Gift card value is also lower than what it was in 2024. Also the offer period is much shorter, only 1 month and 10 days. Overall disappointing!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
sw1tcher
9 weeks ago

Apple is offering a $150 gift card with any new MacBook Pro, and a $100 gift card with any new MacBook Air, iPad Pro, and iPad Air.

Offer has gone back to gift card unlike the previous year and also iMac misses out. Gift card value is also lower than what it was in 2024.
Yes and no.

MacBook Pro is still $150 just like in 2024, but the MacBook Air is $50 less vs 2024, while the Mac mini and iMac are no longer eligible.

iPad Pro and iPad Air are still $100 just like in 2024.

So only the MacBook Air is less now vs what it was in 2024.

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/20/apple-back-to-schoo-promotion-launches/

Apple is offering a $150 gift card with any new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac, and a $100 gift card with the purchase of any new M4 iPad Pro, M2 iPad Air, or Mac mini.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EugW Avatar
EugW
9 weeks ago

I can't believe the Neo is excluded.
I’m not surprised. I was expecting it to either be excluded or else at best have a much lower value promotion than the MacBook Air.

I’ll be waiting for the 12 GB Neo though, before making any purchase.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Abazigal Avatar
Abazigal
9 weeks ago
Hey, at least you get credit towards a future purchase. We get stuck with AirTags. 🙃
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
DEMinSoCAL
9 weeks ago

The Neo is perfect for post-secondary students who aren't in engineering or multimedia content creation or something like that. eg. It would be great for someone in English lit or pre-med. ...Or at least a 12 GB model would be. :p However, I understand not including it in the promo, simply for price reasons.
I didn't mean to imply that the Neo wasn't usable by someone in college, I meant that I think Apple doesn't try hard to market it to that educational sector. Obviously, by not including Neo in Back to School which is College only, that sort of supports my opinion. Any college kid would benefit from getting a MacBook Air over the Neo, especially if they need it to cover their needs for a 4-6 year education program. I think a MBA is more perfect for post-secondary. ;)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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