Apple's 2025 Back to School Sale Now Live, Offering Free Accessories With Purchases

Apple today launched its annual Back to School promotion, offering eligible students, educators, and parents free accessories worth up to $199 when purchasing select Mac and iPad models through September 30.

bts overlay store 202505 header
The 2025 promotion is different from last year's up-to-$150 gift card format, and instead provides eligible customers with their choice of popular Apple accessories. Some accessories are completely free, while other more expensive options incur an additional fee on top of the main device purchase. Here's a breakdown of what's on offer.

MacBook Buyers

Customers purchasing any new MacBook can select from accessories valued up to $199:

  • AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (free, $179 value)
  • AirPods Pro 2 (additional $70 fee, $249 total value)
  • Magic Mouse ($79–$99 value)
  • Magic Trackpad ($129–$149 value)
  • Magic Keyboard with Touch ID ($179–$199 value)

iPad Buyers

iPad buyers can choose accessories ranging from $119 to $210 in value:

  • Apple Pencil Pro (free, $119 value)
  • AirPods 4 (free, $129 value)
  • AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (free, $179 value)
  • Premium keyboard options available with additional fees up to $210

Magic Keyboard accessories are available for various iPad models, though they all require paying an additional fee on top of the price of the iPad.

iMac Buyers

iMac purchasers can select accessories worth up to $179:

  • AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (free, $179 value)
  • AirPods Pro 2 (additional $70 fee, $179 value)

The promotion is open to K-12 employees, including teachers and school board members, plus higher education faculty, staff, and students. Parents buying for college-bound children also qualify. The promotion runs alongside Apple's year-round education pricing discounts.

The offer begins today and remains available through September 30, 2025, with full terms and conditions available on Apple's education store.

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Top Rated Comments

ricketysquire Avatar
4 weeks ago
Back in my day the back to school sale was much better. You got the student discount, a free printer and a free iPod touch.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Astuces iOS Avatar
4 weeks ago
Imagine already having AirPods Pro 2, a Magic Mouse/or trackpad and a keyboard… ?

I always preferred gift cards
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ThailandToo Avatar
4 weeks ago
This deal gets worse and worse. Better off just buying from Amazon or Best Buy.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
neuropsychguy Avatar
4 weeks ago
I'd prefer the gift card option, but I can also understand the draw for Apple in providing a product instead.

It's not too bad to be able to buy the base M4 MacBook Air for $900 and get a set of AirPods Pro 2 for $70 (total of $969). You could, however, possibly piece together a similar deal but there's nothing currently that's broadly available that beats that price.

Amazon has the base M4 Air for $850 and AirPods Pro for $169. That's a total of $1019, or $968.05 if you have a Prime credit card and get the 5% cashback. Apple's price with the Apple Card and 3% cashback would be $939.93. The savings of buying from Apple is thus only about $30 in that specific case.

Other accessories that don't go on sale like AirPods Pro do could save you more money buying through Apple.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Innovati0n Avatar
4 weeks ago
Tossing in a Magic Keyboard with a MacBook is weird to me. I get that it'd be handy for those who dock their MacBook but those people likely already have a keyboard solution anyway.

Including that with a Mac mini would be a huge win and make more sense but they didn't do it.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
4 weeks ago
Apple today launched its annual Back to School promotion, offering eligible students, educators, and parents free accessories worth up to $199 when purchasing select Mac and iPad models through September 30.
What a terrible offer. These accessories (e.g. AirPods) are almost always on sale which means that $199 value is actually a lot lower.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)