Apple has launched an unusually limited Back to School series of deals and they are not to be dismissed, but there are far greater discounts to be had from other resellers.

Even when it isn’t raising prices, it is a rule with Apple that it will never actually have sales on its products, except for certain regular promotions in China. So for this latest deal, it is again falling back on offering Apple gift cards alongside selected products.

So when a user buys one of these devices, they get a gift card that amounts to money off their next purchase. Consequently if someone knows they need two Apple devices, they can get money off the second one.

This year is unusual, however, as Apple has begun its Back to School promotion around a month later than usual. At least at time of writing, it’s also not promoting it outside of the education section of its website.

Apple has also cut the offer a little short, saying that it only runs through August 27, 2026. Plus the offer is available “for Qualified Purchasers only,” which suggests it’s limited to people verified to be in education.

Then, too, the range of gift cards is reduced. This year there’s no desktop Mac included and so the deals and their gift card amounts are only:

MacBook Pro: $150

MacBook Air: $100

iPad Pro: $100

iPad Air: $100

These savings are good, but they are substantially poorer than those from other resellers who do not limit the deals to education buyers. Plus all other resellers actually lower prices instead of having people juggle gift cards.

Then, too, while it has limited the offer more this time, Apple always selects only a few devices to include in its Back to School sales, where resellers do not. Resellers will have limited supplies, but they tend to offer more devices, and they also don’t usually confine them to the Back to School period, either.

Discounted Macs

There are hundreds of markdowns in our constantly-updated Mac Price Guide, and the discounts are not limited to students and faculty. You can jump straight to the individual Price Guides, broken down by screen size and chip, below.

Discounted iPads

There are also heavy discounts on iPads, without the EDU requirement, and each is detailed in our ongoing iPad Price Guide.

Looking for the catch

There is no catch on these third-party deals for Apple devices, but there is a caveat. There are always offers but none of them will ever last for long, so if you see one that’s right for you and your budget, you need to buy quickly.

Otherwise, these are the same devices you would get from Apple, with the same warranties.