Apple One is now available. You can upgrade now by going to Settings -> Apple ID -> Subscriptions on your iPhone or iPad. Apple One is a services package including Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+ and iCloud storage.
There are three Apple One tiers. The cheapest tier costs $14.95 per month and includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade and 50 GB of iCloud. The most expensive ‘Apple One Premier’ costs $29.95 per month … but how much money do you actually save?
Firstly, a reminder of what Apple charges for its services individually on a monthly basis.
Apple Music costs $9.99 for individuals, or $14.99 for a family plan. iCloud costs $0.99 for 50 GB, $2.99 for 200 GB and $9.99 for 2 TB. Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade cost $4.99 each. Apple News+ is $9.99. And Apple’s newest subscription, Apple Fitness+, will cost $9.99 when it launches at the end of the year.
What can you save on the Apple One bundle as an Individual?
So, the Apple One Individual plan costs $14.95 per month. For that price, you get Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50 GB of iCloud storage. Bought separately, those services add up to $20.96 per month.
The Apple One Individual plan is priced at $14.95, so you save about $6.
If you want to use Family Sharing for Apple Music and iCloud, you need Apple One Family. (However, the Individual plan will still let you share the Arcade and TV+ service with your family.)
What about Apple One Family?
Apple One Family is available for Family Sharing groups of up to six people, offering Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 200 GB of iCloud storage. If you are subscribing to these services separately, it would cost you $27.96.
Apple One Family is priced at $19.95 per month, or a price saving of $8.01. That’s about 30% cheaper, and represents a bigger saving than the Apple One Individual tier.
Another way to think about this: if you currently pay for Apple Music and Apple TV+, for the same price on Apple One you get 200 GB of iCloud and Apple Arcade.
However, many families will need more than 200 GB of iCloud. This is where the Premier plan comes in. (Apple has said you can buy additional iCloud storage separately to what’s included in Apple One, but the pricing of those upgrades has not yet been announced.)
Should I buy the Apple One Premier bundle?
The Apple One Premier plan is designed for families who want everything Apple offers. It gives you 2 TB of iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple Fitness+.
Apple One Premier is the most expensive plan, priced at $29.95 per month, but it also offers the biggest savings. The Apple One Premier services sold individually sum to $54.94, so the Premier tier is almost half the price.
Of course, you may not be interested in everything Apple has to offer: many people don’t use Apple News+ or Apple Arcade for instance. However, due to the significant discounting, you will still be better off in many cases.
If your family currently uses Apple Music and needs 2 TB of iCloud storage, for those two services alone you will be paying $25 monthly. For just $5 extra, Apple One Premier gives you Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple Fitness+. It appears to be a very aggressive deal. (And if you are in the US, you can use the Apple Card to get an additional 3% cashback.)
One gotcha to be aware of for international readers is that Apple One Premier will not be available in all regions. Because it includes News+, Apple One Premier will only be available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. Hopefully, Apple is working to expand the reach of Apple News+ and therefore offer its premier bundle to more countries in the near future.
The other two plans — Apple One Individual and Apple One Family — will be offered in more than 100 countries. Pricing varies per region, but in almost every case you will still find yourself saving money.
One more note to be aware of is that all of these calculations are based on monthly pricing. Some Apple services let you sign up for a year at a time, like Apple Arcade and Apple TV+, with 10-15% savings. A yearly plan of Fitness+ will cost $79.99 for example, compared to $120 in monthly payments. This means that if you only want one or two of Apple’s services, you might be able to find a better deal by subscribing to yearly plans rather than Apple One. Apple One bundles are only available on a monthly basis.
I don’t care about Apple One. Can I still buy my Apple Music separately?
Yes, if you don’t want the bundle, you don’t have to have it. You can continue to subscribe to Apple’s services individually. For example, if you currently subscribe to Apple Music and pay for 50 GB of iCloud as an individual, Apple bills you $10.99 in total per month. As the Apple One Individual plan is priced at $14.95, it would not be worth it to you to switch over on a raw cost basis, especially if you are not interested in Apple TV+ or Apple Arcade.
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