iPhone Warranty: How Long It Lasts and How to Check Your Coverage

Every iPhone comes with Apple's one-year limited warranty covering hardware defects, plus 90 days of complimentary technical support by phone or chat. The clock starts on the date of purchase.

Apple is the one brand on this site where checking your coverage genuinely is a real-time lookup. Enter your serial number or IMEI into Apple's coverage checker and it returns your exact repair coverage status and expiry date. There is no ambiguity and no need to guess from a warranty document.

The single most important thing to understand is what the standard warranty is not: it does not cover accidental damage. A cracked screen, a bent frame or liquid damage is your cost unless you have AppleCare+. Apple's own diagnostics detect liquid contact through indicators inside the device, so a phone that has been wet is identifiable even after it dries.

Note that consumer law in some US states may give you rights beyond Apple's limited warranty, and Apple states this explicitly in its own terms.

The warranty covers manufacturing defects, not damage. Screens that crack, frames that bend and water ingress are all excluded regardless of how careful you were.

Battery coverage is about defect, not wear. Batteries degrade with use, and a battery at 85% capacity after eighteen months is behaving normally, not failing. The warranty applies where the battery falls below 80% within the warranty period, which indicates a fault rather than ordinary ageing.

Unauthorized repairs can affect coverage. A third-party screen replacement does not automatically void your entire warranty, but Apple will not cover any subsequent problem attributable to that repair or to a non-genuine part, and some non-genuine parts disable features such as Face ID or true-tone display.

A device reported lost or stolen, or one still locked to another Apple Account, cannot be serviced. Apple will check activation lock status before accepting a device for repair.

You can check coverage without the phone in hand. Settings, then General, then About shows the coverage status directly on a working iPhone; the serial number works in Apple's web checker for a device that will not power on.

AppleCare+ is meaningfully different from a typical extended warranty, and the distinction is worth understanding. It does not mainly extend the hardware term — it adds accidental damage coverage, which the standard warranty never includes at any price. For a device you carry in a pocket every day, that is the coverage that actually pays out.

Accidental damage repairs under AppleCare+ carry a service fee rather than being free, and the fee depends on the type of damage — screen and back glass repairs are charged at a lower rate than other damage. Compare that fee against Apple's out-of-warranty repair price for your model to see what you are actually saving.

AppleCare+ must be bought within a limited window after your device purchase, and Apple offers it either as a fixed term or as a rolling monthly subscription. A separate theft and loss tier exists, which the standard AppleCare+ plan does not include.

Before buying, check whether you already have coverage. Many credit cards extend manufacturer warranties, some cover cell phone damage when you pay your phone bill with the card, and homeowner's or renter's policies sometimes cover personal electronics. Carrier insurance plans are a separate option worth pricing against AppleCare+.