The cheapest place to buy an iPhone 15

The iPhone 15 is every bit as impressive as we expected, and the iPhone 14 is a powerful phone that rivals any Android phone on the market and its predecessor was just as good. We also know what the prices are in each different country. This makes us ask, where is the cheapest place to buy iPhone 15?

It’s worth asking because iPhone 15 pricing can vary significantly across borders, and we’re also thinking from the perspective of a U.S. resident. Most nationals buying an iPhone 15 in the United States will have to pay sales tax when purchasing an iPhone 15, but that’s not the case abroad. In fact, if you’re passing through a country as a tourist, you can even claim a sales tax refund when buying a phone in that country. This is one of the reasons why some people like shopping abroad.

How does this affect the cost of buying an iPhone 15 outside the US? Let’s crunch the numbers.

Which countries/regions are the cheapest to buy iPhone 15?

We looked up iPhone 15 prices in dozens of countries for comparison, based on the price of buying the unlocked model from Apple’s official website in each region. There are ways to buy a phone for less than retail through carrier plans or trade-ins, but they don’t come without caveats. You might even come across vendors trying to sell you a phone at a better price while traveling, but we recommend treating such offers with caution. If it’s not from an official Apple retailer and the price is suspiciously cheap since the phone launched, you may be looking at a stolen or counterfeit model.

The table below shows how much an iPhone 15 costs in each country for U.S. residents, in U.S. dollars. We’ve saved you the math, but the price you see is the cost of the phone in the country in question, minus any tax you’ll be able to claim back as a tourist, then converted to US dollars on the day of publication. The United States is an exception because of increased sales taxes. It depends on your state, but since the iPhone 15 retails for $799 in the U.S., we used $875 as the price plus tax as an average baseline for what you’d end up paying at home.

The cheapest place to buy an iPhone 15 is Japan, and it’s still some distance away. If you refund the 10% sales tax before leaving, the phone will sell for $760. The next cheapest countries are China at $835, Canada at $836, and some other countries with slightly lower prices than the United States.

Brazil, on the other hand, is by far the most expensive country to buy an iPhone 15 in US dollars. While the phone sells for between $800 and $1,000 in most regions, the phone in the South American country costs more than $1,800. We discuss some possible reasons below.

Should I buy iPhone 15 from other countries?

For U.S. residents whose main purpose is to buy an iPhone 15, it’s certainly not worth traveling to Japan or any other country. The most you can save is around $100, while your trip will cost many times that amount. Brazilians can actually buy two devices for the price of one at home, so may be more willing to take a trip.

If you’re just passing through one of the cheaper countries for business or pleasure, you might decide it’s worth picking up the iPhone 15 at the slightly lower price. You must make sure you have time to claim your rebate and understand the process involved. You should also be aware that the phone may be configured differently out of the box, making any manufacturer’s warranty more difficult to take advantage of once you get home. Our advice is don’t bother.

iPhone 15 price in each country will depend on a number of market forces specific to that region. These include various taxes, import duties and shipping costs to get the phone on shelves, as well as consumer demand for the device. The profit margins Apple believes it can increase based on the country’s spending power are also a factor. It seems crazy that the phone could cost double in some parts of the world, but the company has done its market research.

For example, Brazil’s seemingly rip-off pricing may have something to do with the country’s tax system. Huge import taxes are imposed on foreign-made technology products such as iPhones, sometimes as much as 100% of the product’s value. When this cost is passed on to the consumer, you see prices double.

We must also return to the main caveat of this article, which is that we compare each country’s prices by converting them to US dollars. This brings currency issues into the discussion, and the global economy has been quite volatile in recent years. Since prices in each country are determined by Apple’s team, exchange rates can fluctuate wildly, and they may even have ideas on how the exchange rates will change in the future. When we revisit this article in the coming weeks and months, we wouldn’t be surprised to see another country at the top of the list.

If you’re in the United States, you can save some cash when you buy an iPhone 15 through carrier offers. T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon have some great deals going on. In some cases, you can even get an iPhone 15 for free.