Apple’s Back to School sale (officially the “College Student Offer” now) is live in India, running until August 27, 2026, through Apple’s Education Store online and in select retail locations. It arrives a few weeks after Apple raised prices across the Mac and iPad lineup, so the education pricing here is partly just softening a hike that already happened. Here’s what’s actually on the table, and if anything is worth buying.
MacBook Pricing
- MacBook Air (M5): starts at ₹1,37,900 with education savings
- MacBook Pro (M5): starts at ₹2,27,900
- MacBook Pro (M5 Pro): starts at ₹2,81,900
- MacBook Pro (M5 Max): starts at ₹4,62,900
With any of these, you get a free 4-pack of AirTags or free AirPods 4. You can also pay the difference to upgrade to AirPods 4 with ANC or AirPods Pro 3 at discounted rates. I think the AirPods 4 will be the best deal for most students.
iPad Pricing
- iPad Air (M4): starts at ₹83,900
- iPad Pro: starts at ₹1,27,900
Both come with a free Apple Pencil Pro. You can additionally add a 4-pack of AirTags for ₹2,000, AirPods 4 for ₹2,000, AirPods 4 with ANC for ₹3,000, or AirPods Pro 3 for ₹15,000, all well under retail.
The base iPad and iPad mini are both excluded from this year’s Back to School promo, along with desktop Macs (iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, Mac Pro) and the MacBook Neo. Only MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iPad Air, and iPad Pro qualify for the freebie + promo pricing. They do still get Apple’s standard year-round education discount.
For context on retail pricing: AirPods 4 sell for ₹12,900 on their own, AirPods 4 with ANC for ₹17,900, and AirPods Pro 3 for ₹25,900. Apple Pencil Pro retails around ₹11,900.
So getting AirPods 4 free with a Mac, or a Pencil Pro free with an iPad, is a real, tangible saving. One Mac and one iPad per eligible customer, and you’ll need to verify student, teacher, or staff status through Apple’s Education Store to claim it.
What’s Actually Worth Buying?
The catch is that this year’s education pricing is calculated off Apple’s post-hike prices, and the MacBook Air (M5) at ₹1,37,900 is a meaningfully higher starting point than what the outgoing M4 MacBook Air currently sells for in the open market.
The M4 Air (16GB/256GB) has been listed on Amazon and Flipkart in the ₹78,990 – ₹97,900 range through recent sale events, tens of thousands of rupees below the M5’s education price, even before you add in the value of a free AirPods 4 or AirTags pack.
Run the comparison before you buy: take the education-store price of the M5 model, subtract the actual retail value of whichever freebie you pick, and compare that number against the current street price of the still-very-capable previous-gen model on Amazon or Flipkart. In several configurations right now, the older model at open-market pricing wins outright.
Bottom Line
If you specifically need the latest chip, or you were always going to buy AirPods/Pencil alongside your Mac or iPad anyway, the Back to School offer is a legitimate discount and worth using while it’s live.
But if you’re comparison-shopping, check current Amazon and Flipkart pricing on last-gen Macs and iPads first, the gap left by this year’s price hikes means the older hardware at open-market rates is, in a lot of cases, simply the better buy.
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