Apple Certified Refurbished, explained

Apple sells returned and pre-owned devices again after refurbishing them itself, in a separate “Certified Refurbished” section of its online store. Here is what Apple promises, what to watch out for, and what our data from 21 stores shows.

What Apple promises

• Every product goes through Apple's refurbishment process, including full functional testing. [1]
• You get genuine Apple replacement parts where needed; the device is thoroughly cleaned and inspected and comes with all accessories, cables and the operating system. [1]
• iPhone and iPad (Apple calls them “iOS devices”) come with a new battery and a new outer shell. [1]
• It ships in a brand new white box, with free delivery and returns. [1] [2]
• Apple advertises savings of “up to 15%” compared with buying new. [1]

Warranty and AppleCare

Every Apple Certified Refurbished product includes Apple's standard one-year limited warranty, the same as a new product, and you can buy AppleCare for extra coverage. [1] The refurbished store offers AppleCare+ for single products and AppleCare One for several. [2]

Returns

In the United States you have 14 calendar days from the day you receive an item to return it, and products can only be returned in the country where they were bought. [3] [4] Other countries have their own return rules (often required by local consumer law), so check the returns page of your country's Apple Store.

Every country is a separate store

Each country has its own refurbished store with its own stock and prices, and Apple delivers only within that country: the US policy, for example, accepts only US billing addresses and ships only to US addresses. [4] So a cheaper offer in another country is only useful if you live there or have an address there. Prices also differ in what they include: United States and Canada prices exclude sales tax, Hong Kong has none, and the other stores include VAT or GST.

What our data shows

We check every store every few minutes since 22 Sep 2026. Refurbished stock comes and goes quickly: once a listing sells out it disappears until Apple restocks it, which may never happen.

Sell-out time is measured from the moment a listing appears (or comes back) until it is gone; disappearances under 2 hours count as glitches, and stock that was already on sale when we started is left out. Where Apple shows the new price, refurbished prices were a median 15% lower (1525 listings). Apple's stores in Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan don't show a new price, so savings there are unknown.

How to use this site

• Products: one page per family (for example MacBook Air 13" M4) with current offers in every country, price history, savings vs new and when new stock usually appears.
• Compare models: one page per exact configuration (chip, memory, storage), compared across countries.
• Just added: new and restocked listings as they appear. Watch: an RSS feed for any model, country or price limit, so you hear about stock without checking.
• Country stores: everything in stock in one country right now, and Insights for cross-country statistics.

Tips

• Decide on the configuration you want in advance and subscribe to its watch feed: half of all Mac listings are gone within 12 h.
• Compare with the current new price: when Apple lowers the price of the new model, the saving on refurbished units can shrink to almost nothing.
• Compare like with like: add sales tax to US and Canada prices before comparing with European prices.

Sources

1. Apple: Why Refurbished (Apple Certified Refurbished promise)
2. Apple: Certified Refurbished store
3. Apple: U.S. Returns & Refunds Policy
4. Apple: U.S. Sales and Refund Policy

Apple's pages were checked on 17 Oct 2026; Apple's terms can change, and the store of your country is what counts. Refurb Prices is not affiliated with Apple.