Shop ’til You Drop: The Ultimate Gift Card Giveaway Worth $250!

With Black Friday a little over a week away, Apple has posted this year’s holiday event shopping deals — and it appears the company is sticking to its usual strategy of giving out gift cards rather than actually knocking down prices directly.

As usual, you’ll probably find better deals on most Apple gear elsewhere, but Apple’s promotions aren’t too bad if you’re planning to pick up a new Apple device and accessorize it.

Apple almost never puts products on sale in its retail stores. Instead, all of its promotions, from Back-to-School to Black Friday, offer “cash back” in the form of gift cards. These are given out when you purchase specific Apple products, in fixed amounts based on the product.

While you can’t use these gift cards to lower the purchase price of an actual Mac or iPad, you can use them for accessories. Plus, Apple switched to universal gift cards a few years ago, which means you can also put those amounts toward digital purchases and subscriptions, from in-app game currency to an Apple One bundle.

This year, Apple is offering gift card values up to $250, but you’ll only get that maximum value if you’re buying a higher-end Mac. Most other products offer cards in the $50–$100 range, while some first-party Apple accessories are good for a $25 gift card. Here are the specifics on what to expect this year.

The Dates

While Apple announces its Black Friday promotion a week early, the actual holiday shopping event doesn’t start until the morning of Black Friday, November 28, and runs through Cyber Monday, December 1. Unlike other retailers like Amazon and Walmart, which often start offering deals in early November or even late October, Apple has no early access sales.

The upside is that the offers apply both in-store and online, and as long as you complete your purchase by December 1, you’ll qualify for the appropriate gift card, regardless of when your order actually ships or gets picked up.

Still, the advance notice gives you time to see what Apple’s deals are like so you can load up your cart for a virtual shopping trip or compare them against what’s being offered elsewhere.

The Deals

Apple has increased the maximum gift card value this year from $200 to $250, while many lower values remain the same as before.

As in previous years, many of Apple’s latest products aren’t on the list of deals. You won’t get a gift card for an iPhone 17, iPhone Air, or Apple’s new M5 MacBook Pro or iPad Pro. However, the Apple Watch Series 11 and SE 3 are on the list this year, as are the AirPods Pro 3. Here’s the full rundown of Apple’s offers:

$250 Apple Gift Card: Flagship MacBook Pro Models

Unsurprisingly, the highest-value gift card is limited to the most expensive Macs — the M4 Pro and M4 Max-powered MacBook Pro models — and it’s likely the only reason that Apple is offering the $250 denomination this year is that it hasn’t yet refreshed its high-end MacBook Pro lineup.

Last year, Apple unveiled its entire M4-powered MacBook Pro family in late October, thereby leaving them all out of its Black Friday promotions. This year, it chose to split its releases, with the M5 MacBook Pro arriving last month, and the M5 Pro/Max models not expected until early next year.

This gives Apple an opportunity to try and clear out the M4 Pro/Max versions before the updates, but it’s also not a bad deal. If the M5 MacBook Pro is anything to go by, the new M5 Pro/Max versions won’t be a massive upgrade, so getting $250 off a new MacBook Pro now could be better than waiting until 2026.

$150–$200 Apple Gift Cards: The M4 MacBook Air and iMac

This year, a $200 gift card is available only for a single product: the 15-inch M4 MacBook Air. Meanwhile, the less expensive 13-inch M4 MacBook Air will net you a $175 gift card. Both of these were released in March and are expected to get the M5 treatment early next year, although that will probably be their biggest change.

Apple is also offering a $150 gift card for the M4 iMac, which came out around this time last year. It’s anybody’s guess when a new model of that 24-inch desktop Mac will arrive, as its release cycle is far from predictable, and so far we haven’t heard anything about it being on next year’s roadmap, which suggests there’s a good chance Apple could skip the M5 chip. If you’ve been thinking about an iMac, this could be a good time to pick one up.

$100 Apple Gift Cards: iPad Air and Mac mini

The iPad Pro is not on the list this year, so if you’re hoping to save money on a new iPad from Apple, you’ll have to opt for the iPad Air, which comes with a $100 gift card, regardless of size or capacity.

Apple is also offering the same gift card for the M4 Mac mini — again, regardless of the version. You’ll get the same $100 whether you opt for the base M4 model or the more powerful M4 Pro.

$75 Apple Gift Cards: iPhone 16 and AirPods Max

If you’re thinking about picking up one of last year’s iPhone 16 models, Apple will provide a $75 gift card. This applies to the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus, which are the only 2024 models Apple still sells.

The USB-C AirPods Max will also net you a $75 gift card if you’re in the market for Apple’s flashiest high-end cans.

$50 Apple Gift Cards: iPhone 16e, iPad, AirPods Pro, Apple Watch + More

Most of Apple’s other deals sit at the $50 gift card level, including the budget iPhone 16e and A16-powered iPad released earlier this year, the late 2024 iPad mini, and the recently released Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch SE 3, and AirPods Pro 3.