Thinking of buying an iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone Duo for a lower price overseas? Here are 5 things to consider before you do — and why I'd still recommend buying locally

Can you buy an iPhone for a lower price overseas and bring it back to your home country, and more importantly, should you? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked this question by friends, family, and TechRadar readers.

And look, I get it: iPhones have always appeared to be cheaper in the US than in, say, the UK and Australia, and that’s true again this year for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo.

The former, for instance, starts at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,099.

At the time of writing, if you convert $1,199 into British pounds, you get around £1,620; if you do the same conversion into Australian dollars, you get around AU$1,671.

Those are much lower prices than £1,199 and AU$2,099, respectively, so it makes sense to buy your iPhone 18 Pro in the US, right? Well, not exactly.

Before we dig into the details, I will assume that you’re only considering this question if you’re either currently on vacation in the US, planning to be on vacation in the US, or have someone visiting you from the US who is happy to stop by the Apple Store on their way to you.

Hopefully I don’t need to explain that flying to the US for the sole purpose of buying a cheaper iPhone will be more expensive than buying that same iPhone locally.

Also, Apple doesn’t ship iPhones directly from its US online store to a UK address, so even if you can live with all the other caveats I’m about to explain, you’ll still need to be on the ground in the US, or have someone on the ground in the US, to receive the delivery.

Anyone else in the UK thinking of getting the new iPhone 18 Pro from the US because of the price difference? 👀🇬🇧🇺🇸My friend is seriously considering itThe US price starts at $1,199 while the UK starts at £1,199 But that price gap definitely has me looking twice 😂 September 11, 2026 So, what are the main things to consider when bringing a US-sold iPhone into another country? Let’s use the UK as our primary example (if only because 99% of the people who ask me this question are British).

Taxes and duties The Apple Store price you see won't necessarily be the price you pay (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future) Firstly, the iPhone 18 Pro or iPhone Duo you buy in the US will likely cost more than its $1,199 / $1,999 list price .

In the UK, the list price of an item typically includes applicable taxes and duties such as VAT, because these figures are determined by the UK government.

In the US, taxes and duties are determined at the state-, county-, and even city-level.

The amount of sales tax you’ll pay on an iPhone 18 Pro, for instance, varies from 0% in Oregon to 10% in Louisiana (websites like ApplePriceHunt can show you the exact figures for every US city), and so the final price on an entry-level iPhone 18 Pro could be as much as $1,318.