iOS 18 is Compatible with These iPhone Models

iOS 18 for iPhone includes a variety of new features that many users are excited about, from all new Dark Mode icons and widgets, to color hued icons/widgets, customizable Control Center, Apple Intelligence AI features that will write emails and texts for you and summarize data or generate images, a confusing Photos redesign, Game Mode for iPhone, iPhone Mirroring for iPhones with Macs running macOS Sequoia, RCS messaging support, plus tons of changes to apps like Safari, Notes, Messages, Mail, and more.

In order to be able to get iOS 18 on your iPhone, you must have an iPhone model that is compatible with iOS 18. But even if your iPhone supports iOS 18, that doesn’t mean it will have access to all the features of iOS 18, because features like Apple Intelligence AI have even stricter system requirements.

Read on to find out if your iPhone supports iOS 18, and if your iPhone is compatible with iOS 18 Apple Intelligence features.

iOS 18 Supported Devices List

The following iPhone models will support iOS 18:

• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone XS
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone SE 2nd generation or later

This list comes directly from Apple.

But just because your iPhone supports iOS 18 does not mean that your iPhone running iOS 18 is compatible with Apple Intelligence AI, the tentpole feature of iOS 18. For that, you’ll have a much more restrictive device list.

List of iPhone Models Supporting Apple Intelligence AI Features

Apple Intelligence AI feature support is incredibly strict for iPhone models. In fact, many iPhone models that Apple is currently selling as new will not even support the Apple Intelligence AI features. The following iPhone models support Apple Intelligence AI:

• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 16, all models – rumored but assumed

Notably absent from the AI support list is the base model iPhone 15 series, released at the same time as the iPhone 15 Pro, not to mention iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, despite these being very powerful iPhone models that are fully featured and still sold by Apple and cellular phone carriers (and so is the iPhone 13 series for that matter). Why Apple is actively selling new iPhones that do not support major new features of their new operating system is an unclear, perhaps related to on-device limitations of the processor or RAM, but on the plus side AAPL shareholders always appreciate when people buy new and better iPhones, so that tradeoff might make you feel better and warm your heart as you spend another thousand dollars on a brand new iPhone to gain access to the native AI features.

My iPhone supports iOS 18 but not Apple Intelligence, how can I get AI features?

If you have an Apple iPhone that does not support Apple Intelligence AI features but you still want access to may generative AI features, you can use the ChatGPT app instead, which works on basically every iPhone that can download the app, including all of the iOS 18 supported iPhone models.

ChatGPT for iPhone brings many AI features to the device via a text prompt, but is not incorporated deeply into the operating system in the same way that Apple Intelligence AI is. Because of the strict system requirements for Apple Intelligence, using a third party app like ChatGPT is really the only way to get AI features on older iPhone models.

What about iPhone Mirroring compatibility with Macs?

All iPhone models that can run iOS 18 are able to use iPhone Mirroring, as long as the Mac it is mirroring to is running macOS Sequoia.

You can review a list of macOS Sequoia compatible Macs here, which is basically any Apple Silicon Mac and a handful of Intel Macs.

–

What do you think of the iOS 18 compatible devices list? Do you think all iPhone models should support Apple Intelligence AI at some level or another, even if through an AI app from Apple? Are you fine with most iPhone models not running Apple Intelligence AI features? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.