iOS 27 Supported Devices: Full iPhone Compatibility List

If you're reading this because someone told you your iPhone "isn't getting iOS 27," the short version is: it almost certainly is. The compatibility floor is wide this year — wider than most headlines make it sound — because the real story isn't one list, it's three, stacked on top of each other. This page covers all three, with the exact models in each.

The complete iOS 27 device list

iOS 27 is in beta now — beta 8, build 24A5430a, released Monday, August 31, 2026, per Apple's own developer releases feed. The supported-device list has been stable since beta 1 (build 24A5355q, released June 8) and runs as follows:

Not supported: iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, and anything older. That's the same cutoff as iOS 26 — nothing moved.

Three tiers, not one list

Almost every "is my iPhone compatible" article treats compatibility as a single yes/no line. That framing made sense through about 2023. It doesn't anymore. iOS 27 has three effective tiers, and which one your phone lands in changes what the update actually feels like:

Tier 1 — runs iOS 27

Everything from iPhone 11 onward, plus both SE models. This tier gets the new design language, the updated Phone and FaceTime apps, expanded Photos editing, improved parental controls, and general performance work. It's the whole operating system, minus anything that needs a neural engine built for on-device generative models.

Tier 2 — runs Apple Intelligence

iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 or later. This tier adds conversational Siri with personal context, expanded Writing Tools, and private-cloud image generation. The line is drawn by the Neural Engine and RAM in the A17 Pro and later chips — not by a software toggle Apple could loosen with an update.

Tier 3 — runs the advanced on-device features

iPhone 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air only. This is the newest and narrowest line, reserved for the heaviest on-device processing in iOS 27's Apple Intelligence stack. If you own a 15 Pro, 16, or plain iPhone 17, you get real Apple Intelligence — just not every part of it.

An iPhone 12 owner reading a headline that says "iOS 27 is here" and then discovering their phone doesn't do most of what Apple showed on stage isn't being misled by a bug — they're running into tier 1 without tiers 2 or 3. That gap is the single most common source of confusion around this release, and it's worth internalizing before you update: getting iOS 27 and getting what Apple demoed at WWDC are two different outcomes.

Why no iPhone lost support this year

This is the detail worth sitting with. In a typical Apple cycle, at least one model falls off the bottom of the list — last year, iOS 26 trimmed the iPhone XS and XR, moving the floor up to iPhone 11. This year, the floor didn't move at all. iPhone 11, now nearly seven years old, is still fully supported, side by side with iPhone SE (2nd generation) on the same A13 Bionic chip.

That's unusual, and there are two ways to read it, both plausible and neither confirmed by Apple:

Reading one: the A13 still has headroom

iOS 27's tier-1 feature set — the redesign, Phone and FaceTime updates, Photos tools — doesn't lean on the Neural Engine the way Apple Intelligence does. None of it requires the horsepower that Apple Intelligence needs, so there was no technical forcing function to cut the A13 this cycle the way there was for the XS and XR's A12 the year before.

Reading two: Apple is deliberately not compounding the AI gap

iPhone 11 and 12 owners already don't get Apple Intelligence. Also cutting their base OS support in the same year would mean telling a large, still-active install base "no new AI, and also no more updates at all" simultaneously. Keeping tier 1 wide costs Apple little and avoids stacking two disappointments on the same group of users in one release.

Either way, don't read a quiet year as a new, permanent policy. Apple has never guaranteed a support window, and a device that's fully supported today can be the one cut next year — see the next section.

It also helps to compare this year against Apple's actual track record rather than a single prior cycle. Apple has occasionally held a device list flat before, but doing so two years running — with the same iPhone 11 floor for both iOS 26 and iOS 27 — is genuinely rare in the post-2020 era. The last comparably long flat stretch predates Apple Intelligence entirely. That timing isn't nothing: it lines up with a period where Apple has strong incentive to keep as many iPhones as possible on a current, secure OS while it builds out an AI ecosystem that a meaningful share of the install base still can't run.

What tier 1 actually gets you

It's worth being concrete about what "runs iOS 27" means in practice, since tier 1 is not a stripped-down consolation version — it's most of the release. Based on what's shipping in the current beta:

Siri and the Phone app

iOS 27 introduces back-and-forth conversational Siri with access to personal context, able to carry out multi-step tasks across apps. The Phone app adds Call Context, which surfaces relevant on-device information while you're on a call with a business — a flight number sitting in Mail, for instance, pulled up automatically while you're on hold. Both ship to every supported device; neither requires Apple Intelligence hardware on its own, though the most conversational parts of Siri's understanding lean on the same private-cloud pipeline described below.

FaceTime, Photos, and parental controls

FaceTime gains Dual Capture, which streams your front and rear cameras simultaneously in one call — useful for showing what you're looking at without switching views. Photos picks up expanded editing tools, and parental controls get a general round of improvements. None of this is gated by chip generation; it's available on an iPhone 11 exactly as it is on an iPhone 17 Pro.

Where Apple Intelligence layers on top

The Apple Intelligence pieces specifically — expanded Writing Tools and image generation through a private cloud model — sit in tier 2, alongside the personal-context depth of the new Siri. That's the split worth remembering: the interface and app-level features are universal across supported devices; the generative and personal-context AI work is not.

Apple Intelligence's hardware line, in detail

Apple Intelligence in iOS 27 requires iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 or later. That line has held steady since Apple Intelligence launched, and it isn't arbitrary: it tracks the first Neural Engine generation with enough on-device throughput and RAM to run the feature set's language and image models locally, with heavier requests routed to Apple's private cloud compute rather than a third party.

Practically, that means an iPhone 15 (non-Pro) and an iPhone 15 Pro — released the same day, in the same body — end up in different tiers. If Apple Intelligence is the reason you're paying attention to iOS 27 at all, the model name alone isn't enough; you need the "Pro" or the generation number, specifically 16 or later.

The narrowest tier: iPhone 17 Pro and Air

Tier 3 exists because Apple Intelligence itself isn't one uniform workload. Some of its heaviest on-device processing benefits from newer silicon than the 2023-era A17 Pro that unlocked tier 2. iPhone 17 Pro, 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air — all 2025 hardware — get that extra layer; the rest of the Apple Intelligence-capable lineup (15 Pro through 16 and the base 17 / 17e) gets the core feature set without it.

This is worth knowing mainly so you don't over- or under-shoot an upgrade decision. If your goal is "Apple Intelligence," an iPhone 16 gets you there in full. If your goal is specifically the newest on-device capability layer, only the three 2025 models above deliver it today.

When iOS 27 actually ships

Apple hasn't announced a release date from the stage — it never does mid-beta. Going by Apple's consistent pattern of an early-September hardware event followed by the paired software release a few days later, the expected sequence is an Apple event around September 9, 2026, with iOS 27.0's public release around Monday, September 14, 2026. Track the day-by-day path from here to release on the iOS 27 release date page.

What this means for iOS 28's list next year

iOS 27 keeping iPhone 11 alive for a second straight cycle directly shapes what to expect from iOS 28 in 2027. Apple's practical support window has run six to seven years; by next September, iPhone 11 turns eight and iPhone 12 turns seven — both past or at the edge of that window even before accounting for two years without a single device dropped. A quiet cycle now reads less like a new floor and more like pressure building for a larger correction. If you own an iPhone 11 or 12, iOS 27 is very likely the last major version your phone sees — see our full breakdown of which iPhones iOS 28 is expected to support and, specifically, whether the iPhone 12 makes the cut.

How to check your exact model

1. Open Settings → General → About.
2. Read the Model Name row.
3. Match it against the table above. Every row in tier 1 or higher installs iOS 27 normally through Settings → General → Software Update once it's out of beta, or right now via the iOS 27 beta guide if you want it early.

If your model isn't in the table at all — iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, or older — it stays on iOS 18 or whatever version it was last eligible for, with security-only updates continuing for some time. Nothing about the phone stops working; it simply stops receiving new iOS versions.