Apple's new gift cards now work in Apple Stores and in the App Store

Apple Gift Cards (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

Apple has a new type of gift card available.
The new card can be used for Apple Store and digital purchases alike.
There were previously two types of gift cards.

Apple has introduced a new type of gift card that takes its digital and physical stores and brings them both under a single roof for the first time.

Previously, Apple sold gift cards that could be used in Apple Stores alongside one that could only be used in the App Store and iTunes. Now, a single card can be used for both of those things – no more buying the wrong card at the store!

Apple has a new Apple Gift Card page on its website that not only lets people buy the new cards but also makes it clear that they can be used on anything Apple offers. That ranges from a Mac Pro all the way through a book on Apple Books.

Balances will now also be unified, found in a single Apple Account Balance page. Apple is also reminding everyone that they shouldn't pay for goods or services outside of Apple using an Apple gift card.

Apple Gift Cards are solely for the purchase of goods and services from the Apple Store, the Apple Store app, apple.com, the App Store, iTunes, Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Books, and other Apple properties. Should you receive a request for payment using Apple Gift Cards outside of the former, please report it at FTC Complaint Assistant.

Anyone who has one of the old gift cards can still use it as if nothing had changed, too.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.