How old is my iPad? 2 quick ways to find out

Not sure how old your iPad is? Trying to check if it will still get the next version of iPad OS? There are a couple of ways of discovering how old your iPad is, which we’ll run through here.

How old is my iPad? Use the model number on the back

On the back of every iPad, Apple prints a model number. We’ll warn you now, reading the very small print the model number is printed in is a challenge, particularly on iPads with dark cases. If you can’t read the model number on the back of your iPad, skip straight to the Settings menu method below.

If you have managed to read the model number on the back of the iPad, you can find out how old it is by checking it against Apple’s list of iPad models.

It’s quite a long list, so if you’re struggling to find your model number, use your web browser’s ‘find’ facility to search the page. You can use the find facility by pressing Ctrl + F on Windows machines or Command + F on a Mac.

So, for example, the model number on the back of my iPad is A1980. If I search for that with my browser’s find facility, I jump straight to:

Note that the date given here is the year that model of iPad was first launched. It doesn’t reveal when you bought your particular device, which may have been a year or two later.

Use the Settings menu

Confusingly, Apple also lists an iPad model number in the Settings menu of your device, and this differs from the one printed on the rear of the device. This model number found in Settings is more precise, betraying the exact specification of the iPad. It can also be used to find out how old it is.

To find the model number, open Settings, then select General on the left-hand side. Now pick About. You should see a screen like this:

Take a note of the Model Number and then Google it. You will more than likely get an Apple webpage at the top of the Google results that reveals when that model was first launched. For example, for my model you get:

As you can see, you don’t even have to click through to the Apple website to get the date it was originally released. Older models might need a bit more digging.