The premium paid for Apple’s latest Pro model has widened across much of Europe since 2017, with taxes and currency movements creating stark differences between markets.
An iPhone 17 Pro costs more than twice as much in Turkey as it does in the US, making it the most expensive place among 41 markets to buy the phone.
Deutsche Bank Research’s Mapping the World’s Prices 2026 report compares the price of the same 256GB model across the world. It finds that European countries occupy much of the expensive end of the ranking.
The comparison also suggests that the price gap between Europe and the US has widened over the past decade.
Switzerland offers Europe’s lowest price
Among the 21 European countries analysed, Switzerland has the lowest price, at €1,187. At the other end of the ranking, Turkey is a clear outlier: the same phone costs €2,222, the highest price among all 41 markets.
Hungary has Europe’s second-highest price, at €1,565. That is €657 less than in Turkey, but €378 more than in Switzerland.
Only Japan is cheaper than the US, while South Korea matches it
Among 40 markets, the iPhone 17 Pro is cheaper only in Japan than in the US. It costs €1,012 (or $1,181) in the US, compared with €961 (or $1,121) in Japan. South Korea matches the US price exactly.
“Japan offers the cheapest iPhone amidst yen weakness. South Korea remains among the cheapest globally, amidst domestic competition from Samsung,” the report noted.
Taxes matter significantly
The report points to the role of taxes in the wide variation in iPhone prices across Europe. It emphasises that taxes raise the relative price of an iPhone in Hungary, where VAT stands at 27%.
Despite being the world’s most expensive economy for nearly everything, Switzerland is the cheapest European economy in the sample, “thanks to its low 8.1% VAT”.
Globally, Brazil ranks second, with the iPhone 17 Pro costing €1,937.
“Türkiye and Brazil show how taxes, tariffs and currency weakness can distort the price of an iPhone,” the report said.
Egypt ranks third at €1,605 and Mexico sixth at €1,420. Apart from Mexico, all the countries from fourth to 24th place, occupied by India, are in Europe.
Major economies: UK cheapest but gap is narrow
Among Europe’s five largest economies, the iPhone 17 Pro is cheapest in the UK (€1,265 or £1,080), while Italy (€1,332) is the most expensive. The gap is not large, and prices elsewhere are close: France (€1,323), Spain (€1,312) and Germany (€1,293).
How expensive is Europe compared with the US?
The report indexes the iPhone price at 100 in the US and compares it with prices in other countries. In Turkey, the iPhone 17 Pro costs 2.19 times the US price, or 119% more. That means people pay more than double the US price.
Turkey is the only country on the list where the iPhone costs more than double the US price.
A special consumption tax is the main reason why Turkey is an outlier. Even if people travel abroad – to the US, for example – to buy an iPhone, they need to pay an “IMEI registration fee” of 54,258 TL (€1,006 or $1,147) in Turkey. This is just $34 less than the price of the phone in the US.
iPhone 17 Pro prices are 17% higher in Switzerland than in the US, while they are 25% higher in the UK.
Relative prices: iPhone 7 and iPhone 17 Pro
When prices relative to those in the US are compared between the iPhone 17 Pro in 2026 and the iPhone 7 in 2017, the index shows that prices have risen faster in Europe than in the US.
The iPhone 7 price in 2017 was also indexed at 100 in the US, so there is no change in the index there. In nominal terms, it cost $815, compared with $1,181 for the iPhone 17 Pro.
This is based on a simple index: if an iPhone costs 100 in the US, how much does it cost elsewhere?
Turkey and Brazil recorded the largest increases in this context. The iPhone 7 was 47% more expensive in Turkey than in the US. That gap widened to 119% for the iPhone 17 Pro.
Brazil follows a similar pattern, with the gap widening from 37% to 91%.
The largest increases in the gap over the past decade were also seen in Norway (21 points), and in Sweden, Finland and the UK (15 points each).
Among European countries, Greece saw the smallest change, up just 7 points.
“Apple sets prices centrally and the product is identical worldwide — so price differencesreflect taxes, tariffs, distribution costs, and currency effects, making it an excellent barometer of trade and fiscal policy,” the report said.
According to European Central Bank reference rates, €1 bought an average of $1.1229 in June 2017, compared with $1.1518 in June 2026. This represents a slight change of 2.6%.
Income gap makes the affordability divide even wider
These are nominal prices and do not account for income levels, which vary widely across countries. For example, according to the OECD, annual gross average wages ranged from €18,590 in Turkey to €107,487 in Switzerland in 2025. The affordability gap widens even further once income is taken into account.
