If you’re curious to find out which iPad model you’ve got, either because you’re selling it, or because you want to know if particular software will work on it, you’ve come to the right place. In this article we’ll help you find out which iPad you have.
Apple tends to downplay the version numbers of its tablets, and in any case it isn’t as simple as iPad 1 to iPad 21. There have been a total of 21 iPad models over the years, which we can divide into four sub-brands:
- iPad, iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad 9.7in (2017), iPad 9.7in (2018), iPad 10.2in (2019)
- iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Air (2019)
- iPad mini, iPad mini 2 with Retina display, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, iPad mini (2019)
- iPad Pro 12.9in (2015), iPad Pro 9.7in (2016), iPad Pro 10.5in (2017), iPad Pro 12.9in (2017), iPad 11in (2018), iPad 12.9in (2018)
Making things even more difficult, the device you own may have been advertised as just ‘iPad’ in the shop. But don’t worry! In this article we’ll help you work out which model and generation of iPad you’ve got.
Look in Settings
The easiest way to find out which iPad you’ve got is to open the Settings app and check in General > About. In the top set of entries you’ll see one for Model Name. Easy! The screenshot below, for example, was taken on an iPad Pro 11in.
That’s probably answered your question already, but you may be interested to note that below this there’s a separate entry for Model Number. In fact, tapping this toggles between two different numbers, one beginning with an A and the other probably beginning with an M. The A number is more useful when determining the identity and specs of a tablet, as we’ll see in the next section.
Check your iPad’s model number
What if your iPad is broken or out of power, or for some other reason you can’t go into the Settings app? We can find out in other ways.
Now, Apple doesn’t simply write the generation and model name on the back of each iPad, because that would be far too easy. But you will find a model number marked there, and you can use this to work out the rest. This model number is the same as the A number that we saw in the Settings app earlier.
On the iPad below, for example, the A number (shown in the zoomed-in inset at the top right) is A1652, which tells us it’s an iPad Pro 12.9in (2015) with cellular.
Once you’ve found your device’s A number – either by looking on the back, or by checking the Settings app – you can easily tell which iPad it is by checking it against the following table. We’ve included other clues which may help if you can’t find the model number (such as screen sizes, types of ports, colour options and so on), and these are explained in more detail below the table.
| iPad model | Version number | Notes |
| iPad (aka iPad 1) | A1219 (Wi-Fi version) A1337 (cellular version) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in diagonally). Old 30-pin port at the bottom. No camera apertures. Only available with black front (back is silver). Introduced April 2010. |
| iPad 2 | A1395 (Wi-Fi) A1397, A1396 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in). Old 30-pin port. Available with black or white front (back is silver). Introduced March 2011. |
| iPad 3 (aka iPad third generation or ‘New iPad’) | A1416 (Wi-Fi) A1430, A1403 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in). Old 30-pin port. Available in black or white. Retina display. Introduced March 2012. |
| iPad 4 (aka iPad fourth generation) | A1458 (Wi-Fi) A1459, A1460 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in). Lightning port at the bottom. Available in black or white. Retina display. Introduced November 2012. |
| iPad 9.7in (2017) (aka iPad, iPad 2017 or iPad fifth generation) | A1822 (Wi-Fi) A1823 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in). Lightning port at the bottom. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey (black). Retina display. Introduced March 2017. |
| iPad 9.7in (2018) (aka iPad, iPad 2018 or iPad sixth generation) | A1893 (Wi-Fi) A1954 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in). Lightning port. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Introduced March 2018. |
| iPad 10.2in (2019) (aka iPad seventh generation) | A2197 (Wi-Fi) A2200, A2198 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (10.2in). Lightning port. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Introduced September 2019. |
| iPad Air (aka iPad Air 1) | A1474 (Wi-Fi) A1475 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in). Lightning port. Available in black or white. Retina display. Introduced November 2013. |
| iPad Air 2 | A1566 (Wi-Fi) A1567 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in). Lightning port. Touch ID fingerprint sensor on Home button. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Introduced October 2014. |
| iPad Air (2019) (aka iPad Air 3rd generation) | A2152 (Wi-Fi) A2123, A2153 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (10.5in). Lightning port. Touch ID fingerprint sensor on Home button. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Introduced March 2019. |
| iPad mini (aka iPad mini 1) | A1432 (Wi-Fi) A1454, A1455 (cellular) |
Smaller screen (7.9in – about the size of a paperback). Lightning port. Available in black or white. Introduced October 2012. |
| iPad mini 2 (aka iPad mini with Retina display) | A1489 (Wi-Fi) A1490 (cellular) |
Smaller screen (7.9in). Lightning port. Available in black or white. Retina display. Introduced November 2013. |
| iPad mini 3 | A1599 (Wi-Fi) A1600 (cellular) |
Smaller screen (7.9in). Lightning port. Touch ID fingerprint sensor on Home button. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Introduced October 2014. |
| iPad mini 4 | A1538 (Wi-Fi) A1550 (cellular) |
Smaller screen (7.9in). Lightning port. Touch ID fingerprint sensor on Home button. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Introduced September 2015. |
| iPad mini (2019) (aka iPad mini 5th generation) | A2133 (Wi-Fi) A2124, A2126 (cellular) |
Smaller screen (7.9in). Lightning port. Touch ID fingerprint sensor on Home button. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Introduced March 2019. |
| iPad Pro 12.9in (2015) | A1584 (Wi-Fi) A1652 (cellular) |
Large screen (12.9in). Lightning port. There’s a smart connector for the Smart Keyboard on the lefthand side. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Four speakers (two at the top, two at the bottom). Introduced September 2015. |
| iPad Pro 9.7in (2016) | A1673 (Wi-Fi) A1674, A1675 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (9.7in). Lightning port. Smart connector for the Smart Keyboard on the left. Available in silver, gold, Space Grey or Rose Gold (pink). Retina display. Four speakers. Introduced March 2016. |
| iPad Pro 10.5in (2017) (aka iPad Pro second generation) | A1701 (Wi-Fi) A1709 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (10.5in). Lightning port. Smart connector on the lefthand side. Available in silver, gold, Space Grey or Rose Gold (pink). Retina display. Four speakers. Introduced June 2017. |
| iPad Pro 12.9in (2017) (aka iPad Pro 12.9in second generation) | A1670 (Wi-Fi) A1671 (cellular) |
Large screen (12.9in). Lightning port. Smart connector on the lefthand side. Available in silver, gold or Space Grey. Retina display. Four speakers. Introduced June 2017. |
| iPad Pro 11in (2018) (aka iPad Pro third generation) | A1980 (Wi-Fi) A2013, A1934 (cellular) |
Mid-size screen (11in). USB-C port. Available in silver or Space Grey, and with 64GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. Four speakers. Introduced October 2018. |
| iPad Pro 12.9in (2018) (aka iPad Pro 12.9in third generation) | A1876 (Wi-Fi) A2014, A1895 (cellular) |
Large screen (12.9in). USB-C port. Available in silver or Space Grey, and with 64GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. Four speakers. Introduced October 2018. |
Home button
We’ll start looking now at physical clues. The most obvious is the Home button under the screen – or rather, the lack of one.
The iPad Pro models from 2018 do not have Home buttons, instead offering an almost all-screen design. It looks like this:
If there’s a Home button under the display, you’ve got an iPad Pro from 2017 or earlier, or a non-Pro model. The Home button looks like this:
USB-C, Lightning or 30-pin dock
Another simple way of telling apart certain iPads – particularly the iPad 3 and iPad 4, which are otherwise pretty much identical – is whether they have a USB-C, Lightning or old 30-pin dock connector at the bottom.
Here’s a USB-C port. The only iPads that have this are the 2018 iPad Pros.
Here’s what the Lightning port looks like.
And here’s the old 30-pin dock, which is noticeably wider.
The Lightning port was launched in September 2012, so if your iPad has an older 30-pin connector it’s a bit of a golden oldie.
Speaker setup
A real giveaway for the iPad Pro range is four-speaker audio.
All other iPad models are limited to twin-speaker audio, with these two speakers arranged either side of the Lightning (or on older models 30-pin) dock at the bottom. But the four iPad Pro models each have four speakers, with two at the bottom and another two at the top.
If your iPad has speaker grills at the opposite end to the Home button then it’s definitely a Pro.
Retina display
If your iPad comes with a Retina display the resolution of the screen will be much better than an iPad that doesn’t have a Retina display. However, if you aren’t comparing two iPads side by side it’s unlikely you will be able to tell whether you have one or not.
The Retina display became standard on the iPad after it was introduced on the third-generation iPad in March 2012. This model was quickly replaced later that year because although it offered LTE 4G in the US, the type of LTE didn’t work in many other territories including the UK. For more information on this, see What is a Retina display?
3G, 4G or just Wi-Fi
Some iPads are Wi-Fi-only, and some also offer mobile connectivity, as long as you have a SIM. You can quickly tell if your iPad is capable of mobile connectivity by looking for the SIM card slot on the side. If you see one then it’s a Wi-Fi + cellular model. If not, then it’s Wi-Fi-only.
As we just mentioned, the third-generation iPad offered LTE 4G but only in the US. If you wanted 4G here in the UK you had to wait for the iPad 4 which came out later in 2012. If you bought your Wi-Fi & cellular iPad at the end of 2012 or after 2013 then chances are you have 4G – even if it’s not offered in your area.
Storage
You’ll be able to tell how much storage your iPad has by looking on the back of the device; it will be written just below the word iPad. Most iPads offer 32GB, 64GB, 128GB or 256GB, but the Pro models go as high as 512GB or even (if it’s a 2018 model) 1TB.
Alternatively you can go to Settings > General > About and check beside where it says capacity. If your iPad has 1TB of storage, it must be from the 2018 generation of iPad Pro models – so you just have to measure the screen and find out if it’s the 11in or the 12.9in version.
Other than this, there have been such a wide range of storage offerings over the year (with certain offerings discontinued after a while) that it’s much easier to use the model number.
And that’s it – hopefully by now you’ve worked out which model you’ve got. Finding out which iPad you’ve got can be useful when trying to work out if an app is compatible with it, or if you’ll be able to run the next version of iPadOS.
You will also want to know which model it is if you’re thinking of selling your iPad and getting a new one – in which case you’ll also want to check our iPad buying guide and roundup of the best iPad deals in the UK.
