Apple unveiled its latest software innovations during the WWDC 2026 keynote on Monday, announcing performance improvements across all of its operating systems and significant upgrades to Apple Intelligence, including a new Siri experience and the Siri AI app. Additionally, Apple also announced compatibility details for its 27 series operating systems, including iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. Apple surprised older iPhone users, revealing that the iOS 27 update will support the iPhone 11 series, released in 2019, despite rumors that these handsets would remain on iOS 26. However, iPad users are not getting the same good news. Apple removed five iPad models from the iPadOS 27 update, including the iPad mini (5th generation), iPad (8th generation), iPad Air (3rd generation), 11-inch iPad Pro (1st generation), and 12.9-inch iPad Pro (3rd generation). These devices will remain on iPadOS 26 and will likely continue to receive security updates in the future.
A look at the specifications of these devices helps explain why Apple is removing support for aging tablets. The iPad Pro models on the list were released in 2018, featuring the A12X Bionic chip with 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The iPad Air 3, iPad 8 and iPad mini 5 are newer, released in 2019 and 2020, but they all feature the A12 Bionic chip combined with 3 GB of RAM. For comparison, the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2 models are equipped with the new A13 Bionic chip and have 4 GB or 3 GB of RAM respectively.
iPad models with the A13 Bionic chip or later can be upgraded to iPadOS 27. The iPad 9 2021 is the only iPad on the list of supported devices that runs on the A13 Bionic.
Which iPads can run iPadOS 27?
Apple has listed the iPad models that can be upgraded to iPadOS 27 and run the developer beta, currently available for download, as follows:
- iPad Pro (M4 and later)
- 12.9-inch iPad Pro (4th generation and later)
- iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation and later)
- 13-inch iPad Air (M2 and later)
- iPad Air 11-inch (M2, M3 and M4)
- iPad Air 11-inch (4th generation and later)
- iPad (A16)
- iPad (9th generation and later)
- iPad mini (A17 Pro)
- iPad mini (6th generation and later)
The list may seem confusing, given Apple’s naming system for iPads. Apple doesn’t use numbers in the name, referring to most iPad models by generation or processor type. This may make your pattern more difficult to identify. Here’s the full list of iPad models that will run iPadOS 27 this year, taken from Apple’s support documentation for the iPadOS 26 release, but excluding the five models that are no longer supported and categorized by iPad types:
- Standard iPad: iPad (9th generation), iPad (10th generation), iPad (A16)
- iPad mini: iPad mini (6th generation), iPad mini (A17 Pro)
- iPad Air: iPad Air (4th generation), iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Air 11-inch (M2), iPad Air 11-inch (M3), iPad Air 11-inch (M4), iPad Air 13-inch (M2), iPad Air 13-inch (M3), iPad Air 13-inch (M4)
- iPad Pro: iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (M4), iPad Pro 11-inch (M5), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation), iPad Pro 13-inch (M4), iPad Pro 13-inch (M5)
Hardware requirements for Apple Intelligence
The oldest iPads that can run iPadOS 27 are the iPad Air (4th generation), 11-inch iPad Pro (2nd generation), and 12.9-inch iPad Pro (4th generation), all released in 2020. However, the list of tablets supported by iPadOS 27 doesn’t tell the whole story. There are other notable limitations users should be aware of when it comes to the iPadOS 27 update. Not every device on the list will get the full experience, due to Apple’s specific hardware requirements for its AI platform.
Tablets running on the Apple M1 chip or later will be able to run most of the new Apple Intelligence and Siri features Apple demonstrated on stage at WWDC 2026. However, some Siri AI features will require a local AI model running on the tablet.
Memory appears to be the bottleneck, as Apple said on stage that users will need an iPad with an M4 processor or later, with at least 12GB of RAM. The only models on the list of supported devices that meet the RAM requirements are M4 iPad Air models released in 2025 that have 12 GB of RAM, M4 iPad Pro 2024 models that ship with 16 GB of RAM, and all M5 iPad Pro models released in 2025. It is important to note that M4 iPad Pro models that have 8 GB of RAM will not support the more demanding Siri AI features.
