When will AirPods 5 launch?

There is no confirmed date, but reporting points to Wednesday, September 9, 2026, as the likely date for Apple's iPhone event, with AirPods 5 expected to launch alongside it. An official invitation has not gone out yet.

How many AirPods 5 models will there be?

Two, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman: a standard AirPods 5 and an AirPods 5 with Active Noise Cancellation. This mirrors the current AirPods 4 lineup, which also splits into a standard and an ANC version.

Will AirPods 5 have cameras?

No. Apple's camera-equipped AirPods, which would add Visual Intelligence and deeper Siri features, are expected in 2027 at the earliest. That is a separate project from the AirPods 5 models expected this September.

How do we know AirPods 5 will have two models?

Two internal codenames, B868M and B868E, were found in Apple's macOS Tahoe 26.7 software update released August 17, 2026. They follow the same naming pattern as B768M and B768E, the codenames for the current standard and noise-cancelling AirPods 4.

Will AirPods 5 launch with the iPhone 18 Pro?

That is the expectation, based on Apple's pattern of launching AirPods alongside its iPhone event in past years. Apple has not confirmed either a lineup or a shared launch date.

AirPods 5 Could Launch September 9 in Two Models

Why September 9 is the working date

Apple has not confirmed an event, but reporting points to Wednesday, September 9, as the likeliest date for its annual iPhone keynote. Labor Day falls on September 7 this year, and Apple has historically avoided scheduling launches in the days right after that holiday. If the company keeps to its usual two-week gap between invitation and event, an invite could go out as soon as this week.

That event is expected to headline the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, plus Apple's first foldable iPhone — a lineup that has separately been tipped for a price increase tied to rising memory costs. New Apple Watches are also expected on the same stage. AirPods have shared that September slot with iPhones in most recent years, which is why the two AirPods 5 models are widely expected to ride along rather than get a launch of their own.

What's actually changing in the earbuds

Little has leaked about internal changes. Software references discovered in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 update, released August 17, contained two new model codenames — B868M and B868E — mirroring the B768M and B768E codenames already used for the standard and noise-cancelling AirPods 4. That naming pattern is the main evidence for a two-tier AirPods 5 split, since Apple has not detailed hardware changes publicly.

Do not expect cameras. Apple's camera-equipped earbuds, which would add Visual Intelligence features tied to Siri, remain planned for 2027 rather than this year's refresh. A demo clip referencing that camera hardware turned up buried in Apple's own code earlier this month, but it did not show a finished product, and it is a separate project from the AirPods 5 launching now.

What still needs confirming

Pricing — Apple has not signaled whether adding a second, ANC-equipped tier will change AirPods 4 pricing, which currently starts at $129 with $179 for the noise-cancelling version.
Chip — some reports point to an updated audio chip for lower latency, but Apple has not confirmed any silicon change.
Event date — September 9 is the strongest prediction based on Apple's own scheduling patterns, not a confirmed date.

Apple has kept its entry-level AirPods lineup on a roughly two-year cycle, and the current AirPods 4 line has now gone unchanged since its September 2024 launch — right on schedule for a refresh. Anyone weighing whether to buy AirPods 4 now or wait has a fairly short window to find out: if the invite lands this week, a launch would follow within roughly a month.