Apple, unlike most tablet and smartphone manufacturers, has a history of not disclosing the amount of RAM inside the iPad. This omission in the company’s official tech specs for each iPad model leaves many consumers and tech enthusiasts curious.
But through device teardowns, developer and benchmark tools, and leaks and online reports, the tech community has managed to piece together the RAM specifics for various iPad models.
Here is the list of iPad models in terms of available RAM:
Table of Contents
256MB
- The original iPad
These days, 256MB of RAM might seem abysmally small, but back in 2010 when the first iPad came out, this amount of memory was more than enough for the basic tasks and limited multitasking that the Apple tablet handled.
512MB
- 2nd-gen iPad
- Original iPad mini
As apps began to make the most of the available hardware, Apple needed to increase the RAM starting with the second-generation iPad to allow for better performance with more sophisticated apps. The same amount of RAM was also found in the first iPad mini.
1GB
- 3rd- and 4th-gen iPad
- 2nd- and 3rd-gen iPad mini
- Original iPad Air
The introduction of Retina Display in the iPad came alongside another doubling of the RAM, the amount of which remained the same for the next generation of iPad and iPad mini.
2GB
- 5th- and 6th-gen iPad
- 4th-gen iPad mini
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Pro 9.7
The first iPad variation to embrace 2GB of RAM was the iPad Air 2 in October 2014, with the iPad mini 4 following suit a year later. This amount of RAM also found in the next two generations of the mainline iPad.
3GB
- 7th-, 8th, and 9th-gen iPad
- 5th-gen iPad mini
- iPad Air 3
Almost two and a half years passed before Apple decided another increase in the RAM in iPads, starting with the release of the fifth-gen iPad mini and the iPad Air 3 in March 2019.
4GB
- 10th-gen iPad
- 6th-gen iPad mini
- iPad Air 4
- iPad Pro 10.5
- 1st- and 2nd-gen iPad Pro 12.9
The first jump to 4GB of RAM happened in 2015, when the first generation of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro was announced. This was also the first time an iPad supported the use of a stylus (in the form of the Apple Pencil) as an input device.
READ: Here’s how much RAM iPhones have
4GB or 6GB
- 3rd-gen iPad Pro 12.9
- iPad Pro 11
With the third iteration of iPad Pro 12.9 and the first iPad Pro 11, both released in 2018, users had the choice to get the starting amount of RAM at 4GB or opt for the bigger 6GB amount. The bigger RAM also offered the highest storage at the time at 1TB. These two iPads were also the first to offer USB Type-C connectivity.
6GB
- 4th-gen iPad Pro 12.9
- 2nd-gen iPad Pro 11
The follow-up to the 2018 iterations of the iPad Pro 11 and iPad Pro 12.9 no longer offered 4GB of RAM as an option. It was consistently 6GB across the storage configurations that Apple offered.
8GB
- iPad Air 5
- iPad Air 6
The first iPad variant to offer 8GB was the iPad Air 5, which was announced and released in March 2022. Along with the abundance of RAM, the tablet included the Apple M1 chip that brought a substantial boost in performance and efficiency. The RAM in iPad Air 6, announced in May 2024, also stayed the same.
8 or 16GB
- 5th- and 6th-gen iPad Pro 12.9
- 3rd-gen and 4th-gen iPad Pro 11
- iPad Pro (7th Generation)
As of this writing, 16GB is the highest amount of RAM that can be found in an iPad. The recently announced seventh generation of the iPad Pro, which comes with 11- and 13-inch models, offer either 8 or 16GB of RAM and storage options that start at 256GB up to 2TB.