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Apple unveiled its newest software innovations on Monday during the WWDC 2026 opening keynote, announcing performance improvements across its operating systems and significant upgrades to Apple Intelligence, including a new Siri experience and Siri AI app. In addition, 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, which was released in 2019, despite rumors claiming those handsets would remain on iOS 26. However, iPad users do not get the same good news. Apple cut five iPad models from the iPadOS 27 update, including the iPad mini (5th generation), iPad (8th generation), iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation), and iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation). These devices will stay on iPadOS 26, and will likely continue to receive security updates in the future.

A look at the specs of these devices helps explain why Apple is removing support for the aging tablets. The iPad Pro models in 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, having been released in 2019 and 2020, but they all feature the A12 Bionic chip paired with 3GB of RAM. Comparatively, the iPhone 11 models and iPhone SE 2 feature the newer A13 Bionic chip and have 4GB or 3GB of RAM, respectively.

iPad models that feature the A13 Bionic chip or later can be upgraded to iPadOS 27. The 2021 iPad 9 is the only iPad in the list of supported devices that runs on the A13 Bionic.

Apple listed the iPad models that can be upgraded to iPadOS 27 and run the developer beta, which is currently available to download, as follows:

• iPad Pro (M4 and later)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation and later)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation and later)
• iPad Air 13-inch (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, considering Apple's naming scheme for the iPads. Apple doesn't use numbers in the name, referring to most iPad models by generation or processor type. That may make your model harder to identify. This is the full list of iPad models that'll run iPadOS 27 this year, as taken from Apple's support documentation for the iPadOS 26 release, but excluding the five models that are no longer supported, and arranged 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)

The oldest iPads that can run iPadOS 27 are the iPad Air (4th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation), and iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), all released in 2020. However, the list of iPadOS 27-supported tablets doesn't tell the whole story. There are other notable limitations that users should be aware of when it comes to the iPadOS 27 update. Not all devices on the list will get the full experience, because of 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 that Apple demoed on stage at WWDC 2026. However, select Siri AI features will need a local AI model running on the tablet.

Memory seems to be the bottleneck for that, as Apple said on stage that users will need an iPad with an M4 processor or later, featuring at least 12GB of RAM. The only models on the list of supported devices that satisfy the RAM requirements are the M4 iPad Air models released in 2025 that have 12GB of RAM, the 2024 M4 iPad Pro models that come with 16GB of RAM, and all M5 iPad Pro models released in 2025. Importantly, the M4 iPad Pro models that feature 8GB of RAM won't support the more demanding Siri AI features.