Cashmycell's What is my phone worth? gives you a simple way to answer a question that often gets overlooked when buying a phone: how much is my phone worth when you are ready to sell it?
Powered by more than 44,000 data points across smartphone brands and models, this smartphone depreciation calculator uses historical pricing, current resale values, and market trends to estimate what your phone is worth today and how its value could change over the next 30 days, 6 months, and 1 year.
Smartphones can lose a large share of their value as they age, especially around new model launches and shifts in market demand. Understanding that value drop can help you make smarter choices about when to buy, upgrade, or sell.
Source: Cashmycell Depreciation Tool
Cashmycell’s What is my phone worth? offers two ways to check and compare smartphone resale values:
1. Search by smartphone model: Getting started is quick and easy. You just have to enter your phone model and filter by factors such as condition, storage, and network to see its estimated current value, depreciation, and projected resale value.
2. Browse brand-wise depreciation tables: The tool also offers detailed brand-specific tables, making it easy to compare different models. This is particularly beneficial for assessing the value retention of different phones, helping you make a better choice during your next purchase. Whether you are looking at Apple, Samsung, or Google, the table shares data across all major models, storage capacities, and device conditions.
How much do phones depreciate each year?
There is no fixed annual depreciation rate for smartphones. The amount of value a phone loses depends on its model, age, condition, market demand, and the release of newer models.
Cashmycell’s depreciation data shows how these changes can affect the resale value of individual smartphone models over time.
iPhone 15 Depreciation: How much value has it lost?
To offer you further clarity on how Cashmycell’s Depreciation Calculator works, we used it to explore the iPhone 15’s depreciation. The calculator lets you look at the iPhone 15 in two ways:
Search by smartphone model: Select the iPhone 15 and filter by condition, storage, and network to see its original MSRP, value lost to date, estimated value today, and projected resale value over the next 30 days, 6 months, and 1 year.
For a clearer picture of the estimates over time, the table below shows the iPhone 15’s original MSRP alongside its estimated resale value and percentage of value lost.
Source: Cashmycell Depreciation Tool
Note: Figures have been rounded for readability.
Browse brand-wise depreciation tables: The calculator also lets you view the iPhone 15 alongside other iPhone models, making it easier to compare their original MSRP, estimated resale values, and value retention across four device conditions:
- Excellent
- Good
- Average
- Damaged
These numbers help you understand how much value an Apple device loses over time.
Source: Cashmycell Depreciation Tool
When is the best time to sell your phone?
There is no single best time to sell a phone. But selling sooner rather than later usually gives you a better chance of keeping more value, since smartphones tend to lose value as newer models enter the market.
Key Timing Factors
Timing your sale around new phone launches, trade-in offers, and major shopping or holiday sales can also make a difference.
If a new model is about to launch, selling before the announcement can help you avoid the resale drop that often follows.
Using the Calculator to Decide
Cashmycell's value tool lets you compare your phone's current value with its future value, so you can decide whether waiting could lower your return.
For example, the iPhone 15 is estimated at $331 today but could fall to $293 in a year, which means waiting could cost about $38 in resale value.
Why understanding phone depreciation matters
The price you pay for a smartphone is only one part of the total cost. How much value it keeps over time also affects the true cost of ownership.
Factors that affect resale value
Two phones that cost about the same when new can end up with very different resale values after a few years. These factors all matter:
- Brand
- Model
- Condition
- Storage
- Software support
- Market demand
When you weigh these factors with the original price and future resale value, you can compare phones more clearly and plan your next upgrade with more confidence.
Curious to know what your phone is worth today? Try What is my phone worth? and find out in seconds.
About Cashmycell’s phone depreciation data
Cashmycell’s Phone Depreciation Calculator uses 44,000+ smartphone pricing data points, combining historical prices, current resale values and market trends. Estimates take into account factors such as model, age, condition, storage, carrier status and market demand to calculate current and projected resale values. These projections are estimates and actual resale prices may vary based on changing market conditions.
How much is your phone worth?
If you are looking to sell your iPhone, here are the maximum resale values for selected recent iPhone models:
- iPhone 16 Pro Max: $720
- iPhone 16 Pro: $630
- iPhone 16 Plus: $485
- iPhone 16: $480
- iPhone 16e: $310
- iPhone 15 Pro Max: $530
- iPhone 15 Pro: $420
- iPhone 15 Plus: $340
- iPhone 15: $335
Want to see how other smartphones compare? Explore the What is my phone worth? to check estimated resale values and depreciation for different brands and models.
FAQs
1. How does the Cashmycell depreciation calculator work?
Powered by Cashmycell’s Price Depreciation Intelligence, the calculator uses factors such as launch price, current resale value, historical pricing trends, and market movements to estimate how much value your phone has lost. It also projects its resale value for the next 30 days, 6 months, and 1 year.
2. How much value does a phone lose each year?
The amount varies by phone, but smartphones typically lose a significant portion of their value in the first year and continue to depreciate over time. Factors such as brand, model, condition, demand, and new releases can all affect the rate of depreciation.
3. When should I sell my phone to get the most money?
Generally, selling sooner can help you retain more of your phone’s value. It may also make sense to sell before a new model launches, as the arrival of a newer generation can affect the resale value of older models. What is my phone worth? can help you compare your phone’s estimated value now with its projected future value.
4. Does my phone’s condition affect its resale value?
Yes. Scratches, screen damage, battery health, internal damage, and overall functionality can affect how much your phone is worth compared with a similar device in better condition.
5. Do iPhones depreciate slower than Android phones?
iPhones often retain their resale value better than many Android phones, but depreciation varies by model. Factors such as demand, condition, storage capacity, and the release of newer models can influence how quickly a particular phone loses value.
6. Which phone brands hold their value best?
Depreciation varies by brand and model, but some smartphones tend to retain more of their value than others. Brand demand, model popularity, software support, and resale market conditions can all influence how well a phone holds its value.
7. Does storage capacity affect my phone’s resale value?
Yes. Storage capacity can affect resale value, as different storage versions of the same phone can have different resale prices. The calculator lets you select your phone’s storage capacity to get a more specific estimate.
8. Does battery health affect phone resale value?
Yes. Battery health can influence a phone’s resale value, particularly as the device gets older. A phone with better battery health may be more desirable than an otherwise similar device with a significantly degraded battery.
9. How accurate is the Cashmycell Phone Depreciation Calculator?
The calculator uses more than 44,000 smartphone pricing data points, including historical prices, current resale values, and market trends, to generate its estimates. Future resale values are projections, so actual prices may vary depending on market conditions, demand, and the phone’s condition at the time of sale.
10. Does the value of a phone drop when a new model is released?
It can. The release of a newer model can increase the supply of older devices and affect demand for them, which may put downward pressure on their resale value. Selling before a new model launches can sometimes help you retain more of your phone’s value.