The AirTag 4-Pack You Can Buy Today Is Already the Second Generation

The current AirTag 4-pack holds noticeably better range than the model it replaced, still runs on a disposable coin battery, and comes with a stalking-misuse history Apple is still fighting in court.

Apple announced the second-generation AirTag on 26 January 2026, and the 4-pack sold under the plain name AirTag today is that second generation – $99 for four, $29 for one. The upgrade Apple leads with is range: a new ultra-wideband chip that the company says extends Precision Finding by up to 50 percent, with a speaker Apple says is 50 percent louder. Independent testing backs the range claim with real numbers, but two things carried over unchanged from the original: the tracker still runs on a replaceable coin battery, and Apple is still fighting lawsuits over how AirTags have been used to stalk people.

Key facts

• AirTag 2nd Gen: announced 26 Jan 2026; $99 for a 4-pack, $29 single
• Tom’s Guide side-by-side: connection held to ~74 ft vs ~50 ft for the 1st gen – about 1.48x the range
• Battery: CR2032 coin cell, roughly 1 year per Apple; user-replaceable, not rechargeable
• Water resistance: IP67

What AirTag 2nd Generation Actually Changed

Apple’s January 2026 announcement centers on a new ultra-wideband chip, which the company says improves Precision Finding range by up to 50 percent and makes the built-in speaker up to 50 percent louder for a lost-item chirp. Those are Apple’s own figures from its newsroom announcement, not independently verified at the time of release.

Tom’s Guide ran a side-by-side comparison against the original AirTag and got a concrete result: the first-generation tracker lost its Precision Finding connection at roughly 50 feet, while the second generation held the connection out to roughly 74 feet – about 1.48 times the range. That’s a real-world confirmation, not just a repeat of Apple’s marketing number, and it’s the single most useful upgrade for anyone who has actually lost something under a couch or across a parking lot.

That gap – roughly 50 feet to roughly 74 feet – is the difference between Precision Finding working across a single room and working across most of a house, or from one end of a parking lot to the other. For a tracker whose entire job is helping someone find something they’ve lost track of, a measured, independently confirmed range improvement of that size is a meaningful upgrade rather than a marketing rounding error.

IP67, on a Tracker Meant to Live Outside a Bag

Apple rates the AirTag at IP67, which means it’s sealed against dust and can survive submersion in up to 1 meter of water for around 30 minutes. That’s a practical rating for a tracker that regularly ends up clipped to a dog collar, dropped in a puddle, or left in a jacket pocket through a wash cycle – it isn’t built for sustained swimming or diving use, but it should survive the ordinary accidents that a small object attached to keys or a bag actually encounters.

Nothing in what Apple has published points to a broader overhaul of the tracker’s durability in this generation; the improvements it markets are concentrated specifically in finding range and speaker volume, not in the physical housing.

The 4-Pack Works Out to $24.75 a Tag

Apple prices the 4-pack at $99 and a single unit at $29. Split across four trackers, that’s $24.75 each – a savings of just over $4 per tag against buying four singly, or roughly 15 percent off. For anyone planning to tag more than one item – a set of keys, a backpack, a wallet, a pet collar – the 4-pack is the more sensible purchase on price alone, and it’s the configuration Apple markets hardest, positioned as the default rather than the single unit.

A Coin Battery, Still

Apple rates the AirTag’s CR2032 battery at roughly one year of use, and that hasn’t changed between generations. The battery is user-replaceable – twist the back cover, swap the cell – which is better than a sealed, disposable device, but it’s still a small lithium coin cell that eventually ends up in the trash or, ideally, a battery recycling bin.

For a tracker meant to live on keys, a bag, or a pet collar indefinitely, an annual battery swap is a minor but real recurring cost and chore that the second generation did nothing to reduce. Buyers expecting some kind of rechargeable or longer-life upgrade alongside the new UWB chip won’t find one in what Apple has published.

Across a 4-pack, that means four separate CR2032 cells to track and replace roughly once a year, on staggered schedules depending on when each tag was first activated. It’s a small detail, but it’s the kind of ongoing cost that a one-time purchase price doesn’t capture, and it’s unchanged from the tracker Apple sold before this generation existed.

The Stalking Cases Apple Is Still Defending

AirTag’s misuse for stalking is not a hypothetical risk raised by critics; it’s documented in litigation. NPR reported in December 2022 on a lawsuit from a woman who found an AirTag hidden in her car’s wheel well, planted by an ex-partner to track her location without consent. A California class action over similar misuse widened in October 2023.

That history isn’t finished. AppleInsider reported on 17 August 2026 – about seven months after the second-generation AirTag was announced – that a group of Michigan women are suing Apple, alleging the company’s anti-stalking protections have failed to prevent this kind of tracking. The lawsuit’s existence, filed against a company that has already shipped a hardware refresh specifically marketed around finder technology, is itself a data point: better range and a louder speaker have not settled the underlying legal dispute.

What Apple Has Actually Built to Address It

Apple has not ignored the problem. Current mitigations include unwanted-tracker alerts built into iPhone, a standalone Find My detection app for Android users who don’t have an iPhone to receive those alerts, and an audible chirp the AirTag emits after it has been separated from its owner for an extended period. The second-generation hardware adds what Apple calls industry-first protections, including cross-platform alerts and Bluetooth identifiers that rotate frequently, making a single AirTag harder to fingerprint and track over time.

• iPhone unwanted-tracker alerts, built into iOS
• A standalone Find My detection app for Android
• An audible chirp after extended separation from the owner
• 2nd-gen hardware: cross-platform alerts and frequently rotating Bluetooth identifiers

Why Reactive Is the Fair Word for These Protections

Every one of those mitigations, including the second generation’s new ones, operates after tracking has already started. An unwanted-tracker alert fires once an unfamiliar AirTag has been traveling with someone’s phone for a period of time; the chirp sounds after separation from the owner has already gone on for a while. None of it stops someone from planting an AirTag in the first place, and the Michigan lawsuit reported by AppleInsider is built on exactly that gap – protections that respond to tracking already underway rather than preventing it.

That’s a fair criticism to hold alongside the range and volume improvements, not a reason to dismiss them. A louder chirp and a faster alert are genuinely useful if you’re the one being tracked; they just don’t change the fact that the tracking has to start before Apple’s system notices it.

It’s also worth being precise about what’s fair to conclude from the record here. The NPR and AppleInsider reporting documents specific lawsuits alleging specific misuse; it does not, on its own, establish how common that misuse is relative to AirTag’s overall use for its intended purpose of finding lost items. The honest framing is a real, documented risk that Apple’s mitigations respond to rather than prevent, not a claim that the product was designed for stalking.

Sources: Apple · Tom’s Guide · NPR · AppleInsider