At $89 an earbud, you might want AppleCare with those AirPods Pro

There's nothing cheap about the new AirPods Pro. And that includes replacing and repairing them.

There are plenty of good reasons to yearn for the new, noise-canceling AirPods Pro. They look great, but if you lose or damage them, be prepared to pay up. Individual earbud replacements will run you $89, as will replacing the charging case, as spotted on Apple's support website by 9to5Mac.

In other words, replacing all the components of AirPods Pro would cost slightly more than just buying a new pair for $249.99. What a bargain. As far as Apple is concerned, that's what AppleCare is for.

Hopefully you don't need to take your new AirPods to the Genius Bar. Credit: Universal Images Group via Getty

You see, if you get the $29 AppleCare+ for Headphones plan that Apple conveniently launched in September, that replacement fee goes down to just $29. Keep in mind that every AirPods purchase also comes with a one-year warranty, which is doubled with AppleCare+ for Headphones.

It's worth noting that the default warranty is limited to manufacturing defects and not simple wear-and-tear.

Apple is probably banking on the fact that people can be swayed into signing up for AppleCare while they're in the Apple Store. The sales pitch is pretty strong: Pay this fee now and you won't have to worry too much about future repairs for Apple headphones. No piece of tech is invincible, and AirPods are smaller and easier to lose than most headphones.

Seeing as how tech companies are increasingly fixated on squeezing money out of customers through subscriptions, that makes sense. Apple took big leaps with services in 2019, with Apple News+, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade.