It comes with a 1-year limited warranty that covers hardware failure unrelated to physical damage (liquid, impact damage, etc.) My M1 Air that I'm typing on now had its logic board fail just a few weeks before the limited warranty expired. Was sitting on my lap and just went black randomly. Brought it to the Apple Store and they had it shipped out, repaired, and shipped back within three days, all at no cost to me. If it had happened a few weeks later, the repair would've cost $448. I added AppleCare to it after that.
So, if you take good care of your tech and are fairly confident you won't damage it within the first year, you could take your chances with the limited warranty, then add AppleCare to extend the coverage after that. I think they let you add AppleCare up until the day the limited warranty expires. That was my experience anyway (and yes, I waited until the final day lol).
It comes with a 1-year limited warranty that covers hardware failure unrelated to physical damage (liquid, impact damage, etc.) My M1 Air that I'm typing on now had its logic board fail just a few weeks before the limited warranty expired. Was sitting on my lap and just went black randomly. Brought it to the Apple Store and they had it shipped out, repaired, and shipped back within three days, all at no cost to me. If it had happened a few weeks later, the repair would've cost $448. I added AppleCare to it after that.
So, if you take good care of your tech and are fairly confident you won't damage it within the first year, you could take your chances with the limited warranty, then add AppleCare to extend the coverage after that. I think they let you add AppleCare up until the day the limited warranty expires. That was my experience anyway (and yes, I waited until the final day lol).