Use upgrade then Gift it

Great question, Ericjgonzalez. Before gifting your upgrade to another person not on your line, there are several things to consider first.

If you didn't want the monthly installments then you can take @GLIMMERMAN76's recommendation and purchase your phone directly from the manufacturer. Of course, since you prefer the installment credits, here's what you need to know:

• Are you going for the trade-in credits? In order to get the trade-in credits, you must trade in your eligible trade-in device.
  • If you're not aiming for the credits and you simply want to upgrade your phone, then you can gift your new phone to someone else as long as the line remains active and installment payments are made for the phone.
• Is the line you're gifting the phone to an AT&T customer? If you continue to make installment payments on the phone while it is being used by a non-AT&T customer you will still receive the installment credits especially since the line remains active and offer requirements are met.
  • If this new line will take over the installment payments too, then they will need to be active on the AT&T network. Another AT&T customer can assume responsibility for the line by initiating a Transfer of Billing Responsibility. However, credits will cease.

We hope this info helps. Reach back out to us and let us know if you have any further questions. We want to make sure we have a proper understanding about what you're trying to achieve in order to provide you with accurate information.

Lar, AT&T Community Specialist

You would be paying full price for the device why not just buy it from apple?

I wanna do the installment plan for the monthly payments 

In theory, you should be able to.  When you do an upgrade, the new phone will come with a SIM (or eSIM for an iPhone 14) with your number already programmed in it.  You will need to activate the SIM in that phone, which will deactivate any SIM with that number in any older phone you have.  After the new phone and SIM are activated, you can transfer the SIM back to another phone you want to use and do whatever you want with the new phone.  Note that the new phone will be locked to AT&T until it’s paid for, so keep that in mind for whoever you want to gift it to.

Just to be clear, you realize that you’ll have to keep that line active until it’s paid off, so up to 36 months.