When to buy a MacBook: The best times include Prime Day

Table of contents

Everyone knows that Apple products tend to cost a nice penny, and macbooks and iMacs are no exception.

If you prefer to avoid spending $ 1,100 on entry -level specifications, we have excellent news: you can save hundreds on an Apple laptop or a computer Several times a year. This means that if your laptop is at the last step, you don’t have to keep before November to upgrade that will not harm your bank account. (And TBH, the annual incitement of the Apple gift card around Black Friday is not something to write at home anyway.)

We have been following Apple Deals Weekly for over two years, so we know what tends to be sold and when. In addition, we know which MacBook offers really deserve to jump and which “Markdowns” are essentially the regular price. Consult this list of the three main times of the year to find the best prices on a MacBook or Imac, depending on our historical knowledge:

Time n ° 1 to obtain an agreement on a Mac: Black Friday and Prime Day Seasons

Months: start in mid-July, from October to November

We know that shopping holidays are a good time to save money, revolutionary. However, we are not talking about the annual Apple Black Friday agreement, which is the same each year: buy a laptop or an iMac, get a free gift card to use on a future purchase. It’s a bit dull and not so ideal for saving money in advance.

If you want real Savings during shopping holidays, you will want to turn to retailers like Amazon and Best Buy during Black Friday And first -day seasons. At first glance, it may seem that you should keep an eye on the calendar for a few days selected throughout the year, but these retailers decided that time did not make sense with regard to sales. This means that you will start to see the savings of Black Friday in October and the savings of first order for about a week around July.

Despite the market only weeks before, the M3 MacBook Pros have seen good discounts on the last black Friday.
Credit: Apple

Traditionally, Prime Day took place over two days, but Amazon presents offers in the previous weeks. For Prime Day 2025, Prime Day itself will extend over four days, from July 8 to 11, And Good deals have already dropped in advance.

During the two sales, it is not uncommon to see macbooks of the cheapest tunes to the most swollen professionals for sale for $ 150 in discounts or more. For Prime Day 2025, we saw it happening with the $ 849 MacBook Air. However, our resident laptop expert, Haley Henschel, recommends waiting to see other price reductions on other models, because they do not correspond to record prices.

These are valid offers, but they can also be more difficult to mark because the general public knows that these are the moments to buy a Mac. If you see a good deal, don’t hesitate too much. Our advice? Know what models you are interested in Before These sales events will start and keep their eyes on them.

As a final note, the Black Friday season is a reliable moment to catch initial sales on all versions of Autumn Mac. In the fall of 2023, M3 and M3 Pro MacBook Pros abandoned in October and November, they were already on sale for $ 150 in discounts. It will probably not be the steepest offers that you will see in about year before the chipset and the Mac come out, but they can be impressive given the recent versions.

Time n ° 2 to obtain an agreement on a Mac: back season at school

Month: June to early October

Apple offers educational prices all year round for current or newly accepted students and their parents, as well as for teachers of teachers, staff and home schools from all levels. These prices overturn $ 100 on the price of their laptops and computers. It is not a massive brand, but it beats the full price.

However, if you fall into one of the demographic data above, it is not your only chance to save directly via Apple. They also organize a special return to the school of summer at the start of fall. In 2023, it took place from June 5 to October 2, you will therefore have a lot of time to decide which Mac model to choose. The main drawback is that, as the sale of Black Friday, Apple BTS offer is not a price drop outside – you will receive an Apple gift card proportional to the value of the product you buy for use on future purchases. In 2023, this is how the price broke:

• 24 -inch iMac: Receive an Apple gift card of $ 150

• MacBook Air: Receive an Apple gift card of $ 150

• MacBook Pro: Receive an Apple gift card of $ 150

• Mac Mini: Receive an Apple gift card of $ 100

Like the Black Friday, Apple does not tend to adjust the values ​​of the gift card radically, if not at all from year to year, we therefore expect to see essentially the same offer this year. Since MacBooks are some of our favorite laptops for students, we see this as an agreement that is worth a second look, but with stipulations.

If you do not plan to make another Apple purchase (gift cards can be used on App Store purchases, integrated purchases, more Apple technology and subscriptions like iCloud + or Apple TV +), you may want to wait for a sale at another retailer. There is a good chance that places like Amazon and Best Buy will also want to draw in the crowd back to school, so there could be biggest brands there – but you will probably not make a tonne flexibility on specifications. A MacBook Air with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD, for example, could be $ 150 in discounts, but a model with 16 GB of RA RAM may not be on sale at all.

Incituating the gift card is also good for all those who have a pair of airpods or an application for taking paid notes on their start-up list.

Time n ° 3 to obtain an agreement on a Mac: after the announcement of new versions

Month: may vary

This tip is not unique to Apple products, but it does not make it less useful to enter a Mac for a little less money. As a general rule, after Apple announces the latest models, it lowers prices for older generations.

Technically, this is not an agreement in the strictest sense of the term, but it will always save you money. Take, for example, last year’s announcement of the 13 -inch and 15 inch MacBook Air. On March 4, Apple put it in pre -order on its online store, and right next to the new laptop was a price drop of $ 100 on the 13 -inch air M2.

The price of the M2 MacBook Air has dropped twice after the versions of improved MacBooks.
Credit: Apple

The price went from $ 1,099 to $ 999, so it’s not a drastic difference, but if you plan to enter the M2 air, while waiting for this new generation to save you at least $ 100. In addition, a new list price means that future sales will bring you even more for your money.

You don’t necessarily need to wait until the same model to get a more recent counterpart to see a drop in price. Allow us to explain, again with the M2 MacBook Air. June 2023, Apple announced the 15 -inch MacBook Air M2 at a starting price of $ 1,299. At the time, the 13 -inch MacBook Air had been released for just under a year and cost $ 1,191. The larger model has brought a lower price to the smaller and slightly older model.

Price reductions are not always determined by Apple itself. A new Mac generally means stopping an old one. In the case of the M3 Air version, Apple interrupted the 15 -inch M2 air and the M1 air from 2020. Although you can no longer buy on the Apple Store, they were available at steep discounts on Amazon and Best Buy.

And if you feel a theme here, yes, it is better, most often, to jump the Apple Store in favor of other retailers if you are looking to save a serious paste.

End advice to save money on a Mac

1. Keep an eye on random sales

Although the interest of this guide is that there are ideal moments to take a mac on sale, we will be honest: sometimes there are very random sales, very good sales on Mac for apparently no reason.

Obviously, it is a little more difficult to plan, but rest assured, if there is a Mac sale that deserves to be known, we write on this subject, we therefore recommend that you follow our offers.

2. Some Macs are on sale more frequently than others

This tip is probably without saying, but some models are rarely put up for sale. The general trends that we have seen are that iMacs tend not to be on sale as often as macbooks, and everything that is above the starting specifications of a MacBook, especially if you are looking for an improved memory, is much more difficult to find regularly on sale.

We say it just to encourage a little healthy waiting when you get into your search for a Mac at a reduced price.