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Apple Stops Selling Mac Mini With 256GB of Storage, Starting Price Rises to $799

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Apple this week stopped offering a 256GB storage option for the Mac mini worldwide. As a result, the desktop computer now has a higher starting price.

mac mini blue
In the U.S., for example, the Mac mini now starts at $799 with the M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, whereas it previously started at $599 with the M4 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.

While the 512GB configuration always started at $799, customers who want a new Mac mini from Apple for $599 no longer have such an option.

Mac mini models with the M4 Pro chip already had a minimum of 512GB of storage, so there are no pricing changes for those configurations.

The base Mac mini with 256GB of storage had already been unavailable to order since last week, but it has now been removed from Apple's configurator entirely. We have reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

On an earnings call this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that Mac mini and Mac Studio supply is constrained, and he said it may take "several months" for Apple to achieve supply-demand balance. He said both of these Macs are "amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools," resulting in higher-than-expected demand.

In March, Apple stopped offering the Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM.

These changes to Mac mini and Mac Studio configurations are occurring amid a global memory chip shortage, driven by companies building out AI server facilities. Cook said Apple is expecting "significantly higher memory costs" in the current quarter, and tight availability of RAM is likely forcing Apple to make tough business decisions.

Thanks, Spencer!

Related Roundup: Mac mini
Buyer's Guide: Mac Mini (Caution)
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Top Rated Comments

HouseLannister Avatar
HouseLannister
3 weeks ago

The Tim Cook supporters will fallaciously say “inflation,” totally ignoring the fact that computer parts drop in price at a greater rate than inflation.
Have you been to 2026 yet? Computer prices go up now. Game consoles are more expensive now than when they launched 5 years ago. People are going back to DDR4 RAM because they can't get DDR5 anymore. Video cards are back to crypto scalper highs. Everything is more expensive and it has nothing to do with inflation.
Score: 62 Votes (Like | Disagree)
H
hieranonymous
3 weeks ago
The fact that the entire supply chain has reoriented itself to prioritize server farms over consumers is some seriously dystopian late-stage capitalism ish. They’ve created a perfect circle-jerk where their biggest customers are hallucinating AIs rather than living breathing people.
Score: 54 Votes (Like | Disagree)
P
poematik13
3 weeks ago
Bruhhh lmao

You know its bad when even Tim Cook’s Apple, the supply chain champion of the world, is cutting SKU’s and jacking up prices.

this is worse than the 2020 chip shortage
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Agent007 Avatar
Agent007
3 weeks ago
Make way for the Mac Neo desktop at $699 starting price in 4 adorable colors😆
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CWallace Avatar
CWallace
3 weeks ago

Prices increase w/ less ram = Tim Apple getting it in before he hands over his driver's keys to a hardware guy.
RAM capacity remains unchanged at 16GB. Storage has increased from 256GB to 512GB and wasn't 512GB of storage always a $200 upgrade on the Mac mini?
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
DerekK
3 weeks ago

Just another day of Tim Crook being Tim Crook.

Remember that when the Mac mini was first released in 2004 under Steve Jobs, the starting price was $499, and the logic being that it was supposed to be an affordable computer. Now, thanks to Cook’s insatiable corporate greed, the starting price is $799.

The Tim Cook supporters will wrongly blame “inflation,” ignoring the fact that computer parts tend to drop in price faster than inflation rises.
You could not me any more wrong with that statement.

It's amazing that Tim Cook and Apple have kept the price the same since launch, considering that all major component prices have increased since 2024 when it was released.

I would also argue that the 256 GB storage option was quite limiting anyway, so while it removes choice (and a cheaper starting price), 512 GB is much more future proof and still an amazing value for such a powerful machine.

If $799 (or $699 for students) is too much, Tim also recently introduced the Macbook Neo with a $599 (or $499 for students) starting price. You can run the Neo in Clamshell Mode with an external display and basically have the same setup as the 2024 Mac Mini.

And for the record, $499 in 2005 is equivalent to about $840 today, so we are getting a more powerful computer for less money than before.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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