When Do Apple Products Go on Sale? Best Time to Buy Each Device

Apple rarely discounts its own products. Real price drops come from third-party retailers, and they cluster in four windows: Black Friday and Cyber Monday (late November), Amazon Prime Day (July), the back-to-school period (June to September), and the weeks immediately after a new model launches. The worst time to buy any Apple device is the month before its replacement is announced.

Here's the timing for each product line, plus a straight answer to the question that actually keeps people awake: should you buy now or wait?

Does Apple ever put products on sale?

Effectively no. Apple runs no seasonal sales on its own store. Its Black Friday event gives gift cards, not price reductions — Black Friday 2025 offered $75 with an iPhone 16 rather than $75 off it. The only permanent price reduction Apple itself offers is the refurbished store at around 15% off.

Everything else you see advertised as an "Apple sale" is a retailer — Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, B&H — discounting its own margin.

When is the best time to buy a MacBook?

Late November for the deepest discount, or the two to three months after a new model ships if you want the outgoing generation cheap. Black Friday 2025 produced a MacBook Air M4 at $738, roughly 26% off — the sort of drop that doesn't appear at any other time of year.

MacBook discounts typically run 9–26% at third-party retailers, but they're sporadic and rarely cover the exact configuration you want. The base configurations discount most; upgraded RAM and storage builds discount least, because retailers stock fewer of them.

One thing that makes 2026 unusual: Apple raised MacBook Pro prices by $300–$500 in June 2026. If you've been comparing against a price you remember from last year, that gap is real and it isn't coming back.

When is the best time to buy an iPhone?

September, immediately after the new models are announced — but buy the outgoing model. Current-generation iPhones essentially never discount. What happens each September is that the previous generation drops in price and moves to retailers at a genuine reduction.

The 2026 calendar is unusual and worth knowing. The iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, plus Apple's first foldable, are expected around 8–9 September 2026. The standard iPhone 18, 18e and Air 2 have been pushed to spring 2027 under a new split-launch strategy. That means the usual "wait for September and everything refreshes" rule only applies to the Pro line this year.

If you want a current iPhone at any discount at all, your options are thin — which is the one gap where paying in crypto for 5% off is genuinely competitive, because it applies to the newest models on day one.

When do AirPods and iPads go on sale?

Constantly, and deeply. AirPods are the most heavily discounted product Apple makes. AirPods Pro 3 reached $179 against a $249 list price in August 2026 — 28.9% off and an all-time low. AirPods Max 2 hit $429 from $549, a 22% drop.

iPads discount reliably too, typically $100–150 off (8–15%), with the previous generation falling hardest once a new one ships.

The practical rule for both: never pay list price. If there's no sale this week, there will be one within a month or two. These are the two categories where waiting genuinely pays.

Should I buy now or wait for the next model?

This is the real question, and the honest answer depends on two variables: how long it's been since the last refresh, and whether your current device still works.

Situation	What to do
Last refresh was 0–6 months ago	Buy now. You're near the start of the cycle. Waiting costs you 6–12 months of use for nothing.
Last refresh was 6–10 months ago	Buy now, unless a specific rumoured feature matters to you.
Last refresh was 10–12+ months ago	Wait if you can — a refresh is likely close, and the outgoing model will drop.
A keynote is within 4 weeks	Wait. Four weeks is nothing, and prices move right after.
Your current device is broken or unusable	Buy now regardless. Nothing on this page is worth six months of a machine that doesn't work.

That last row matters more than people admit. The most common regret isn't buying a month too early — it's spending half a year limping along on failing hardware to save a percentage that a single retailer sale would have given anyway.

What is the worst time to buy an Apple product?

The four weeks before its replacement is announced. You pay full price for a model that's about to be superseded, and you lose the price drop that lands on the outgoing generation days later.

For iPhones, that means late August and early September. For Macs and iPads it's less predictable, since Apple refreshes those on a looser schedule, but the tell is the same: a model that hasn't been updated in over a year is a model you should hesitate over.

Does waiting for refurbished stock work?

It works, but it lags further than people expect. Refurbished units only reach Apple's store months after a model launches — a MacBook Air released in March typically doesn't appear refurbished until June or July, and a 14-inch MacBook Pro launched in autumn may not show up until February.

If you're waiting specifically for a refurbished unit of a current model, budget three to five months, and accept that stock is fixed-configuration and rotates unpredictably.

When are trade-in values highest?

Before the announcement, not after. A SellCell study published 25 August 2026 found that 92.6% of iPhone 17 trade-in values fell in the ten days between Apple's announcement and launch — an average of $36.46 per device.

If your plan involves trading in an old device, do it before the keynote. Waiting until the new model is in your hands costs you money on both sides of the transaction.

The timing calendar, in short

Month	What's worth buying
January	Post-holiday clearance; leftover Black Friday stock
March–April	Spring Mac and iPad launches — outgoing models drop
June–July	Back-to-school promotions begin; Prime Day (July)
September	iPhone launch — previous generation falls. Worst month to buy a current iPhone.
Late November	Deepest discounts of the year — Black Friday and Cyber Monday

If you don't want to wait

Every strategy on this page has the same cost: time. If the timing doesn't line up — you need the machine now, or you want a current-generation iPhone that nothing discounts — paying in crypto takes 5% off new sealed stock immediately, with Apple's standard warranty and no waiting for a sale window.

That's a MacBook Air M5 at $979, an iPad Pro 11-inch M5 at $799, or an AirPods Pro 3 at $199 — though on AirPods specifically, a retailer sale will usually beat us, and we'd rather say so.

Browse the full store or read every discount route compared to see which one fits your situation.