The Mac Mini, along with its more mobile Mac cousins the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, was the first Apple computer to ditch Intel silicon in favor of Apple’s new M1 processor. Our early tests of the M1 machines show a substantial performance boost over their predecessors, and now we’re seeing discounts sprout up for the new machines.
You can find discounts on the M1 MacBooks, but the Mac Mini remains the least expensive entry point for MacOS. The baseline model of the M1 Mac Mini costs $699 and features 8 gigabytes of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive. The step-up model costs $899 and doubles the storage capacity to 512GB. Amazon is currently offering both configurations at a discount; you can save $99 on the baseline configuration and $50 on the step-up model.
One benefit of paying full price and buying from Apple, however, is you can customize the machine and add more RAM or a higher-capacity SSD, whereas the models sold on Amazon and other retailers are fixed configurations. And unlike most other desktops, the Mac Mini’s RAM is not user upgradeable. Apple’s M1 system-on-a-chip integrates the CPU, GPU, RAM and other components for greater power and efficiency, but the downside of this integration is the lack of DIMM slots that would allow you to add additional RAM after purchase.
It’s also worth noting that the Apple Store offers students an educational discount, but you’ll save only $20 on the price of a new Mac Mini, though some upgrades are discounted, too. For example, doubling the RAM to 16GB costs $180 with the education discount instead of the usual charge of $200.
Keep reading to see the best prices currently available for Apple’s Mac Mini. We update this page regularly.
Mac Mini discounts, compared
| Model, CPU, storage capacity | List price | Best price (current) | Best price (all-time) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mac Mini, M1 chip, 256GB SSD | $699 | $600 | $600 |
| Mac Mini, M1 chip, 512GB SSD | $899 | $849 | $829 |
*Note that “all-time” means the best price that we’ve seen at an Apple-authorized retailer in the product’s lifetime.
When you arrive at Amazon’s page for the baseline Mac Mini with the M1 chip, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, you’ll see a price of $669 and wonder how I came up with the $100 discount. Check out the green print below the price on Amazon — it says you’ll save $69.01 at checkout. And sure enough, when you add the Mac Mini to your cart, the price drops to $600 for a total savings of $99 — the initial $30 plus the additional $69 in savings at checkout. This is the lowest price we’ve seen yet for the M1 Mac Mini.
Dan Ackerman/CNET
You won’t find any extra savings when you add the step-up Mac Mini to your cart on Amazon, but this model currently is $50 off. At $849, it’s $20 above its all-time low price of $829.
Watch this:
Hands-on with the entire new Apple Mac M1 lineup
9:02
