Apple has done something it rarely does voluntarily: raised prices on an existing product line. The Mac Mini base model now starts at $799, up from $599, a roughly 33% jump that went into effect around May 1, 2026.
The memory chip squeeze
Memory prices have surged by 50-70% as chip manufacturers prioritize supplying data centers over consumer electronics makers. When OpenAI and Google and Meta are all competing for the same pool of memory chips, the company making your laptop gets squeezed.
Apple CEO Tim Cook flagged this coming storm during the company’s January 2026 earnings call, projecting significant increases in memory chip prices and warning that margins would feel the pressure. That warning materialized as an actual price hike just a few months later.
To soften the blow, Apple doubled the storage on the new Mac Mini base model from 256GB to 512GB. A nice gesture, though consumers are still paying $200 more regardless.
