Apple is no longer shielding customers from the ravages of the ongoing RAM pricing apocalypse. On Thursday, the tech giant hiked prices on nearly every one of its devices. The only gadgets left untouched were the beloved iPhone, Apple Watches, and AirPods. We’ll see how long that lasts.
Every single MacBook now costs more than it did on Wednesday, starting with the ultra-popular MacBook Neo. The colorful, budget laptop now starts at $700 for a version with 256GB of storage, a $100 hike. A 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip now starts at $2,000 with 16GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage, a $300 increase from its launch price of $1,700. There’s no longer an option for only 512GB of memory. You can expect hikes across all the various storage and RAM configurations.
Here are the new Mac starting prices:
- MacBook Neo (256GB SSD): $600 → $700 (+$100)
- MacBook Neo (512GB SSD with Touch ID): $700 → $800 (+$100)
- M5 MacBook Air: $1,100 → $1,300 (+$200)
- M5 MacBook Pro (14-inch with 1TB SSD): $1,700 → $2,000 (+$300)
- It used to start at $1,600 with 512GB of storage, but that model is no longer sold
- M4 iMac: $1,300 → $1,500 (+$200)
- M4 Mac mini: $600 → $800 (+$200)
- M4 Max Mac Studio: $2,000 → $2,500 (+$500)
Apple’s tablet lineup is also taking a hit. An 11-inch iPad Pro with M5 now starts at $1,200 with the same 256GB starting storage option, $200 more than it cost in 2025. The M4 iPad Air that hit the scene just a few months ago has a $150 price increase, now starting at $750.
Here are the new iPad starting prices:
- A16 iPad: $350 → $450 (+$100)
- A17 Pro iPad mini: $500 → $600 (+$100)
- M4 iPad Air: $600 → $750 (+$150)
- M5 iPad Pro: $1,000 → $1,200 (+$200)
And there’s even more. The humble HomePod and Apple TV 4K set-top box are now more expensive. Here’s how much you now have to pay for them:
- HomePod mini: $100 → $130 (+$30)
- HomePod: $300 → $350 (+$50)
- Apple TV 4K: $130 → $200 (+$70)
Not even the Apple Vision Pro could stave off a price hike. The $3,500 XR headset was already expensive, but now it will cost you $3,700 for the barebones 256GB model.
- Apple Vision Pro with M5: $3,500 → $3,700 (+$200)
Apple has yet to make an official statement on the price changes. However, outgoing CEO Tim Cook recently lamented in an interview that RAM prices were becoming untenable and hinted we’d have to suffer new price hikes.
“Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” Cook told The Wall Street Journal. He said Apple would use its cash reserves to “help be part of the solution” to return memory prices to regular prices, but also admitted that “we can’t do everything.” A supply chain master, Cook said the memory crisis and price hikes as a result of it is “a hundred-year flood” and that he’d “never seen anything like it in any area in over 40 years.”
Apple shared a full statement to MacRumors about the price increases:
The consumer electronics industry is facing an unprecedented challenge. The rapid expansion of AI data centers has created an extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage. We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly. We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac. We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions.
This article has been updated to include a statement from Apple.
