Apple Stops Selling Mac Mini With 256GB of Storage, Starting Price Rises to $799
Apple has discontinued the 256GB storage option for the Mac mini, raising the starting price globally to $799 for the base model with 512GB of storage. This change follows supply constraints and increased demand for AI-capable Mac models, as acknowledged by CEO Tim Cook during a recent earnings call. The move aligns with broader industry challenges, including a global memory chip shortage affecting component availability and costs.
- ▪Apple has removed the 256GB storage option for the Mac mini, making 512GB the new base storage capacity.
- ▪The starting price of the Mac mini is now $799 in the U.S., up from $599.
- ▪Mac mini models with the M4 Pro chip are unaffected as they already required at least 512GB of storage.
- ▪CEO Tim Cook cited supply constraints and strong demand for AI-ready Macs like the Mac mini and Mac Studio.
- ▪A global memory chip shortage, driven by AI server development, is contributing to higher memory costs and limited availability.
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Apple Stops Offering Mac Mini With 256GB of Storage, Starting Price Rises to $799Friday May 1, 2026 11:29 am PDT by Joe RossignolApple 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. 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. Mac mini models with the M4 Pro chip already had a minimum of 512GB of storage, so there is no change to pricing 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.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - All Stories.
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