Apple has officially removed its most affordable Mac mini configuration from sale. The $599 model, equipped with the M4 chip, 16GB of unified memory, and 256GB of storage, no longer appears on Apple's website. Apple stopped accepting orders for the 256GB M4 Mac mini from April 22, 2026. The Mac mini's starting price is now $799 for the 512GB storage variant. This is not a price increase in the conventional sense; the 512GB model was already sold at $799. The removal of the lower tier simply eliminates the cheaper entry point entirely.

Customers can currently choose between 24GB and 32GB memory options on the $799 base configuration, while storage can be upgraded to either 1TB or 2TB. The M4 Pro variant can be configured with up to 64GB of memory and up to 8TB of storage. However, availability across the lineup is severely constrained. Mac mini configurations with an upgraded 32GB or 64GB of RAM are listed as "currently unavailable" on the Apple storefront, meaning they can no longer be ordered at all. The 512GB version of the M4 Mac mini with 16GB of memory is currently backordered until the second or third week of June.

The shortages are not incidental. Apple CEO Tim Cook, speaking during the company's second-quarter earnings call, pointed to stronger-than-anticipated demand as the reason behind constrained Mac mini availability. That demand is partly structural: the Mac mini is significantly more energy-efficient than more conventional AI-capable PCs, many of which require substantial power for dedicated GPUs. An entry M4 model idles at just 4W and has a peak power consumption of 65W, compared to Intel's Core Ultra 5 250K Plus, which draws between 125W and 159W by itself. The machine's efficiency has made it a practical choice for running AI models locally, sustaining elevated purchase volumes well beyond typical consumer demand for a desktop in its price class.

A shortage shaped by AI infrastructure

The supply constraint facing Apple is not an isolated procurement problem. It is a downstream consequence of a structural reallocation of semiconductor manufacturing capacity. The voracious demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) by hyperscalers, including Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon, has forced the three largest memory manufacturers, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology, to pivot their limited cleanroom space and capital expenditure towards higher-margin enterprise-grade components. This is a zero-sum game: every wafer allocated to an HBM stack for an Nvidia GPU is a wafer denied to the LPDDR5X module of a mid-range smartphone or the SSD of a consumer laptop.

Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron together control over 95% of global DRAM production and have systematically reallocated manufacturing capacity toward HBM chips used in AI accelerators, leaving consumer-grade DRAM and NAND flash in critically short supply. Data centers now consume an estimated 70% of all memory chips produced worldwide.

In October 2025, SK Hynix indicated it had already sold all of its 2026 production capacity for HBM, DRAM, and NAND. DRAM inventory levels fell from 17 weeks in late 2024 to just two to four weeks by October 2025. Memory product prices increased by 50% in the last quarter of 2025 alone. In some cases, DRAM spot prices have jumped nearly 700% in the past year.

IDC projects that 2026 DRAM supply growth will reach just 16% year-on-year, and NAND supply growth just 17% year-on-year; both figures sit well below historical norms. Multi-year HBM contracts, sold-out NAND production for 2026, and explicit supplier guidance pointing to relief only after 2027 to 2028 indicate this is a long-duration reallocation, not a short-term imbalance that will self-correct through pricing alone.

Apple sources its NAND flash storage from third-party suppliers and is exposed to these pressures despite designing its own silicon. With rising DRAM and NAND prices, Apple likely discontinued the 256GB M4 Mac mini to preserve its margins and direct limited component stock to higher-end models.

What comes next

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported in late 2025 that M5 and M5 Pro Mac mini models are on Apple's roadmap, and reiterated in early 2026 that new Mac minis are planned for this year. All signs point to a launch in the first half of 2026, potentially around WWDC. However, with global RAM shortages, Apple may delay the update until later in the year.

In December 2025, MacRumors reported that references to the M5 and M5 Pro Mac mini appeared in a set of leaked Apple files. Apple's M5 chip debuted in October 2025 and represents a significant shift in Apple silicon, prioritising graphics performance and on-device artificial intelligence. The M5 offers 14 to 22% faster CPU performance and up to 45% better GPU performance than the M4, while AI tasks run 3.5 times faster.

When Apple introduced the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air in March 2026, it doubled the storage at the entry level. It is likely that Apple will mirror this with the Mac mini. The M4 Mac mini has Thunderbolt 4, while MacBook Pro models with the M5 chip also feature Thunderbolt 4; so that specification is expected to carry over. In March 2026, Apple added Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 to the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models, so it is likely to do the equivalent with the M5 Mac mini.

For buyers in the market now, the options are limited. Some third-party retailers may still have the 256GB M4 Mac mini in stock. Otherwise, the $799 512GB model is the lowest available configuration, with lead times extending into June for in-stock variants and months for higher-memory builds. Whether the M5 Mac mini arrives before memory supply conditions ease remains an open question; the two timelines are now functionally linked.

Sources

9to5Mac — Apple discontinues base Mac mini, now starts at $799 with 512GB storage (May 2026): https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/01/apple-discontinues-base-mac-mini-now-starts-at-799-with-512gb-storage/

MacRumors — Base Mac Mini Sold Out From Apple Online Store (April 2026): https://www.macrumors.com/2026/04/22/base-mac-mini-sold-out-from-apple-online-store/

Macworld — 2026 Mac mini (M5 & M5 Pro): Release date, specs, rumors & what's expected (2026): https://www.macworld.com/article/2964754/2026-mac-mini-m5-pro-design-specs-release-date.html

Cult of Mac — M4 Mac mini now costs more as Apple drops 256GB model (May 2026): https://www.cultofmac.com/news/m4-mac-mini-costs-more-apple-drops-256gb-model

IDC — Global Memory Shortage Crisis: Market Analysis and the Potential Impact on the Smartphone and PC Markets in 2026 (February 2026): https://www.idc.com/resource-center/blog/global-memory-shortage-crisis-market-analysis-and-the-potential-impact-on-the-smartphone-and-pc-markets-in-2026/

Everstream Analytics — Global Memory Chip Shortage Worsens (January 2026): https://www.everstream.ai/risk-centers/global-memory-chip-shortage-worsens/

Octopart — How AI Broke the Memory Market: Inside the 2024–2026 DRAM & NAND Crunch (March 2026): https://octopart.com/pulse/p/how-ai-broke-memory-market

Bloomberg — AI Chip Manufacturing Demand Creates Historic Shortage (March 2026): https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2026-ai-boom-memory-chip-shortage/