Monthly Mac Price Index - July 2026

In July 2026 we are paying indicative prices of around £1,100 for a good MacBook Pro 14 inch M4, £900 for the 14 inch M3, £480 for a MacBook Air 13 inch M2 and £550 for a MacBook Pro 13 inch M2, with faulty units earning roughly 40 to 45 per cent of those figures. The full table below covers laptops and desktops, plus what moved since June.

This index is published monthly. Bookmark it if you are timing a sale - the commentary at the bottom flags which way each segment is drifting, so you can decide whether waiting is likely to pay or cost.

What are we paying for MacBooks this month?

All figures are indicative for base-configuration machines; good means fully working with light wear, faulty means damaged or not working properly but not iCloud-locked. Higher storage and RAM push quotes above these benchmarks.

We buy Apple Silicon Macs only - M1-generation and newer, working or broken. Intel Macs are the exception; see our Intel MacBook value guide for what those are worth.

The headline spread tells the story of the current market: three tiers, cleanly separated. Recent M3 and M4 machines hold four-figure territory at the top, the M2 mid-pack clusters between £480 and £550, and the M1 generation - the oldest we buy - anchors the bottom at £320 to £600.

What are we paying for desktop Macs this month?

Desktops follow their own rhythm - slower depreciation than laptops, but thinner demand outside of a few favourite configurations.

We buy Apple Silicon Macs only - M1-generation and newer, working or broken. Intel Macs are the exception; see our Intel MacBook value guide for what those are worth.

A reminder on logistics: shipping is free and fully insured whichever Mac you own - couriers collect desktops from your door, while laptops travel on a prepaid label via any Post Office counter - and payment lands by bank transfer within 24 hours of the machine passing inspection.

What moved this month, and why?

New to the index: the M4 generation. With M4 machines now arriving in real volume as early adopters upgrade, the index adds current-generation rows for the first time - MacBook Pro 14 inch M4 at £1,100, MacBook Air 13 inch M4 at £720 and Mac Studio M4 Max at £1,500. These sit at the very top of their value curves and will take the traditional step down whenever succession news lands.

Up: Mac mini M4, plus £15 on June. The M4 mini has become the default recommendation for budget desktop buyers, and refurbished units are selling through faster than sellers are supplying them. Firm demand plus thin supply lifts what we can pay.

Up: MacBook Air 15 inch M3, plus £20. The summer student market is warming early. Larger-screen Airs are the perennial September favourite, and refurbishers building stock ahead of term time are bidding the segment up.

Flat: the M1 generation across the wider market. M1 laptops and desktops sit outside our buying window, but their market values held June's levels. These machines are approaching the flat tail of their depreciation curve - the fall from here on is measured in tens of pounds a year rather than hundreds, though June's WWDC confirmed the M1 family drops off the next macOS support list, which will bite gradually into 2027 values.

Down: MacBook Pro 13 inch M2, minus £15. The last of the Touch Bar Pros keeps sliding as buyers favour the 14 inch design. Nothing dramatic, but the direction has been one-way for six months.

Down: Intel everything, minus 5 per cent on average across the market. The Intel cliff grinds on. With macOS Tahoe confirmed as the final major release for these machines, each passing month converts a little more of their remaining software life into lost value. If an Intel Mac is gathering dust in your house, every month of delay is now the most expensive kind of waiting.

How have prices trended over the past quarter?

Zooming out from single-month moves, here is the direction of travel for each segment since April 2026:

The quarter's clearest lesson sits in the bottom row. Intel machines lost more value in three months than the M1 generation lost in twelve, and nothing on the horizon reverses that. Meanwhile the M1 plateau is genuine but has an expiry date: once the final macOS security updates for that generation are within sight, its long flat stretch will end the way the Intel one did.

What do we expect in next month's index?

August's update will most likely show summer stability with two watchpoints. First, continued firmness in student-favourite models - 13 and 15 inch Airs - as term-time demand builds. Second, the first pre-announcement jitters at the top of the Pro table if autumn launch rumours firm up, since the priciest current-generation machines always react to succession news first. Sellers of M3 Pro hardware have the most riding on acting before that window opens.

How should you read this index as a seller?

Three practical rules get the most out of these tables:

1. Treat the figures as floors to beat, not ceilings. They describe base configurations - a 1TB drive or 16GB of memory adds real money on top, and a boxed, barely-used machine lands at the top of its band.
2. Watch the direction, not just the number. A £480 machine drifting down £10 a month is a different proposition from a £480 machine holding steady. Rising or flat segments reward patience; falling segments punish it.
3. Remember the calendar. July and August are historically firm months. From September, new Apple hardware and a flood of upgraders' old machines push used values down across the board - the pattern repeats every single year.

And whatever the tables say, a locked quote beats a moving market: ours hold for 14 days, so you can secure July's price today and post the Mac whenever suits you within the fortnight. When it is time to send it, our guide to how to package and post a MacBook shows how to box it safely in ten minutes.

Where do these prices come from?

Each month's figures are set from what refurbished Macs are actually selling for in the UK, worked back through our refurbishment costs - which is why they track the retail second-hand market faster than the big generalist recyclers, whose prices are hedged across thousands of device types. If you want to see how the different kinds of buyer structure their offers, our comparison of UK MacBook trade-in options breaks down who pays what and why.

Faulty prices deserve a final word, because they surprise people most: a broken Mac at 40 to 45 per cent of good value is not a token gesture, it reflects genuine parts and repair value. Quotes for broken machines are instant online - no emailing photographs, no waiting for a human to guess. Check your model against the tables above, then trade in your MacBook while July's firm prices last; the index will be different in August, and between now and September, different has mostly meant lower.