When Is the Best Time to Buy AirPods?🎧
AirPods prices swing 25-30% through the year — here's exactly when they hit their lows.
What ShopSavvy's price data shows
ShopSavvy has too little price history for AirPods (22 products, 162,874 price observations) to say which month is cheapest, so this page names none from our data.
Black Friday week (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday): the median product sold 4.2% below its own early-October price (36 product-years, 2020-2024).
Products these figures come from
The products with the most price observations behind this page; each links to its current prices and full price history.
- Apple AirPods Max (71,061 observations)
- Apple AirPods 2 (39,393 observations)
- AirPods Pro (17,904 observations)
- AirPods (3rd Generation) (11,422 observations)
- Apple AirPods Max (4,207 observations)
- AirPods Max Silver (2,032 observations)
Source: ShopSavvy price observations, 162,874 observations of 22 products, 2020-07 to 2026-09. New-condition, US-dollar prices from trusted retailers; eBay and marketplace sellers excluded; prices outside 0.4x-2.5x of a product's own median dropped as mismatched listings. Computed 2026-10-12.
- Coverage is uneven across years: 84,041 observations in 2021 against 68 in 2026, so busier years weigh more.
- Each month compares a product with its own recent price, so it measures timing, not how much cheaper one model is than another. Months marked "not enough data" had fewer than 20 product-months.
- Past patterns are a guide, not a promise: sale dates move and a new model can reset prices.
The same price history is available to developers through the ShopSavvy Data API and as licensed datasets.
The guide below was written from published retailer sale calendars and seasonal coverage. Its discount ranges are not ShopSavvy measurements; ShopSavvy's own figures are in the section above.
Apple never discounts AirPods in its own stores — but everyone else does, and the discounts follow a remarkably predictable calendar. Buy at the wrong moment and you pay full list price; wait a few weeks and the same pair is routinely 25-30% off at Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, or Costco.
Here's exactly when AirPods hit their lows, based on years of price history.
The Short Answer
The best times to buy AirPods, in order:
- Black Friday / Cyber Monday (late November) — the lowest prices of the year, nearly every year. Discounts of 25-30% on current models are normal, and older models go even deeper.
- Amazon Prime Day (July) and the October Prime event — typically within a few dollars of Black Friday pricing, and other retailers price-match aggressively both weeks.
- Right after Apple's September event — when a new AirPods model is announced, the outgoing generation drops sharply and keeps falling as retailers clear stock.
- Back-to-school season (August-September) — solid retailer discounts, and Apple's education promotion has historically bundled audio gear with Mac and iPad purchases.
The worst time? The first few months after a brand-new model launches — new AirPods rarely see meaningful discounts until their first Prime Day or Black Friday.
Why Timing Matters So Much with AirPods
Apple keeps list prices fixed, so every saving comes from third-party retailers — and they move together. When Amazon cuts AirPods pricing for an event, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy usually match within hours. That competition is why AirPods swing more than most Apple products: a pair that holds list price all spring can drop 30% for a single November week.
The pattern repeats annually:
- January-March: quiet. Occasional small drops as holiday demand fades.
- April-June: list price most weeks. Skip unless you find a one-off deal.
- July: Prime Day — the year's first big drop, usually matching or nearly matching last Black Friday.
- August-September: back-to-school discounts, then Apple's September event reshuffles the lineup — outgoing models start their permanent slide.
- October: the second Prime event brings Prime Day pricing back.
- November-December: Black Friday and Cyber Monday set the year's floor. Prices stay low through mid-December, then drift back up before Christmas as stock tightens.
New Model or Old Model?
When Apple introduces a new generation, the previous one becomes the best value in the lineup almost overnight. Retailers cut the outgoing model immediately, and the discounts deepen for months. If you don't need the newest feature, buying the previous generation a few weeks after a launch is consistently the best price-per-quality moment in the whole cycle.
The reverse also applies: avoid buying the outgoing model at full price right before Apple's September event. If it's August and you can wait three weeks, wait.
Where the Deals Actually Show Up
Apple's own store sells at list price year-round (the education discount is the narrow exception). The real discounts appear at Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Costco — and because they price-match each other, the cheapest store changes week to week.
That's exactly what ShopSavvy is for: look up any AirPods model in the app and you'll see every store's current price side by side, plus the full price history so you can tell whether today's "deal" is genuinely low. Better yet, watch the product — ShopSavvy keeps checking every store and alerts you the moment the price drops.
The Bottom Line
If it's close to July, October, or late November, wait for the event week — that's where the year's real lows live. If a new model was just announced, grab the outgoing generation as retailers clear it. And whenever you buy, check the price at every store first — with AirPods, the same earbuds are routinely $30-60 cheaper somewhere else that same day.
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About "Best Time to Buy" Guides
Our "Best Time to Buy" guides pair published retailer sale calendars with ShopSavvy's own price observations, so you can see when prices actually dipped.
Month-by-month figures from ShopSavvy's price observations, with sample sizes
Black Friday week compared with early-October prices
Brand-specific insights and release schedules
Seasonal sale events and what to expect from them
