New Mac mini: M6 and M5 Pro chips, and a higher price

The chip changed. So did the price.

Apple refreshed the Mac mini on August 25, 2026, and the headline is a genuine generational jump wrapped around a price a lot of buyers will notice immediately. The base model now runs on M6 — Apple’s first chip built on a 2-nanometer process — with a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, and Apple is claiming up to 40% faster CPU performance and roughly double the graphics performance over the outgoing M4. A step-up M5 Pro configuration is also available, running up to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU for anyone doing heavier video or photo work.

Here is the part worth sitting with: $899 is the highest starting price the Mac mini has ever had. This is the machine we run our own family desktop workstation on, and part of why we recommend it constantly is that it used to be the cheap, honest way into the Mac ecosystem — a genuinely capable little desktop for a few hundred dollars less than a MacBook. That gap has been narrowing for a few generations now, and this refresh narrows it further — and it is not just a pricing decision: our look at the enterprise AI demand behind this launch covers why companies buying Mac minis by the rack are part of the reason this configuration costs more and is harder to find.

The performance jump is real and the design sticking with a proven, tiny form factor is the right call — nobody was asking for a bigger box. But a family shopping on a fixed budget now has a harder call to make than it used to: the outgoing M4 Mac mini is likely to see real discounts as retailers clear stock, and for most household uses — browsing, schoolwork, a Plex server, light photo editing — last generation’s chip is still comfortably enough machine. Save the M6 premium for a household that will genuinely use the extra headroom.

What actually changed vs. the M4 Mac mini

The base RAM staying at 16GB on the entry M6 model despite the price jump is the detail we would flag hardest for a family buyer. Sixteen gigabytes was already the practical minimum for comfortably running a browser with a dozen tabs, a video call and a couple of apps at once — it has not grown to match the new price, and Apple’s memory pricing means jumping to 32GB adds a meaningful amount on top of an already higher sticker price. If you are buying to actually use the machine daily rather than as a light secondary computer, budget for the RAM bump; it matters more day to day than the extra CPU cores most families will never fully load.

Who should actually care

For most households the honest answer is: not yet. If your current Mac mini — M4, M2, even an older Intel model still limping along as a family media box — still opens what you need it to open without frustration, this refresh changes nothing about your situation. The 2-nanometer M6 process is a genuine engineering milestone, but “genuine engineering milestone” and “your Tuesday gets better” are two different claims, and for browsing, schoolwork and streaming, they rarely line up.

Where the M5 Pro model earns real consideration is heavier, sustained work — video editing, larger photo libraries, running a home server with several services at once. That is the tier Apple is clearly positioning this refresh around, given how little the entry M6 configuration actually moved on memory. The outgoing M4 model remains the far better value for everyone else, especially once discounting kicks in over the next few weeks.

What chips does the new Mac mini have?

Two options: a base M6 chip (12-core CPU, 12-core GPU, Apple’s first chip built on a 2-nanometer process) and a step-up M5 Pro chip (up to 18-core CPU, up to 20-core GPU) for users who need more sustained performance.

How much does the new Mac mini cost?

The M6 model starts at $899 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage — the highest starting price the Mac mini has ever carried. The M5 Pro model starts at $1,699 with 24GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

When does the new Mac mini ship?

Preorders opened August 25, 2026, and the first units shipped September 22, 2026.

Did the Mac mini's design change?

No. The compact five-by-five-inch aluminum enclosure from the October 2024 redesign is unchanged. The real upgrades are internal: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and 2.5Gb Ethernet as standard.