What’s new: The 2026 Mac mini delivers much faster performance, especially for graphics and AI, thanks to the M6 and M5 Pro chips. It also brings faster storage and upgraded connectivity, with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and 2.5Gb Ethernet as standard.
Release date: Announced on August 25, 2026
Apple has launched a new Mac mini to replace the M4 and M4 Pro Mac mini which was introduced in October 2024. Externally the 2026 Mac mini looks just as it did following the redesign in October 2024 – it’s still a five-by-five-inch square with two front USB-C ports and the headphone jack, with three Thunderbolt ports, HDMI and Ethernet on the rear. It’s what’s inside that has changed.
The new Mac mini models offer new chips, the M6 and the M5 Pro. This is a similar scenario to a few years ago when Apple launched the M4 Mac Studio alongside the M3 Ultra Mac Studio. There is likely to be some confusion about the chip generations so we will explain the differences in more detail below.
These new chips will offer a significant jump in performance, especially relating to AI. With this update it is particularly apparent that Apple is positioning the Mac mini as an AI machine.
The new Mac mini M6 and M5 Pro models were announced on August 25, 2026, but they won’t actually ship until September 22.
You can pre-order now though, and if you want one we recommend doing so because the chip shortages that have plagued the industry are likely to mean stock quickly runs out.
In June 2026, Apple raised the starting price of the Mac mini by $200, from $599 to $799. The increase was part of a broader price hike across the entire Mac lineup, which Apple attributed to an unprecedented rise in component costs, particularly RAM.
We had hoped this meant Mac mini pricing would remain at the June level for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, with the arrival of the new models, Apple has raised prices again—this time by a further $100/£100.
Here’s a breakdown of the key price changes for the Mac mini:
As well as the move from M4 and M4 Pro to M6 and M5 Pro, the Mac mini also gains storage that is up to twice as fast, according to Apple, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, 2.5Gb Ethernet and USB-C genlock support.
The new M6 chip has launched in the Mac mini.
There may be some confusion over the chip generations in the new Mac mini. The mainstream model uses the newer M6 chip, while the more powerful model uses the older-generation M5 Pro. Pro chips are designed for heavier professional workloads, with more CPU and GPU cores, higher memory bandwidth, support for more unified memory, additional displays and faster Thunderbolt connectivity. So while M5 Pro remains the more capable chip overall, M6 offers a significant step up from the standard M5 and an even larger jump from the M4 in the previous generation Mac mini.
M6: The Mac mini is the first Mac to ship with the M6 chip, replacing the M4 in the entry-level model. It features a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU, up from 10 CPU and GPU cores in the previous generation, and supports up to 32GB of unified memory with 170GB/s memory bandwidth. Apple promises up to 40% faster CPU performance, twice the graphics performance and up to 4x faster AI performance than M4. It also introduces Apple’s first Dual 16-core Neural Engine, delivering up to twice the Neural Engine performance.
M5 Pro: The M5 Pro replaces the M4 Pro in the higher-end Mac mini and can be configured with up to an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU. Apple claims up to 4x faster LLM processing, 1.4x faster Blender ray-tracing performance and 1.5x faster Affinity image processing than M4 Pro. It supports up to 64GB of unified memory with 307GB/s memory bandwidth. Both chips feature Neural Accelerators in their GPU cores, but the M5 Pro’s additional CPU and GPU cores, greater memory capacity and higher bandwidth make it better suited to video production, 3D rendering, development and larger local AI models.
