How Much Did the Macintosh Plus Cost in 1986?
By the Price Time Machine team · Updated
The Macintosh Plus price was $2,599 when it was introduced on January 16, 1986. Adjusted for inflation, that is about $7,990 in September 2026 money, roughly 3.1 times the original price.
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Apple Macintosh Plus at a glance
- US launch price
- $2,599
- In today’s money
- ≈ $7,990January 1986 to September 2026 (CPI-U, BLS)
- US release date
- January 16, 1986
- Where it was designed
- Cupertino, United StatesDesigned by Apple in Cupertino, California.
- Category
- Gaming & tech
- Price source
- en.wikipedia.org
Today’s price is the US launch price adjusted for US inflation with the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, comparing the launch month with the latest published month. It updates automatically as new figures come out.
What did $2,599 get you?
The Macintosh Plus was the third compact Mac, two years after the original Macintosh. It came with 1MB of memory, expandable to 4MB, and a double-sided 800K floppy disk drive.
It was also the first Mac with a SCSI port. That let people plug in external hard disks, tape drives, CD-ROM drives, printers and more.
The Macintosh Plus price in today’s money
Inflation means a dollar buys less today than it did in 1986. Using the US Consumer Price Index, the original Macintosh Plus price of $2,599 works out at about $7,990 in September 2026 money, around 3.1 times the original figure. That is what the same amount of spending power would cost now, not what the Macintosh Plus sells for second-hand.
Why the Macintosh Plus mattered
Earlier Macs had very little memory and storage. The Plus fixed much of that, and its SCSI port became standard on every Mac until the iMac in 1998.
It was also the last classic Mac with the keyboard plugged into the front with a phone-style RJ11 connector. Later models used Apple’s ADB ports.
When was the Macintosh Plus released?
- Original Macintosh: January 1984
- Macintosh Plus introduced: January 16, 1986
- Successor, the Macintosh SE: 1987
- Production ended: October 15, 1990
Macintosh Plus facts you might not know
- It stayed on sale for more than three years after its successor arrived.
- Schools could buy a cheaper version called the Macintosh Plus ED.
- Its SCSI port was built just before the SCSI standard was finalised, so it is not fully standard.
Frequently asked questions
How much did the Macintosh Plus cost?
The Macintosh Plus cost $2,599 when Apple introduced it on January 16, 1986.
How much is $2,599 from 1986 worth today?
Adjusted for US inflation, the Mac Plus’s $2,599 price is about $7,990 in September 2026 money.
How much memory did the Macintosh Plus have?
It came with 1MB of RAM, expandable to 4MB.
When was the Macintosh Plus discontinued?
Production ended on October 15, 1990.
Want to compare the Macintosh Plus price with other launch prices? See what the Meta Quest 2 cost, browse more famous launch prices, or play this question in Price Time Machine.
Sources
Launch prices and dates are checked against the sources below. Today’s price is calculated from official US inflation data and updates automatically when new figures are published.
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