How Much Did the NeXT Computer Cost in 1988?
By the Price Time Machine team · Updated
The NeXT Computer price was $6,500 when it was introduced in October 1988. Adjusted for inflation, that is about $18,221 in September 2026 money, roughly 2.8 times the original price.
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NeXT Computer at a glance
- US launch price
- $6,500
- In today’s money
- ≈ $18,221October 1988 to September 2026 (CPI-U, BLS)
- US release date
- October 1, 1988
- Where the company was based
- Redwood City, United StatesMade by NeXT, the company Steve Jobs founded in 1985 after leaving Apple, headquartered in Redwood City, 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 $6,500 buy?
The NeXT Computer was a powerful workstation aimed at universities. It had a Motorola 68030 processor running at 25MHz, a separate maths coprocessor and a digital signal processor for sound. It was the first computer to use a magneto-optical drive as its main storage, holding 256MB.
Its case was a one-foot cube of black die-cast magnesium, which is why people called it “The Cube”. It ran NeXTSTEP, an operating system built on Unix with a graphical interface.
The NeXT Computer price in today’s money
Inflation means a dollar buys less today than it did in 1988. Using the US Consumer Price Index, the original NeXT Computer price of $6,500 works out at about $18,221 in September 2026 money, around 2.8 times the original figure. That is what the same amount of spending power would cost now, not what the NeXT Computer sells for second-hand.
When was the NeXT Computer released?
- Launched: October 1988, at an invitation-only event at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco
- Cheaper NeXTstation: 1990
- Renamed: NeXTcube, after a later upgrade
Who made the NeXT Computer?
It was made by NeXT, the company Steve Jobs founded in 1985 after leaving Apple. NeXT was headquartered in Redwood City, California, and its first team included former Apple staff such as Joanna Hoffman, Bud Tribble and Susan Kare.
The computer did not sell in large numbers. Its high price kept it mostly in universities, banks and government offices. In 1997 Apple bought NeXT for $427 million, bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple.
How the NeXT Computer changed the world
- Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau used a NeXT Computer at CERN to build the first web browser, called WorldWideWeb, and the first web server.
- id Software made Doom, Doom II and Quake on NeXT machines.
- BYTE magazine said it was “worth every penny of its $6,500 market price” and gave it an Excellence award in 1989.
- Steve Jobs placed the first online pizza order on a NeXT-based system called CyberSlice.
Frequently asked questions
How much did the NeXT Computer cost?
The NeXT Computer cost $6,500 when it was introduced in October 1988.
How much is $6,500 from 1988 worth today?
Adjusted for US inflation, the NeXT Computer’s $6,500 price is about $18,221 in September 2026 money.
Why was the NeXT Computer called The Cube?
Its case was a one-foot cube made of black die-cast magnesium.
Was the web invented on a NeXT Computer?
Yes. Tim Berners-Lee used a NeXT Computer at CERN to create the first web browser and web server.
Want to compare the NeXT Computer price with other launch prices? See what the Subaru 360 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.
- Wikipedia: NeXT Computer
- Wikipedia: NeXT
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index (CPI-U)
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