How Much Did the Apple I Cost in 1976?
By the Price Time Machine team · Updated
The Apple I price was $666.66 when it went on sale in July 1976. Adjusted for inflation, that is about $3,934 in September 2026 money, roughly 5.9 times the original price.
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Apple I at a glance
- US launch price
- $666.66
- In today’s money
- ≈ $3,934July 1976 to September 2026 (CPI-U, BLS)
- US release date
- July 1, 1976
- Where it was invented
- Los Altos, United StatesDesigned by Steve Wozniak; the first Apple I computers were put together at the Jobs family home in Los Altos, 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 $666.66 get you?
The Apple I was sold as a fully assembled circuit board, not a kit to solder yourself. It had a MOS Technology 6502 processor, 4KB of memory and built-in video circuitry, so it could plug straight into a household television.
Buyers still had to add their own case, power supply and keyboard. Most hobby computers of the time came as kits and needed an expensive separate terminal, so a ready-built board that worked with a TV was a big step forward.
The Apple I price in today’s money
Inflation means a dollar buys less today than it did in 1976. Using the US Consumer Price Index, the original Apple I price of $666.66 works out at about $3,934 in September 2026 money, around 5.9 times the original figure. That is what the same amount of spending power would cost now, not what the Apple I sells for second-hand.
Why $666.66?
Steve Wozniak later said he had no idea about the link to the “number of the beast”. He chose the price because he liked repeating digits, and because it was a one-third markup on the $500 wholesale price that shops paid.
When was the Apple I released?
- Design finished: March 1, 1976
- Apple Computer founded: April 1, 1976, by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne
- On sale: July 1976
- Price cut to $475: April 1977
- Discontinued: October 1977, after the Apple II arrived
Where was the Apple I made?
Wozniak designed the Apple I in California’s Silicon Valley, building on a low-cost computer terminal he had made for himself. He offered the design to his employer, Hewlett-Packard, which turned it down five times.
Steve Jobs saw it at the Homebrew Computer Club and persuaded Wozniak to start a company. To pay for the first circuit boards, Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator and Jobs sold his Volkswagen microbus, raising about $1,300.
The Byte Shop order that started Apple
Paul Terrell, who was opening a computer shop called the Byte Shop in Mountain View, saw the Apple I demonstrated and ordered 50, at $500 each, as long as they came fully assembled. Jobs used the order to get parts on 30 days’ credit, and the two Steves and a small crew worked day and night to build and test the computers in time.
Apple I facts you might not know
- Only about 200 were made, and all but 25 were sold within nine or ten months.
- Apple later offered owners discounts on an Apple II to hand back their Apple I, and destroyed the boards it got back. That is one reason surviving ones are so rare.
- The very first one built was used in a high school maths class.
- The circuit board layout was done by Howard Cantin, an engineer at Atari, where Jobs had worked.
Frequently asked questions
How much did the Apple I cost?
The Apple I cost $666.66 when it went on sale in July 1976.
How much is $666.66 from 1976 worth today?
Adjusted for US inflation, the Apple I’s $666.66 price is about $3,934 in September 2026 money.
Why did the Apple I cost $666.66?
Steve Wozniak liked repeating digits, and it was a one-third markup on the $500 wholesale price. He said he did not know about the “number of the beast”.
How many Apple I computers were made?
About 200 were made, and all but 25 were sold within nine or ten months.
Want to compare the Apple I price with other launch prices? See what the Fairchild Channel F 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.