Apple has officially discontinued the 256GB storage option for the Mac mini worldwide. This means that the starting price for the Apple’s smallest desktop computer is increased as the 512GB model becomes the new baseline. The report comes just a day after Apple CEO Tim Cook warned of chip supply constraints in the coming months.

Apple Mac Mini: A higher starting price

According to Macrumors, for budget-conscious shoppers, the “affordable” Mac mini is now significantly more expensive. In the US, the Mac mini now starts at $799. This configuration includes the M4 chip, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.High-end configurations using the M4 Pro chip already required a minimum of 512GB of storage, so their pricing remains unchanged. While the 512GB model has always been priced at $799, it is now the only option for those looking to buy a new Mac mini directly from Apple.Previously, customers could purchase a base model with 256GB of storage for $599 which has been entirely removed from Apple’s online store.

Tim Cook says Apple facing ‘several months’ of shortages

The change comes as Apple grapples with a global memory chip shortage and higher-than-expected demand for its latest hardware. During a recent earnings call, Tim Cook admitted that Apple is struggling to keep up with the popularity of its desktop line.“Realistically, on the Mac mini and the Mac Studio, I believe it will take several months to reach supply-demand balance. We are not at the point where we are saying this is going to end anytime soon. It is not because of a problem per se, other than we undercalled demand, and there are lead times as you know. For this quarter—the June quarter—the majority of the constraint will be on Mac: Mac mini, Mac Studio, and MacBook Neo. It is all of those,” Cook said.He noted that both the Mac mini and Mac Studio are “amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools,” which has pushed demand far beyond Apple’s initial expectations.A global memory chip shortage, fueled largely by the massive build-out of AI servers, is putting pressure on tech giants. Cook stated that Apple is expecting “significantly higher memory costs” this quarter but clarified that, for Apple, primary constraints are more on the availability of the advanced nodes its SoCs are produced on, not memory.