There’s only one Black Friday iPad deal I’d consider so far

Apple hiked the price of all of its current iPad models around the middle of 2026 because of the increase in the cost of components, particularly memory (RAM) and internal storage (SSDs). The whole consumer tech sector has been impacted by these price rises, which have been caused by a shortage of component due to the demand from companies building AI data centres. This means that this year's iPad Black Friday deals will inevitably be more expensive than last year's. There's no sign that starting prices will fall again any time soon.

Keeping in mind the size of discounts seen during previous iPad Black Friday sales is a good way to gauge whether it's the right time to buy or if prices could fall further. The pattern we've seen is that the best deals on the latest generation of iPads tend to be up to $70 off the standard iPad and $100 off the iPad Air and iPad Pro.

In 14 years of tracking prices, our experience is that there is rarely any difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday iPad prices. They are usually the same deals under a different name. On a very few occasions, we have seen new discounts appear on Cyber Monday.

The best iPad for you will depend on what you want to use it for. For browsing, watching movies, social media and just occasional note taking and sketching, this year's standard 11-inch iPad with the A16 chip will do just fine, and it doesn't make sense to spend more. Aim to spend no more than $399 on this,

If you're an artist and want a more efficient drawing experience, I'd recommend stepping up to the iPad Air. A new M4-chipped generation of this tablet was released in March, and Amazon's already slashed the price by $100 in a Black Friday deal. This tablet comes in two choices of size: 11 inches or 13 inches.

If you're a professional artist and you have the budget for it, the iPad Pro is the top-of-the-range option. Also coming in 11- and 13-inch models, it has a superior screen with a bright OLED panel for improved contrast along along with a faster 120Hz refresh rate for a seamless drawing experience.

Coming with the M5 chip, this is the iPad to choose if you want to replace you're laptop when working on the go, and it's cut out to handle more demanding creative software, including video editing.

Remember that all iPads come in various configurations, with the option of WiFi and cellular connectivity or just WiFi alone, plus two size options for the Pro and Air and at least two choices of internal storage capacity. When quoting prices above, we've generally quoted the price of the base model with WiFi and the smallest SSD. This might not necessarily be the option that meets your needs, but retailers will usually list other configurations under the same product listing.

If you use a tablet for work and want to store large files on the device, you may need a higher capacity. The iPad Pro, for example, is available with 256GB, 512GB, 1TB or 2TB. the price rises notably, but the higher-spec models sometimes come in for bigger discounts.

We'll be linking directly to the best Black Friday iPad deals across all four models here on this page. The best thing you can do to prepare to choose the best deal for you is to think ahead about which iPad you want and in which configuration – It's not great when you see a deal but aren't sure about the different options, so we recommend doing a little research.

Once you've decided which iPad you want (the Pro, Air, mini or standard iPad), choose the size (there's a choice of 11in or 13in with the iPad Pro and iPad Air), whether you want cellular connectivity or WiFi alone and which storage capacity you want. That way you'll already know what configuration to look out for when the deals start hotting up.

Apple is unlikely to run any direct iPad Black Friday discounts itself. Instead, it's likely yo offer gift vouchers worth up to $100/£80 with the purchase of certain iPads. This might be appealing if you know that you're going to want to buy another Apple product in the future, but most people would be better off going for deals at third-party sites.

In previous years, we have seen good Black Friday iPad deals at most of the major retailers in the US and UK. In the US, Amazon and B&H Photo tend to have the best prices, while Walmart and Target can also be worth checking.

In the UK, Amazon and Very tend to have the biggest discounts, while Laptops Direct is worth checking for discounts on older models. We track prices at all of these retailers and more.

Defining when Black Friday starts and ends becomes more difficult each year. Traditionally, Black Friday was the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US, falling at the end of November. It's since extended to cover almost the entire month at some retailers. Best Buy has even been flagging deals as Black Friday discounts since late in October.

As for when Black Friday ends, many retailers continue it until the Monday after Black Friday itself, which some dub Cyber Monday. This year, that falls on 30 November 2026.