The 3 best AirPods deals live before Black Friday

To shop early or to wait? By Bethany Allard Bethany Allard Lead Shopping Reporter Bethany Allard is a Los Angeles-based shopping reporter at Mashable covering beauty tech, dating, sex and relationships, and headphones. That basically means she puts her hair through a lot, scrolls through a lot of dating apps, and rotates through a lot of different headphones.

In addition to testing out and rounding up the best products, she also covers deals for Mashable, paying an especially obsessive amount of attention to Apple deals and prices. That knowledge comes in handy when she's covering shopping holidays like Prime Day and Black Friday, which she's now done for three years at Mashable.

Read Full Bio on October 19, 2026 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Flipboard All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. AirPods are on sale ahead of Black Friday.

Credit: Mashable Photo Composite / Apple Black Friday may not be until Nov. 27, but headphones deals — including on AirPods — are already popping up ahead of the year's biggest shopping holiday. Granted, Black Friday sales start much earlier than the day itself.

Though we haven't yet received any official confirmation of sale dates, we are seeing Black Friday-worthy deals: the AirPods Max 2 are $100 off, while the AirPods 4 and Pro 3 both have markdowns as well. So what's the best way to approach your AirPods purchasing journey this holiday season?

In addition to gathering the best deals live now, we also used our deals expertise and years of experience covering shopping holidays and Black Friday deals to give context on which deals we're still holding out on. Credit: Apple $449 at Amazon $549 Save $100 Why we like it Admittedly, the AirPods Max 2 aren't Mashable's favorite headphones , especially in comparison to the price and feature set of other premium options.

However, we can acknowledge they have a stunning design, are great for Apple users, and do boast solid sound quality and noise cancellation. At $100, they're definitely at a more palatable (if still high) price point. With still weeks to go until Black Friday proper, this is an especially impressive deal, though at the time of writing, it is only live on the blue and purple AirPods.

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Read our full review on the AirPods Max 2. More AirPods deals Apple AirPods 4 — $99 $129 (save $30) Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation — $119.97 $179 (save $59.04) Apple AirPods Pro 3 — $199 $249 (save $50) AirPods deals we're waiting on AirPods 5: Apple's latest AirPods have yet to properly go on sale.

The cheaper model dropped a few bucks in September, while the $149 wireless charging model has never seen even a small price dip. As these are already Apple's best value earbuds at full price, we're hoping to be a more substantial price drop as we inch closer to Black Friday. AirPods Pro 3: Yes, they're technically already on sale, but $199 isn't the best price we've seen on Apple's noise-cancelling in-ear buds.

They dropped down to $179 during October Prime Day , and have even gone as low as $169 earlier this year. All this to say, $199 isn't a bad deal, but it certainly could be better. Lead Shopping Reporter Bethany Allard is a Los Angeles-based shopping reporter at Mashable covering beauty tech, dating, sex and relationships, and headphones.

That basically means she puts her hair through a lot, scrolls through a lot of dating apps, and rotates through a lot of different headphones. In addition to testing out and rounding up the best products, she also covers deals for Mashable, paying an especially obsessive amount of attention to Apple deals and prices.

That knowledge comes in handy when she's covering shopping holidays like Prime Day and Black Friday, which she's now done for three years at Mashable.