MacSpotter research · standing report
The Mac Availability Index
Apple publishes prices, not scarcity. This report measures how hard each tracked Mac is to actually walk out with, using repeated nationwide scans of the U.S. Apple Store pickup interface. It rebuilds itself from stored inventory history every time it loads.
Headline finding
Across 170 finished nationwide scans in the last 7 days, the Mac mini M4 was not in stock at a single U.S. Apple Store.
It showed zero national pickup availability in 10 of 10 scans. The most widely stocked configuration, the MacBook Pro 14-inch M5, reached 95%.
Section one
The index: every tracked Mac, ranked by scarcity
Availability is the share of store checks in the window that came back with pickup offered. A configuration at 4% was buyable in person at roughly one store in twenty-five, averaged across every scan — not at 4% of stores right now.
Section two
The hardest Macs to find this week
The five configurations with the lowest pickup availability across the window, with the highest store count any single scan ever found.
- 1Mac mini M4
Available at 0% of store checks · never seen in stock this window · zero national availability in 10 of 10 scans
0%of checks in stock - 2Mac mini M4 Pro
Available at 0% of store checks · never seen in stock this window · zero national availability in 10 of 10 scans
0%of checks in stock - 3Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB
Available at 0% of store checks · never seen in stock this window · zero national availability in 10 of 10 scans
0%of checks in stock - 4Mac Studio M3 Ultra
Available at 0% of store checks · never seen in stock this window · zero national availability in 10 of 10 scans
0%of checks in stock - 5Mac Studio M4 Max
Available at 0% of store checks · never seen in stock this window · zero national availability in 10 of 10 scans
0%of checks in stock
For contrast, the easiest to find were MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 (95%), MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 Pro (94%), MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 Max (94%).
Section three
How often do Apple Stores actually restock?
A restock is a single store flipping from no pickup to pickup between two consecutive scans. Counting those flips across the whole directory turns availability into cadence: how long an average store waits between getting a configuration back.
| Configuration | Restocks | Sellouts | Stores that restocked | Avg. wait per store |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MacBook Air 13-inch M5MacBook Air | 188 | 187 | 66% (177) | 10 days |
| MacBook Air 15-inch M5MacBook Air | 138 | 73 | 50% (134) | 14 days |
| iMac M4 two-portiMac | 103 | 83 | 37% (99) | 18 days |
| MacBook NeoMacBook Neo | 58 | 261 | 21% (57) | 32 days |
| MacBook Pro 14-inch M5MacBook Pro | 41 | 40 | 13% (34) | 46 days |
| MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 ProMacBook Pro | 41 | 54 | 14% (37) | 46 days |
| MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 MaxMacBook Pro | 27 | 24 | 10% (27) | 70 days |
| iMac M4 four-portiMac | 25 | 25 | 8.9% (24) | 75 days |
| MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 ProMacBook Pro | 22 | 34 | 7.1% (19) | 86 days |
| MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 MaxMacBook Pro | 19 | 31 | 7.1% (19) | 99 days |
Section four
Which U.S. cities have the best Mac availability?
Every city with at least 40 store checks in the window, ranked by the share of those checks that offered pickup. Multi-store metros are measured across all of their stores, so a city does not win on the strength of one well-stocked location.
Best availability
| # | City | Availability | Stores | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ManchesterNew Hampshire | 65% | 1 | 150 |
| 2 | WhitehallPennsylvania | 65% | 1 | 150 |
| 3 | RestonVirginia | 63% | 1 | 150 |
| 4 | BurlingameCalifornia | 62% | 1 | 150 |
| 5 | CharlestonSouth Carolina | 62% | 1 | 150 |
| 6 | PasadenaCalifornia | 62% | 1 | 150 |
| 7 | Santa ClaraCalifornia | 62% | 1 | 150 |
| 8 | West Des MoinesIowa | 62% | 1 | 150 |
| 9 | Mission ViejoCalifornia | 61% | 1 | 150 |
| 10 | Thousand OaksCalifornia | 61% | 1 | 150 |
Thinnest availability
| # | City | Availability | Stores | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 226 | Fort WorthTexas | 31% | 1 | 150 |
| 225 | Oklahoma CityOklahoma | 38% | 1 | 150 |
| 224 | BrandonFlorida | 39% | 1 | 150 |
| 223 | The WoodlandsTexas | 39% | 1 | 150 |
| 222 | SpokaneWashington | 41% | 1 | 150 |
Cities with a single Apple Store move on that one store, so the sturdier comparison is between multi-store markets: the best of those this window was Pittsburgh, PA at 55% across 3 stores and 450 store checks.
By state
- Iowa62%1 store
- Mississippi57%1 store
- New Mexico57%1 store
- Missouri56%3 stores
- Indiana55%2 stores
- Colorado54%6 stores
- South Carolina54%2 stores
- New Hampshire54%3 stores
- Virginia54%8 stores
- North Carolina54%5 stores
- Alabama53%2 stores
- Arkansas53%1 store
Section five
Methodology, and what these numbers do not say
Where the data comes from
MacSpotter runs one shared nationwide sweep per configuration rather than querying Apple per visitor. Each sweep seeds from Apple’s official U.S. retail directory, walks it in staggered geographic batches, and writes one immutable observation per store and part number. This report reads only those stored observations.
How availability is calculated
Availability is available store checks divided by total store checks inside the window, pooled across every finished scan. It weights a configuration by how persistently it was in stock, not by whether it happened to be in stock at one convenient moment.
What counts as a restock
A store moving from unavailable to available between consecutive scans. Observations Apple returned as unknown are dropped before the comparison, so a reporting gap cannot be read as a sellout followed by a restock.
Only finished scans are published
A sweep still walking the directory has low coverage by construction. The index counts only scans that reached a terminal state, which is why a scan count can lag the clock by a few hours.
Known limits
Apple’s pickup interface is undocumented and reports what a store is willing to promise, not its shelf count. Partial scans cover fewer stores than complete ones. Cities below the minimum sample are excluded rather than ranked on noise. Nothing here is confirmed until Apple confirms it at checkout.
Independence
MacSpotter is not affiliated with Apple. No configuration is promoted, and the ranking is produced by the query above with no editorial ordering.
Use the data
Republish this. Just link back.
Every figure on this page is available as JSON, regenerated from the same inventory history on every request. It is free to reuse in articles, videos, newsletters, and research under CC BY 4.0 — cite MacSpotter and link to this report.
GET https://www.macspotter.com/api/mac-availability-index