Personal Computer Prices Price History
1981–2025 · Bureau of Labor Statistics / IDC
The average selling price of a personal computer in the United States, tracked from 1981 to 2025. When the IBM PC launched in 1981, you were looking at $3,100 for a machine with 16KB of RAM and no hard drive. Today, $570 gets you a laptop that's millions of times more powerful. PCs followed a relentless price-per-performance curve that's unmatched in consumer goods, though the raw sticker price tells its own interesting story — particularly the recent bump as remote work drove demand through the roof.
Price in 1981
$3,100.00
Price in 2025
$570.00
Total Change
-81.6%
Years Tracked
44
Personal Computer Prices Over Time
Compare to inflation: The chart above shows nominal (not inflation-adjusted) prices. Use the toggle to switch to inflation-adjusted values when available, or try the inflation calculator to convert any amount between years.
Key Insights
- The average PC cost $3,100 in 1981 — about $10,400 in today's dollars. At $570 in 2025, that's a roughly 95% drop in real terms, and the machine you're getting is incomprehensibly more capable. It's maybe the greatest value improvement in the history of consumer products.
- The late '90s dot-com boom actually kept prices elevated around $1,200-$1,500 as consumers splurged on multimedia PCs. Once the bubble burst, average selling prices went into freefall, dropping below $1,000 by 2001 and never looking back.
- The cheapest year to buy a PC in nominal terms was 2016 at $475, as tablets and smartphones ate into the low end of the market and manufacturers raced to the bottom on Chromebooks and budget laptops.
- Remote work and distance learning drove a sharp reversal starting in 2020 — average prices climbed from $580 to $650 by 2022 as people upgraded home setups and chip shortages limited supply. Prices have since cooled off to around $570.
Year-by-Year Data
| Year | Price (USD) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | $3,100.00 | — |
| 1982 | $2,900.00 | -6.5% |
| 1983 | $2,700.00 | -6.9% |
| 1984 | $2,400.00 | -11.1% |
| 1985 | $2,200.00 | -8.3% |
| 1986 | $2,000.00 | -9.1% |
| 1987 | $1,900.00 | -5.0% |
| 1988 | $1,800.00 | -5.3% |
| 1989 | $1,750.00 | -2.8% |
| 1990 | $1,700.00 | -2.9% |
| 1991 | $1,650.00 | -2.9% |
| 1992 | $1,600.00 | -3.0% |
| 1993 | $1,500.00 | -6.3% |
| 1994 | $1,450.00 | -3.3% |
| 1995 | $1,500.00 | +3.4% |
| 1996 | $1,450.00 | -3.3% |
| 1997 | $1,350.00 | -6.9% |
| 1998 | $1,200.00 | -11.1% |
| 1999 | $1,100.00 | -8.3% |
| 2000 | $1,050.00 | -4.5% |
| 2001 | $1,000.00 | -4.8% |
| 2002 | $930.00 | -7.0% |
| 2003 | $850.00 | -8.6% |
| 2004 | $800.00 | -5.9% |
| 2005 | $750.00 | -6.3% |
| 2006 | $710.00 | -5.3% |
| 2007 | $680.00 | -4.2% |
| 2008 | $650.00 | -4.4% |
| 2009 | $590.00 | -9.2% |
| 2010 | $560.00 | -5.1% |
| 2011 | $535.00 | -4.5% |
| 2012 | $510.00 | -4.7% |
| 2013 | $505.00 | -1.0% |
| 2014 | $495.00 | -2.0% |
| 2015 | $480.00 | -3.0% |
| 2016 | $475.00 | -1.0% |
| 2017 | $485.00 | +2.1% |
| 2018 | $510.00 | +5.2% |
| 2019 | $530.00 | +3.9% |
| 2020 | $580.00 | +9.4% |
| 2021 | $640.00 | +10.3% |
| 2022 | $650.00 | +1.6% |
| 2023 | $600.00 | -7.7% |
| 2024 | $580.00 | -3.3% |
| 2025 | $570.00 | -1.7% |
Sources & Methodology
BLS CPI data for personal computers combined with IDC/Gartner average selling price data. Represents the average price of a desktop or laptop personal computer actually sold in a given year.
Primary source: Bureau of Labor Statistics / IDC
For a full explanation of how we collect and adjust data, see our methodology page.