Xbox Is Raising Console Prices Again on August 1. The Series X Now Tops Out at $800.

Xbox is raising the price of the Series X and Series S again. The increase takes effect August 1, 2026, it applies worldwide, and it is the third time Microsoft has pushed console prices up in 15 months.

Here is what each model costs in the US once the new prices land, with the increase in parentheses:

The 2TB Series X is gone entirely. That is worth sitting with for a second. The cheapest Series S used to be the easy "just get them into the ecosystem" box. It now costs $500. The 1TB Series S, at $600, lands at the same price as a digital PlayStation 5, which is a strange spot for the weaker machine in the room.

Why Microsoft says this is happening

The reason is the same one that has been hammering everything with memory in it. In its statement on Xbox Wire, Microsoft pointed straight at component costs.

Last October, we increased Xbox console price by $20-$70 in the U.S. We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027.

That last line is the part to circle. Microsoft is not framing this as a one-off correction. It is telling you, in its own announcement, that it expects memory prices to double again by late next year. Read plainly, that is a company warning customers that today's price is not the ceiling.

Microsoft also made the point that consoles are a different animal from the rest of consumer electronics. Phones and laptops are sold at a profit. Consoles usually are not. They get sold at or below cost, and the platform holder makes the money back on games and subscriptions. When the parts get more expensive and you are already selling at a loss, there is not much padding to absorb it.

This is the same crisis that priced Valve's Steam Machine at $1,049 and pushed Apple to raise prices across its lineup. The difference is that with a Steam Machine you at least walk away with a full PC. A Series X is a Series X.

The softer landing Microsoft is offering

Alongside the increase, Xbox is rolling out a few programs aimed at making the sticker shock easier to swallow.

There is a new Buy Now, Pay Later option for purchases through Microsoft Stores, which splits the cost into short-term, interest-free installments. Buy through Amazon instead and you can get 0% APR financing for up to 12 months. Microsoft also says it will lean harder on retail partners to stock used and "previously played" consoles at lower prices, and it will sell certified refurbished units for $100 off the standard price.

None of that lowers the price of a new console. It spreads the same number across more months, or points you at a secondhand unit. For a lot of players that is a real help. It is also, fairly clearly, a company trying to keep the door open after raising the cover charge three times in a little over a year.

Where this leaves Xbox

Stack the increases up and the pattern is hard to miss: a price hike roughly every five months for two years, with Microsoft openly saying the pressure is going to get worse before it gets better. The 2TB Series X most likely got cut because keeping it would have parked Xbox's mid-tier box near the price of Sony's PS5 Pro, which is not a comparison Microsoft wants on a shelf.

For now, both remaining Series X models still come in under the PS5 Pro, and the Series S is still the cheapest way onto current-gen hardware. But "cheapest" now starts at $500, the entry box is no longer a casual purchase, and the company selling it just told you to expect the bill to climb again. Close to a thousand dollars for gaming hardware is quietly becoming the normal, and nobody in this industry is promising it comes back down once the parts shortage eases.