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Black Friday

Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday, 27 November — the day after the fourth Thursday in November, which is the rule that fixes it every year.

77 days away

The week the price history matters most

Black Friday is the one week of the year when almost every price on a product page carries a comparison number beside it, and the one week when those numbers are least worth trusting. A price raised in October and cut in November is still a discount on paper.

The check is the same as any other week and takes the same thirty seconds: compare the price with what that retailer charged for that item before, not with the number printed next to it.

What actually happens to prices

Retailers publish a small number of genuinely deep prices and a large number of ordinary ones under the same banner. Both look identical on a product page — a badge, a crossed-out number, a countdown.

The prices that fall hardest tend to be last-generation models a retailer wants cleared before the new one lands, and own-brand goods where the margin is theirs to give. Current-generation flagship items usually move a few percent and no more.

What we will be doing

We keep checking every price on the same six-hour cadence through the week, so each item on this page is judged against its own recorded history rather than against the sale banner above it.

That means a "good price" claim from us in late November is measured against October and September, and we will say plainly when a Black Friday price is not better than the price that item held a month earlier.

Was the Black Friday price real?

For every product we track, we take the lowest price we recorded from November 20 to November 30 and set it against the median price it held from September 22 to November 5. The comparison stops two weeks before the sale, so a price raised in the run-up cannot pass for the normal one. A cut has to be at least 5% below that.

The report appears here on December 1, the day after the sale ends. Until then there is nothing honest to say about it.

Prices already at their lowest recorded level

Not Black Friday prices — these are today’s. They are here because the useful question before any sale is what the item already costs, and each of these is at or below every price we have recorded for it at that retailer.

A lineTwo or more readings. Every turn in it is a price we saw, with a date on it.A dashed lineOne reading so far. We are not guessing what came before it.3/10 checksHow much record stands behind the price. We hold a verdict until 10.

Questions people ask

When is Black Friday 2026?
Friday, 27 November 2026. It is always the day after the fourth Thursday of November, so 2027 falls on 26 November.
Are Black Friday prices really the lowest of the year?
For some items yes, for many no. The reliable way to tell them apart is to look at what the same retailer charged for the same item over the preceding months — a price that matches October is not a Black Friday price whatever the badge says.