MacBook Air M4 vs M5: Which to Buy Refurbished?

According to RefurbMe's own tracking, a MacBook Air reaches the refurbished market a median of 94 days after Apple announces it, and the M5 beat that pace: Back Market listed the first refurbished M5 Air on 24 May 2026, less than eleven weeks after it reached stores on 11 March. Those figures come from the RefurbMe Refurbished Apple Price Index (RAPI), as of October 2026.

One more RefurbMe figure sets the context. The median Refurb Discount across every MacBook Air model RefurbMe has ever tracked is 87% (as of October 2026). That is a family-wide median reaching back to 2011-era machines, so it does not mean a current M4 or M5 sells for 87% off. What it shows is how far MacBook Air prices eventually fall, which is exactly why buying one generation back is usually the value play.

Quick Verdict: M4 or M5 Refurbished

Buy the refurbished M4 at its 256GB base configuration. At $949 it sits 5% below its own $999 launch price and $150 below the cheapest refurbished 13-inch M5 ($1,099 at the Apple Store), and it shares the chassis, display, battery, camera, and port layout of the newer machine. For email, browsing, documents, and video calls, nothing about the M5 will be visible to you. If you are deciding between that refurbished discount and a brand-new machine altogether, see our MacBook Air new vs refurbished comparison.

If you need 512GB, check Apple's refurbished store before anything else. On 13 October 2026 it listed a 13-inch M5 with 16GB and 512GB at $1,099, $13 under the cheapest 13-inch 512GB M4 ($1,112 at Back Market). At that price the M5 is the better 512GB buy. Apple's refurbished stock comes and goes within days, though, and without it the next 13-inch 512GB M5 is $1,279 at eBay Refurbished, a fair-condition unit with 24GB of memory. Then the M4 wins by $167. On the 15-inch the gap is small: $1,249 for a 512GB M5 and $1,199 for the 1TB one, against $1,199 for a 512GB M4. That premium pays for Wi-Fi 7, the faster SSD and the faster chip: Apple rates the M5 at up to 15 percent faster multithreaded CPU performance and up to 30 percent faster graphics than the M4, rising to up to 45 percent in apps that use ray tracing, with over four times the peak GPU compute for AI workloads.

Everything that defines how a MacBook Air feels is unchanged across both. Same weight, same Liquid Retina display, same all-day battery, same fanless silence. You can compare live refurbished MacBook Air prices on RefurbMe to see exactly how wide the M4-to-M5 gap is on any given day.

MacBook Air M4 vs M5: Spec Comparison

Both generations use a 10-core CPU, the same 16GB base memory, and the same 16-core Neural Engine. The real changes sit in memory bandwidth, storage, wireless, SSD speed, and graphics throughput.

Sources: MacBook Air (13-inch, M4, 2025) Tech Specs, MacBook Air (13-inch, M5) Tech Specs, Apple's MacBook Air with M5 announcement, and 9to5Mac on Apple's 25 June 2026 Mac and iPad price increases. Refurbished floors verified live on RefurbMe, 13 October 2026.

Two deltas matter most. The M5 doubles the base storage, so its $1,299 current list price (up from $1,099 at launch, after Apple's 25 June 2026 increase) buys a 512GB machine against the M4's 256GB, and it can be configured to 4TB for the first time. Apple also states the M5's new SSD delivers 2x faster read and write performance than the previous generation, which shows up when you copy large video files or open big project libraries.

Real-World Performance: How Much Faster Is the M5?

Apple publishes the cleanest figures here. Against the M4, Apple rates the M5 at up to 15 percent faster multithreaded CPU performance, up to 30 percent faster graphics from its enhanced shader cores, up to a 45 percent graphics uplift in apps that use ray tracing, and over four times the peak GPU compute for AI workloads.

The MacBook-Air-specific numbers are more useful than the chip-level ones. Apple measured the M5 Air at up to 1.9x faster than the M4 Air in Topaz Video, up to 1.5x faster in Blender ray-traced 3D rendering, up to 1.5x faster in Affinity image processing, and up to 4x faster on AI tasks. Those are the workloads where the generation gap is real.

For everyday work the gap disappears. Browsing, office documents, photo edits, and video calls feel the same on both chips. Neither Air has a fan, so under long sustained loads both throttle and the practical difference narrows further. The M5 is the faster chip on paper and in bursts; the M4 keeps pace for the work most people actually do. The same pattern held one generation earlier, covered in our MacBook Air M3 vs M4 comparison.

What Is Identical Between the M4 and M5 Air

This is where the upgrade math tilts toward the M4. The M5 changed the chip and a few components around it, but the laptop you hold is the same one.

Both share the same aluminum chassis and weight: 2.7 pounds for the 13-inch, 3.3 pounds for the 15-inch. You cannot tell them apart by looking. Both use the same Liquid Retina display at 13.6 or 15.3 inches, 500 nits, P3 wide color, and True Tone. Neither offers ProMotion or a brighter panel.

Battery is unchanged too. The 13-inch carries the same 53.8Wh cell on both generations and the 15-inch the same 66.5Wh cell, with an identical Apple rating of up to 18 hours of video streaming and 15 hours of wireless web. The camera is also the same on both: a 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View, recording 1080p video. MagSafe 3 charging, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and the headphone jack all carry over without change.

The Refurbished Price Gap in 2026

The M5 launch in March 2026 pushed the M4 deeper into the refurbished channel, and that is exactly where its value now lives. The M5 has followed it too, just at a different pace: Apple's own price for a new M5 climbed on 25 June 2026, which turned what looked like price parity into a real discount once you compare against the current list price instead of the launch price.

Here is what refurbished pricing looks like on RefurbMe right now, verified live on 13 October 2026 and sorted by price:

Read that table three ways. Floor to floor on the 13-inch, the cheapest refurbished M4 undercuts the cheapest refurbished M5 by $150: $949 against $1,099. At 512GB the two swap places depending on one listing. Apple's $1,099 M5 is $13 under Back Market's $1,112 M4, but it is a single unit, and the next 13-inch 512GB M5 costs $1,279, $167 more than the M4. Apple's $1,099 is about 15% under its own $1,299 list price, while eBay's $1,279 is only about 2% under. On the 15-inch, a 512GB M5 at $1,249 is roughly 17% under Apple's $1,499 list price. Those discounts exist mostly because Apple raised the price of a new one, and the M5 stock behind them is thin.

That is the whole argument in one line. Buy the M4 if 256GB is enough for you, because $949 is a genuine discount off its own launch price. If you need 512GB on the 13-inch, buy Apple's $1,099 M5 while it is listed. When it is gone, the $1,112 M4 is the cheaper way to 512GB, and the M5 is worth paying more for only if the faster chip matters to you, or if you want a 15-inch.

For context on how low these can go, RefurbMe's record for a 13-inch M4 is $769, set on eBay Refurbished on 8 July 2026, and the record for a 13-inch M5 is $949, set on eBay Refurbished on 13 August 2026. Those are all-time lows, not prices you can buy at today, but they show where patient shoppers have landed. Across the configurations in the table above, Back Market carries the deepest current M4 stock (16 of the 20 M4 offers), while the M5 is down to Back Market (6 offers), eBay Refurbished (3) and a single Apple Store unit, so check all three before assuming one seller has run out.

Who Should Buy the Refurbished M4

The refurbished M4 fits a wider range of buyers than its older-generation label suggests, provided you stay at the base configuration.

Budget-conscious buyers. At $949 the 13-inch M4 delivers nearly all of the M5's day-to-day capability for $150 less than the cheapest 13-inch M5, and the same daily experience as any M5 Air for email, browsing and documents.

Everyday users. Email, browsing, documents, streaming, and video calls run identically on both chips. Paying the M5 premium for these jobs buys you nothing you will notice.

Students. The MacBook Air is one of the best laptops for coursework, and the refurbished M4 is the most affordable path into current Apple silicon. See our guide on whether MacBooks are worth it for the long view.

Anyone unsure refurbished is safe. A certified refurbished M4 carries a warranty and a tested condition grade. Our breakdown of whether refurbished MacBooks are worth it covers what to check before you buy.

Who Should Choose the M5

The M5 earns its keep for a narrower set of needs. Its 512GB price argument rests on Apple's refurbished stock: the Apple Store's $1,099 13-inch beats every 512GB M4, and every other 13-inch M5 costs more.

Anyone who wants a 15-inch with plenty of storage. A 15-inch M5 with 1TB is $1,199 at eBay Refurbished, the same price as a 15-inch M4 with 512GB from Amazon Renewed. A 15-inch 512GB M5 is $1,249.

Creative and AI workloads. Apple measures the M5 Air at up to 1.5x faster in Blender ray-traced rendering, up to 1.9x faster in Topaz Video, and up to 4x faster on AI tasks than the M4 Air. If you render, run local models, or push the GPU daily, those are gains you can feel.

Fast networks and future-proofing. The Apple N1 wireless chip brings Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread, and the M5 drives a wider range of external display configurations, including a single 8K panel at 60Hz. If you plan to keep the laptop six or more years, that headroom matters.

Where to Buy a Refurbished MacBook Air Safely

Buy from sellers that test, grade, and warranty their stock. Back Market is the first stop for the M4: it carries the deepest M4 inventory RefurbMe tracks right now, a one-year warranty, and a one-month return window. Amazon Renewed is the next US option worth comparing (it has the $1,199 15-inch M4 with 512GB), Mac of All Trades has no M4 or M5 Air in stock on 13 October 2026, and eBay Refurbished, the vetted certified-refurbished program rather than the open marketplace, holds today's lowest 13-inch M4 ($949) and the lowest 15-inch M5 ($1,199).

Apple Certified Refurbished is the trust option, and on 13 October 2026 it was also the cheapest 13-inch M5: $1,099 for 16GB and 512GB, $200 under the $1,299 new price and $180 below the next refurbished 13-inch M5 RefurbMe tracks. Apple restocks in small batches, so a listing like that can be gone within days. Apple's terms are worth reading precisely, because they are widely misquoted. Every Apple Certified Refurbished device is tested, cleaned, inspected, fitted with genuine Apple replacement parts as needed, boxed new, and covered by the standard one-year limited warranty. The extra promise of a new battery and a new outer shell applies to refurbished iOS devices only, so do not expect a new battery or a new casing on a refurbished Mac.

Compare grades, warranty terms, and prices side by side rather than buying the first listing you find. For a ranked look at sellers and what each offers, see our guide to the best refurbished MacBooks or the refurbisher comparison tool. RefurbMe aggregates live pricing across every major seller so you can compare refurbished MacBook deals in one place.

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