What is Cyber Monday?
What is Cyber Monday? It is the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States, when stores run sales aimed mainly at online shoppers. In 2026 it falls on Monday 30 November, three days after Black Friday. It is a retail event, not a public holiday.
Cyber Monday closes what the National Retail Federation calls the five-day shopping period that starts on Thanksgiving Day and runs through the following Monday. Black Friday is the weekend's busiest day for store visits; Cyber Monday is its biggest day for online spending. In Adobe's figures it is now the biggest online shopping day of the year in the US.
Why is it called Cyber Monday?
The name is credited to Shop.org, the online retail arm of the National Retail Federation, which used it in a press release on 28 November 2005. Wikipedia, citing that release, names Ellen Davis of the NRF as the person who coined the term. We could not find the original release on the NRF's own website, so treat this as the generally accepted account rather than something we have seen first-hand.
The reasoning behind the name, as reported at the time:
- The data: according to Scott Silverman, then head of Shop.org, research from 2004 showed the Monday after Thanksgiving was already one of the biggest online shopping days of the year.
- The habit: in 2005 The New York Times explained the name as coming from people who browsed in stores over the Thanksgiving weekend and then went back to work on Monday, where they had fast internet connections, and bought what they had seen.
In other words, the name was a marketing idea built on a real shopping pattern, and the figures below show the pattern has only grown.
How big is Cyber Monday now?
Very big, by spending. Adobe, which measures US online sales, reports these figures:
| Cyber Monday | Black Friday | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025, online spending | $14.25 billion, up 7.1%; the biggest online day of the season and of the year | $11.8 billion, up 9.1% | Adobe recap, January 2026 |
| 2026, forecast | $15.1 billion, up 6.2%; Adobe calls it a new milestone, over $15 billion in one day | $12.9 billion, up 9.2% | Adobe forecast, 28 September 2026 |
Adobe also expects use of buy now, pay later services to spike on Cyber Monday, at $1.09 billion of that day's online spending in 2026.
By number of shoppers the picture is different. In its survey of the 2023 Thanksgiving weekend, the latest of these we could open, the NRF found about 73 million people shopped online on Cyber Monday, against roughly 90.6 million online on Black Friday. So more people shop online on Black Friday, but more money is spent online on Cyber Monday.
Cyber Monday vs Black Friday
The two days now overlap so much that most stores run one long sale across both. Adobe's 2026 forecast still splits the categories:
- Cyber Monday: the deepest online discounts on electronics and computers.
- Black Friday: the biggest online deals on TVs, toys, apparel, appliances and furniture.
- Thanksgiving Day: the strongest deals on sporting goods.
Adobe expects discounts to peak at up to 30% off listed prices during Cyber Week, with electronics at around 30% and computers and TVs at around 23%. These are averages across retailers, not promises for any one product. Our guide Are Black Friday deals real? shows how to check whether a sale price is really lower, which matters just as much on Cyber Monday.
Cyber Monday is now more than one day
Like Black Friday, Cyber Monday has stretched. Adobe uses "Cyber Week" for the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, and forecasts $47.5 billion of online spending over those days in 2026. Stores also set their own Cyber windows. These are the 2026 dates published so far:
| Store | Cyber dates it has published |
|---|---|
| Walmart | Cyber Monday event, 30 November to 2 December, online from 12:01 a.m. ET |
| Best Buy | Cyber Sunday and Monday Sale Event (dates not printed), then Cyber Week Deals from 1 to 6 December |
| Kohl's | Cyber Deals, Sunday 29 and Monday 30 November |
| Costco | A set of online-only savings dated 30 November |
| Lowe's | "Extended Cyber Deals" after Black Friday, dates not given |
So "Cyber Monday" can mean anything from one day to a week, depending on the store. Best Buy's use of "Cyber Week" for the days after Cyber Monday is the opposite of Adobe's, so check which one a store means. Dates from more stores are in our guide to when Black Friday 2026 starts.
When is Cyber Monday? 2026 and the next years
Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, Black Friday is the next day, and Cyber Monday is the Monday after that. That puts Cyber Monday between 26 November and 2 December every year.
| Year | Thanksgiving | Black Friday | Cyber Monday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Thursday 26 November | Friday 27 November | Monday 30 November |
| 2027 | Thursday 25 November | Friday 26 November | Monday 29 November |
| 2028 | Thursday 23 November | Friday 24 November | Monday 27 November |
The offers we track for this year are on our Cyber Monday deals page, with Black Friday offers on our Black Friday deals page. More guides are in our Cyber Monday hub.
Sources
- Adobe, holiday season recap, January 2026, and 2026 holiday forecast, 28 September 2026.
- National Retail Federation, Winter holiday FAQs, and Thanksgiving weekend survey release of 28 November 2023.
- Wikipedia, entry "Cyber Monday", for the 2005 Shop.org press release, Scott Silverman's account and The New York Times report of November 2005.
- Store dates: Walmart release of 26 October 2026, Best Buy holiday calendar of 27 October 2026, Kohl's release of 30 October 2026, Costco.com Holiday Savings pages and Lowe's release of 8 October 2026.
All sources were read on 31 October 2026. This guide is written by the SavingArena Editorial Team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to what readers ask about this topic.
What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States, when stores run sales aimed mainly at online shoppers. In 2026 it falls on 30 November, and Adobe counts it as the biggest online shopping day of the year.
What are Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
They are the two biggest sale days of the Thanksgiving weekend: Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday the following Monday. The National Retail Federation treats them as part of one five-day shopping period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
Which is better, Black Friday or Cyber Monday?
It depends on what you buy. Adobe expects the deepest online discounts on electronics and computers on Cyber Monday, and on TVs, toys, apparel, appliances and furniture on Black Friday.
Why is it called Cyber Monday?
The name is credited to Shop.org, part of the National Retail Federation, in a press release of 28 November 2005. It drew on research showing that the Monday after Thanksgiving was already one of the biggest online shopping days.
When is Cyber Monday 2026?
Cyber Monday 2026 is Monday 30 November. In 2027 it falls on 29 November and in 2028 on 27 November.
Comments (0)
Join the discussion and share what worked for you.
No comments yet — be the first to share what worked for you.
Leave a comment
Comments are reviewed before they appear. Links are not allowed.