This countdown updates live in your local timezone.
When is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday falls on Monday, November 30, 2026.
About Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving in the United States and is the online counterpart to Black Friday. The term was coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation to describe the surge in online shopping that came when people returned to work, and to faster office internet connections, after the long Thanksgiving weekend. It has since become one of the largest online sales days of the year worldwide, with major retailers offering steep online-only discounts. Compared with Black Friday, Cyber Monday leans more towards electronics, software and other goods well suited to online selling. Like Black Friday, its date moves each year with Thanksgiving, falling between November 26 and December 2.
The term Cyber Monday was coined in November 2005 by Shop.org, the digital retail arm of the National Retail Federation, in a press release headed "Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year". At the time, many home internet connections in the US were still slower than office broadband, and a good number of people genuinely waited until they were back at work after Thanksgiving to shop online. Cyber Monday has grown quickly since then. In 2005 it was estimated to drive around $500 million in US online spending, and by the early 2020s the figure routinely passed $11 billion. The move to mobile shopping has steadily worn away the original office-computer logic of Cyber Monday, and many retailers now treat the whole stretch from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, sometimes called Cyber Week, as a single sales period.
Frequently asked questions
What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is a major online shopping event held on the Monday after the US Thanksgiving. It is the online counterpart to Black Friday, which falls the previous Friday. On Cyber Monday, retailers offer large discounts, traditionally focused on their websites rather than physical shops, with strong deals on electronics and similar goods. Although it began in the United States, Cyber Monday is now marked by online retailers in many countries, and it ranks among the biggest online sales days of the year.
When is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday falls on the Monday immediately after the US Thanksgiving, which is the fourth Thursday of November. That places Cyber Monday between November 26 and December 2, on a date that changes each year. It comes three days after Black Friday, with the Thanksgiving weekend in between. Many retailers now run continuous deals from Black Friday through to Cyber Monday, so in practice the two events have merged into a single long sales period.
Who created Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday was created as a marketing term in 2005 by Shop.org, the digital retail division of the US National Retail Federation. A press release that November used the phrase to describe the jump in online sales seen on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Retailers quickly adopted the term and began offering deals specifically for the day. So unlike Black Friday, which grew up informally over decades, Cyber Monday was a deliberately invented event from the start.
What is the difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two sales events around the US Thanksgiving weekend. Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving and began as an in-store shopping day. Cyber Monday is the following Monday and was created in 2005 to capture online shopping as people returned to work. Black Friday traditionally featured doorbuster deals in physical shops, while Cyber Monday focused on websites. As shopping has moved online, the difference has largely disappeared, and many retailers treat the whole period as one sale.
Why was Cyber Monday created?
Cyber Monday was created to put a name to a pattern retailers had noticed. In the mid-2000s, online sales jumped on the Monday after Thanksgiving. One reason was that many people had faster internet at work than at home, so they waited until they were back in the office to browse and buy. The National Retail Federation's online arm coined the term in 2005, and retailers then built dedicated online deals around the day, which helped the event grow.