Price matching in 2026: Target, Best Buy, Walmart and Amazon

Competitor price matching has mostly gone away at the big retailers. What's left is narrower, and the most useful part is usually a store matching its own lower price after you buy.

The quick answer

Target: No longer matches competitors as of July 2025. Matches its own lower prices within 14 days, and has a holiday guarantee for its own price drops
Best Buy: Still matches a list of qualified competitors, plus its own price drops during the return period
Walmart: Stores will match an identical item's Walmart.com price. Walmart.com doesn't price match at all
Amazon: No published price match policy, and it stopped refunding post-purchase price drops in 2016

Policies change, and holiday terms are usually announced each fall, so check the store's own page (linked at the bottom) before you count on any of this.

Target

Target ran a competitor price match program for about 12 years. It ended in late July 2025, and Target no longer matches Amazon, Walmart or other outside retailers.

What Target still does:

Matches lower prices on identical items from Target.com, Target stores and Target Circle deals
Lets you ask for the difference within 14 days of purchase if Target's own price drops, with your receipt or packing slip
Runs a holiday guarantee: for items bought starting November 1, 2026, Target says it will match its own lower price through December 24, 2026

Exclusions include clearance, closeout, open-package, refurbished and pre-owned items, bundles, Target Plus items, and prices caused by typographical errors. Online matches aren't available in Alaska or Hawaii.

Best Buy

Best Buy is the main big-box retailer that still matches competitors. It matches the current price of "Qualified Competitors," which Best Buy lists on its site. Third-party summaries of that list include Amazon (only items sold by Amazon itself), Walmart, Target, Costco and several electronics and home stores, but go by Best Buy's own list.

Best Buy also matches its own lower price if it drops during your return and exchange period. For the holidays, Best Buy says most products bought from October 30 through December 31 can be matched to a lower Best Buy price through January 15. That holiday extension covers Best Buy's own prices, not competitors'.

The exclusions are where most requests fail:

Marketplace and third-party sellers, on Best Buy's site or a competitor's
Open-box, refurbished, pre-owned and clearance items
Limited-quantity and out-of-stock items
Competitor daily or hourly sales, and items marked as Black Friday pricing
Member-only and loyalty pricing, bundles, pre-orders, and financing or gift card offers

The item has to be new, in stock, and identical in brand, model number and color.

Walmart

Walmart's own policy is short. In US stores, Walmart will match the advertised price of an identical item on Walmart.com, with restrictions, and the store manager on duty makes the final call.

Walmart.com does not price match. Walmart says it won't match competitors' prices, other Walmart.com listings, prices from Marketplace sellers, in-store prices, or price drops on items you already bought online. Walmart stopped matching local competitors' ads in many stores years ago, so older guides you find online are likely out of date.

Amazon

Amazon doesn't publish a price match policy for shoppers. Until 2016, it would refund the difference on some items if its price dropped within seven days, and it formally limited that to TVs before ending it. Today, the practical options on Amazon are to cancel and reorder if the order hasn't shipped, or to return the item within the return window if the price drop is large enough to be worth it. Neither is a policy Amazon guarantees, so I wouldn't plan around it.

How to use this

For holiday shopping, buy when the price is good and save the receipt, then ask for the difference if the same store drops the price before its deadline
For a lower price at a different store, Best Buy is the main option left, and only for qualified competitors and non-excluded items
Have the competitor's live listing ready on your phone, since most stores verify the price when you ask
Don't expect a match on doorbusters, marketplace listings or membership prices