The cheapest countries to buy a Pixel 8

The Google Pixel 8 is already drawing a lot of admiring glances, but one thing that hasn’t been improved in the latest generation of the phone is the price. The Pixel 7 was something of a bargain at a retail price of $599, but a price hike on the Pixel 8 to $699 takes it more into line with its flagship rivals. Throw the sales tax on top of that for a US resident, and the new Google handset is costing you closer to $800. If that makes you think twice about picking it up in the US, you might be curious to know where the cheapest place to buy the Pixel 8 is.

The good news is that the Android phone has a different retail price in each of the 17 countries it will be sold, and that’s not all. If you buy it while you’re passing through a different nation, you may not be liable to pay the sales tax or be able to claim it back as a rebate before you leave. The question is, do these factors add up to an opportunity to get the Pixel 8 from cheaper abroad? We’ve crunched the numbers to bring you the answer.

What are the cheapest countries to buy a Pixel 8?

What we’re comparing here is the official Google pricing in each country. Carrier or trade-in deals will always offer you the chance to pay less for the device, but they come with other obligations on your part. You may even be offered the Pixel 8 for less than the retail price in any part of the world, but a significantly lower price so soon after the launch of the phone should be a red flag. The handset might be fake, damaged, or even stolen. Just be wary if the price looks too good to be true.

The table below shows the price of the Pixel 8 in each country plus the equivalent amount in US dollars on the date of publication. In each case, the amount you’ll see is the most you’ll pay as a tourist, and if the sales tax is included in the price of the phone, you may even be eligible to claim it back when you’re ready to leave. Since we’re making the comparison from a US resident’s perspective, we’ve added an approximate 10% sales tax to the US price to give you the take-home outlay.

The reason that there are only 12 entries in the table is that “Europe” covers France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland. The Pixel 8 is the same price in euros in all of these countries.

At the time of writing, the cheapest place in the world to buy the Pixel 8 is Canada, where you’ll pay the equivalent of $691 when you can avoid the tax. Assuming the US sales tax estimate is accurate, Australia and Japan may also be a few bucks cheaper than America. But the overriding trend is that United States residents are getting a pretty good deal compared to the rest of the world. Europeans are paying at least $830 for the device before tax, and it’s over $900 in India.

Should I buy a Pixel 8 from another country?

It’s up to you, but we would argue that the price difference isn’t a big enough reason. It certainly wouldn’t justify the cost of a trip to another country. The amount you’ll spend on travel and accommodation will far outstrip the savings that you’ll make.

Even if you happen to be traveling for an unrelated reason and want to take advantage of the marginally cheaper phone price while you’re away, there are other factors to consider. The guarantee you’d usually get with a new device will either be very tough to take advantage of or completely invalid once you’re back in the USA. You may also face other obstacles, such as a different software configuration on the phone. These issues might be worth it if you were saving $500, but not for a slight discount.

Besides, who pays full price for a new phone these days anyway? This is especially true for the latest Google Pixel. Being released in October each year means that every new Pixel smartphone is immediately subjected to late-year sales, such as the Prime Big Deals Days sale that starts next week and then a whole month of Black Friday madness. In 2022, the Pixel 7 had only been on the market for a month before it became available for $499.99 — almost $100 off the retail price. Unless it’s important to you to get the phone on day one, it makes sense to be a little patient for some Pixel deals. You could also consider a carrier deal that gets you a Pixel 8 for free.

The costs to Google of bringing the phone to market in each nation vary significantly, so it only makes sense to factor these into the retail price of the Pixel 8 wherever it’s sold. There are import duties, logistics costs, taxes, and many other market forces for the manufacturer to consider. The consumer spending power in the country also has to be taken into account. Economic experts at Google will have calculated a retail price that brings maximum revenue.

The other thing is that we’re comparing the US dollar prices here, and exchange rates are constantly changing. The table above would have looked different when the retail prices were set months ago, and it’ll continue to change in the coming weeks. We’ll revisit this article periodically to see if a different nation can claim the crown of cheapest place to buy a Pixel 8.