Will OLED Screens Get Any Cheaper? This Global Study Thinks So

OLED monitors have been getting cheaper in 2026, and a new forecast from market research firm Omdia says that isn't going to change anytime soon. The firm expects global shipments of OLED monitor panels will reach up to 6.1 million units in 2026. That's 79% more shipments than the previous year. Further, the group believes that the number will only continue to climb, even hitting as high as 7.5 million in 2027 as more monitor brands adopt the use of OLED panels.

As for prices themselves, we have already started to see them go down some in 2026 alone. 27-inch OLED gaming monitors that feature higher refresh rates like 240 Hz have already seen price cuts of more than 40% in 2026, according to the new report, and premium OLED monitors could be found well within the $350 range during the first half of 2026. Based on the report, it looks like many expect prices on premium OLED monitors to continue to drop in 2027, with the estimated price range reaching as low as $300. That kind of drop is pretty hard to picture, especially when you think about the fact that LG's UltraGear 27GR95QE, the monitor LG said had the first 240 Hz OLED panel, launched for nearly $1,000 at the end of 2022.

There are a few reasons why PC monitor makers are switching to OLED displays. And over the next year, the number of brands working with OLED panels will hopefully increase more and more. If price is the main thing that has kept you from buying an OLED monitor, that could very well be less of an issue going forward.

Samsung Display and LG Display have been the leading suppliers of OLED monitor panels for a while now. That is starting to change in 2026, though, with TCL China Star getting into the market. The first TCL China Star panels were set to start shipping to MSI in the third quarter of 2026 for a 27-inch 4K creator monitor, and TCL China Star makes those panels with inkjet printing.

TCL China Star has bigger plans for 2028, when it expects to start production at a new Gen 8.6 factory that is going to make 32-inch and 34-inch OLED monitor panels with refresh rates up to 700 Hz. For comparison, the Alienware AW3226Q is a 32-inch 4K OLED monitor that goes for $699.99, and while we believe that is an affordable price tag for what you're getting, it is still about twice what premium OLED monitors cost in the first half of 2026.

TCL China Star says the way it makes these panels is cheaper, too. Instead of the usual evaporation process for making OLED panels, the company prints the light-emitting materials. This lets the company use up to 90% of those materials, or about twice as much as the older methods. TCL has also claimed the printing process could lower manufacturing costs by around 20%, though it's not clear how much cuts to the cost of manufacturing would actually translate to the customer.

Another factor helping drive down the potential costs is the fact that more brands appear to be buying into OLED panels. This will hopefully help make them even more accessible to users. Asus is expected to stay the biggest buyer of OLED monitor panels in 2026, with 23% of shipments worldwide, and MSI, Samsung, and TPV, the company behind Philips and AOC monitors, come next. Gigabyte is adding more OLED monitors this year as well, and it announced four OLED gaming monitors at CES in January, including the 4K MO32U24 and the ultrawide MO34WQC36, so there are a lot more OLED monitors to pick from now than there were a couple of years ago.

OLED is appearing in other monitor types outside of gaming, too, with MSI even showcasing QD-OLED panels in its Pro Max professional monitors at Computex this year. Burn-in is one thing we would still recommend thinking about before you buy an OLED monitor for work, especially if you keep the same windows or a taskbar on the screen for hours at a time. While modern screens have become better, they do still suffer from burn-in.