11.11 is the one AliExpress sale genuinely worth planning a purchase around. It's the platform's biggest event of the year — bigger than Black Friday is here — and it rewards people who prepare a couple of weeks ahead over people who show up on the day. This guide covers what it actually is, the 2026 timing, how the coupon machinery works, and the honest version of how good the discounts really are.
In this guide
What 11.11 actually is
The name is the date: November 11, written 11.11 — four ones, which is why it started as Singles' Day, an informal Chinese holiday celebrating being unattached. Alibaba turned it into a shopping event in 2009, it grew into the largest e-commerce day in the world, and AliExpress carries it globally under the "11.11 Global Shopping Festival" banner.
What matters practically: on AliExpress, this is the deepest and widest discount event of the year. Sitewide promotional pricing, the platform's biggest coupon distribution, and seller-level deals all land in the same window. Black Friday exists here too, but as our 11.11 vs Black Friday comparison covers in detail, it's the smaller of the two on this specific platform.
When it starts and ends in 2026
The anchor is fixed: Wednesday, November 11, 2026. AliExpress announces exact promotional windows only a few weeks out, but the shape barely changes year to year:
- Warm-up: roughly November 1–10. Deal previews go live, coupons become collectable, and you can build your cart and wishlist. Prices mostly haven't dropped yet — this period exists to load you up with discounts to spend later.
- Main sale: November 11 through roughly the 19th. Despite the name, it isn't a one-day event — recent years have run the full pricing for eight to nine days. The first hours of the 11th get the marketing push and some limited-quantity deals, but most prices hold through the window.
- The tail: Black Friday, two weeks later. Missed something? A smaller re-run arrives November 27. Useful as a second chance; rarely a better price.
Treat any specific end date you see in October marketing as the real one — the dates above are the established pattern, not a promise.
How the sale is structured
A few mechanics are worth understanding before you're inside them:
- Warm-up pricing is visible early. During the preview period, listings often show what the sale price will be. That's your window to sanity-check whether the "deal" beats the price the item sat at in October — more on that below.
- Coins and app games. The AliExpress app runs mini-games and daily check-ins that pay out "coins," which convert into small discounts or coupons during the event. The honest assessment: worth collecting passively if you already use the app, not worth grinding. The payoff is a few dollars, not a different price class. The full mechanics — earning rates, expiry, what coins can and can't buy — are in our coins guide.
- Limited-quantity flash deals. Some headline items run in capped batches at aggressive prices, restocking at announced times. These are real but scarce — if you miss one, the ordinary sale price is usually still fine, and the countdown timer is doing exactly what countdown timers do.
- The Welcome Deal is separate. First-order-ever discounts exist year-round and have nothing to do with 11.11. If it's your first AliExpress order, you get that pricing whether you buy in November or May — our account guide covers how it works.
Coupons, codes, and coins — explained honestly
This is the part of 11.11 that confuses people most, because several discount systems run at once and the names blur together. The types:
- AliExpress coupons — issued by the platform itself, collected from banners and event pages during the warm-up, usually threshold-based ("$4 off $30"). Apply platform-wide or near enough.
- Store coupons — issued by individual sellers, collected on the store page or product listing. Only work in that store, but they stack with platform discounts.
- Promo codes — typed at checkout, released in batches around the event through AliExpress's own banners and partner sites. Threshold-based like coupons ("$8 off $60"), and typically one code per order.
- Coins — the app-game currency above, redeemed for small extra cuts.
The stacking pattern: one promo code + one platform coupon + one store coupon per seller in your cart can generally combine on a single order, with coin discounts on top. The exact rules shift a little every event, which is why the practical advice beats memorizing any chart: build your cart, go to checkout, and test combinations. The total recalculates before you pay, so trying a code costs nothing.
One more honest note: coupon thresholds nudge you toward adding items you didn't want, to clear the next "$X off $Y" bar. Clearing a $60 bar with $12 of filler you'll never use is not a discount — it's $12.
How good are the discounts really?
Mixed, and it's worth being precise about how.
The genuine part: platform subsidies during 11.11 are real money, and across most categories the effective prices in this window are the lowest of the year — that's not marketing, it's observable in price histories. If you've had something in your cart since September, you will very likely pay less for it on November 11 than you did not buying it in September.
The manipulated part: strikethrough "was" prices are routinely inflated before big sales, and a "70% off" badge against an invented original is theater. Some sellers quietly raise their base price in early November so the sale percentage looks bigger against it. This is exactly the pattern our seller red flags guide files under pricing games, and it's more common during events, not less.
The defense is simple: judge the absolute price, not the percentage. A price-history tool or browser extension shows what the item actually sold for in the weeks before the sale. If it's genuinely lower now, buy. If the number is the same and only the badge changed, you've learned something about the seller too.
How to prepare (starting now)
People who do well at 11.11 mostly decided what they wanted before November. The playbook:
- Build a wishlist and cart early. Sellers push wishlist- and cart-targeted coupons in the run-up, so saved items sometimes get offers that browsing on the day won't surface. It also locks your judgment in before sale adrenaline gets involved.
- Note current prices now. A screenshot or a price-tracker entry in October is the cleanest possible test of whether November's badge is real.
- Collect coupons during the warm-up, spend them in the window. Most platform coupons collected in early November are valid through the main sale.
- Expect shipping to slow down. Order volume spikes hard and delivery estimates stretch — our shipping times guide covers what's normal. Don't buy anything you need by a fixed December date without an upgraded shipping line.
- Have a list of things actually worth buying. A discount on junk is still junk. Our under-$15 finds and tech picks are items we've already vetted at full price — anything there that drops further during the sale is about as safe as a deal gets.
Frequently asked questions
What is the AliExpress 11.11 sale?
11.11 — also called Singles' Day or the Global Shopping Festival — is AliExpress's biggest sale of the year, anchored on November 11. It started as an informal Chinese holiday celebrating being single (the date is four 1s), was turned into a shopping event by Alibaba in 2009, and AliExpress later extended it worldwide. On this platform specifically it is a bigger discount event than Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
When does the AliExpress 11.11 sale start in 2026?
The anchor date is Wednesday, November 11, 2026. AliExpress announces the exact promotional window closer to the event, but the pattern is consistent year to year: a warm-up period in the first week and a half of November where you can preview deals and collect coupons, the main sale opening on November 11, and discounts running roughly another week after that — recent years have ended around November 19.
How long does the 11.11 sale last?
The main discount window typically runs about eight to nine days, from November 11 through roughly the 19th, preceded by a warm-up period of a week or more where deals are previewable and coupons are collectable but the full prices haven't dropped yet. It is not a one-day event despite the name.
Is 11.11 the biggest AliExpress sale of the year?
Yes. On AliExpress specifically, 11.11 is the deepest and widest discount event of the year — bigger than Black Friday, which follows about two weeks later and functions more as an echo of it. The March Anniversary Sale is the largest event outside the November cluster but is smaller than either.
How many coupons can you stack on one AliExpress order?
The general pattern: one promo code, plus one AliExpress (platform) coupon, plus one store coupon from each seller in your cart can usually be applied to the same order, and coin discounts sit on top of that. The exact stacking rules shift a little from event to event, so the practical advice is to add everything to your cart first and test combinations at checkout — the total updates before you pay, so you can try codes without committing.
Is 11.11 better than Black Friday on AliExpress?
On AliExpress, yes — 11.11 is the platform's flagship event, with deeper and more consistent discounts across more categories. Black Friday two weeks later mostly re-runs a smaller version of the same promotion. If you're choosing one window to buy in, choose 11.11; Black Friday is a second chance for whatever you missed, not a better deal. We break the two down side by side in our 11.11 vs Black Friday comparison.
For where 11.11 sits in the full year of AliExpress events — including the March Anniversary Sale — see our sales calendar.
