![Literary Hub » “A Person Should Be in Love Most of the Time.” An[other] Ode to Grace Paley](https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/grace-paley.jpg "Literary Hub » “A Person Should Be in Love Most of the Time.” An[other] Ode to Grace Paley")
OK, we have to preface this with a disclaimer: You’re going to spend roughly a third of your life on a mattress, so there are probably better places to save a buck. Seriously, if you can save up to buy a nicer mattress, do. But for tight budgets (or guest rooms), we’ve tested more than a dozen mattresses under $1,000 that you can buy online and have conveniently shipped to you in a box in a matter of days.
We slept on a variety of mattresses of differing firmness, materials, and filling to find what we consider to be the best mattresses at a budget-friendly price point. Some of these cheap mattresses far exceeded expectations for costing roughly what you can spend on a fancy dinner.
These under-$1,000 picks are also conveniently shipped straight to you. Buying a mattress online is easy and efficient—a box comes to you with no need for a truck or professional movers. Just lug the bed-in-a-box inside, crack the cardboard, slash open the plastic wrap, and watch the mattress spring into shape.
The drawback to online shopping is you can’t test a showroom of mattresses until you find the perfect fit. Add in the fact that reviews can be gamed by bad actors, and it’s hard to know what’s worth your time and what’s not. WIRED has done the work for you, spending at least a week, if not longer, sleeping on some of the cheapest mattresses you can buy online—we’re looking for a great night’s sleep at a good value. It’s worth noting that we don’t think online is necessarily the best place to buy a mattress—we go into our reasons below—but if your prime focus is cost and convenience, then you do have some good options with these cheap mattresses you can buy online. The prices below are based on queen size.
Be sure to check out our other sleep guides, including the Best Mattresses, Best Organic Mattresses, Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers, and Best Sleep Gadgets.
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