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For a pet test, yes. For a human one, wait. AncestryDNA is back at its $99 list and MyHeritage at $89, because the human kits only drop for the gifting windows and this isn't one of them. The dog and cat kits run standing cuts instead: Embark has the Breed + Health test at $139 against $159 and Wisdom Panel has Premium at $127.99 against $159.99 and its cat kit at $97.49 against $129.99. The human kits are loss leaders for subscriptions, which is why they get so cheap in December and sit at list in September.
Decide what happens to your sample before you spit in the tube, because that question turned real in 2025. 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, and in May a pharmaceutical company won the court auction with a $256 million bid for the company and its banks of customer DNA. Around 1.9 million people, roughly 15% of the customer base, asked for their genetic data to be deleted, and more than two dozen states sued to block the sale. Every major service lets you delete your data and request that your physical sample be destroyed. Know where those settings are before you buy, not after.
Early Columbus Day DNA Test Deals
The human kits are back at list, and the discounts have moved to the pet side. These are the live markdowns at the two dog and cat DNA brands, checked against each product page.
Embark Breed + Health Dog DNA Test
- Breed + health
- 270+ conditions
- Cheek swab
The bestselling Embark kit, which reads breed ancestry and screens for more than 270 genetic health conditions from one cheek swab, including the drug sensitivities a vet wants to know about before surgery.
This is the kit that justifies the category. The breed pie chart is the fun part, but the health screen is the reason to spend $139 rather than $109 on the breed-only test below, and the $30 gap is the whole value of the product.
$139$15913% off
- Purebred
- 270+ conditions
- Genetic diversity
The same 270 plus condition health screen aimed at dogs whose breed is already known, with a genetic diversity score instead of an ancestry breakdown. Breeders use it to check for the inherited conditions that show up in closed lines, and it carries the same $20 cut as the mixed-breed kit.
If your dog came with papers, this is the right kit, because the ancestry half of the standard test tells you nothing you don't know. If there's any doubt about the pedigree, buy the Breed + Health test instead at the same price.
$139$15913% off
- Breed ancestry
- No health screen
- $10 off
The breed-only kit, with the same ancestry breakdown as the full test and none of the health screening. It answers the question most rescue owners actually have, which is what the dog is, for $30 less than the kit that also answers what to watch for.
The health screen is the part your vet can act on. Buy this one for curiosity, but if the dog is young and you'd change anything about its care based on a result, the extra $30 for Breed + Health is the better spend.
$109$1198% off
- Breed + health
- MDR1 screen
- 20% off
The top Wisdom Panel dog kit, with breed ancestry and the brand's extensive health screen, including the MDR1 drug sensitivity test that decides which common medications are safe for herding breeds. The $32 cut is the largest on the Wisdom Panel shop.
At $127.99 this lands $11 under the Embark Breed + Health kit for a similar job. Embark's health panel is the longer one, so the choice is the wider screen at $139 or the cheaper kit with the MDR1 result that matters most at $127.99.
$127.99$159.9920% off
- Breed + health
- MDR1 screen
- 20% off
The mid-tier kit and the one most Wisdom Panel buyers pick, with the breed breakdown and a shorter health screen that still includes the MDR1 drug sensitivity test. Under $100 with the cut, which is the price point most people set for a pet test.
The MDR1 screen is included even here, and it's the single most useful result in any dog test, because a positive changes which flea, worm and sedation drugs a vet will reach for. Everything else in the report is context.
$95.99$119.9920% off
Wisdom Panel Complete for Cats
- Cat DNA
- Breed + health
- 25% off
The cat kit, which is the smaller and younger side of this category, with a breed breakdown and a health screen aimed at the conditions that matter in cats. At 25% off it's the deepest cut on either brand site.
Most house cats aren't purebred, so the breed result reads as a regional mix rather than a name. The health screen is the useful part, and it matters most if the cat will ever need surgery or long-term medication.
$97.49$129.9925% off
Prices come from each brand at the time this page was last refreshed. Neither brand dates its markdowns, so check the current number on the product page before you buy.
Top 3 DNA Test Deals on Amazon
The three ancestry kits with the steepest discounts on Amazon, ranked by markdown. This is the category everyone starts with, and the one where the kit price is only half the story. The test itself is cheap because the business is the subscription that lets you build a tree with the results, and those renew at full price after the trial. What actually differs between services is the size of the matching database, which is what determines whether you find relatives, and the regional detail of the ethnicity breakdown. Both improve as more people test, so the biggest database usually gives the most useful answer.
When DNA Test Kits Actually Go On Sale
These kits are marketing for a subscription, which means they get discounted whenever people are likely to be thinking about family.
| When | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Black Friday through Christmas | The annual low, by a distance. These are gift purchases, the services know it, and the kits routinely land near their floor for six straight weeks. |
| Early Columbus Day, into October | Flat on the human kits, which sit at list between the gifting windows, with AncestryDNA at $99 and MyHeritage at $89. The pet kits carry their standing cuts, with Embark $20 off its flagship tests and Wisdom Panel 20% off the dog tiers. |
| Mother's Day and Father's Day | Reliable and heavily promoted, because a family history kit is an easy gift. Usually a little shallower than the holiday pricing but wider on the bundles. |
| Prime Day, July and October | Good on the marketplace listings and on the pet kits, which sit outside the subscription model and behave more like normal products. |
| DNA Day, late April | A small but real event that the genealogy services all mark with a sale. Worth a look if you missed the spring gifting window. |
| January and February | The dead stretch. The gifting season is over, the promotions stop, and the kits sit at list price until the spring holidays arrive. |
What Actually Counts as a Good DNA Test Deal
Price the kit and the subscription that follows it as one number, because the second one renews.
- Ancestry kit under $40. List is $99 and that's where it sits between sales. Below $50 is a real sale, and the gifting windows routinely get there, so a $99 kit in September is one to wait on.
- MyHeritage kit under $35. List is $89 with free shipping and a 30-day trial. Note the Complete subscription that follows the trial is $149 for the first year and $299 after, which is the number that actually decides this purchase.
- Health and ancestry bundle under $130. The combined services rarely go below this outside the holidays, and the health half is the part with the most caveats attached.
- Dog DNA test under $110. Embark has its Breed ID test at $109 against $119 and Wisdom Panel Essential is $95.99 against $119.99 with the health screen included. Breed-only tests sit lower than breed-plus-health ones.
- Cat DNA test under $100. Wisdom Panel Complete for Cats is $97.49 against $129.99, which is the deepest cut on either pet brand. The smallest and youngest corner of this category, so the databases are smaller than the dog equivalents.
Where to Shop DNA Tests
Worth checking beyond Amazon, because the services run their own holiday sales and the subscription terms are only spelled out properly at source.
How to Pick the Right DNA Test
Decide about your data before you order. The 23andMe bankruptcy in 2025 ended with a pharmaceutical company bidding $256 million for the business and its genetic databases, and about 1.9 million customers asked for deletion. Every service lets you delete results and ask for your sample to be destroyed. Find those controls first, read what happens to your data if the company is sold, and opt out of research sharing if that matters to you.
Price the subscription, not the kit. These tests are sold below cost because the money is in the membership that follows. Ancestry, MyHeritage and the rest all pair a cheap kit with a trial that renews at full price, and MyHeritage's Complete tier goes to $299 after the first year. A $29 kit in a holiday sale is genuine; the plan behind it is where the money goes.
Pick the service by database size if you want relatives. Ethnicity estimates are educated guesses that get revised as the reference panels improve. Relative matching is different: it either finds people or it doesn't, and that depends entirely on how many others tested with the same company. If finding family is the goal, the biggest database wins regardless of the price.
Treat health reports as a screen, not an answer. The FDA-authorized BRCA report covers three mutations out of more than a thousand, and those three are most common in people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, so a clear result isn't the same as a low risk. Anything worrying or reassuring in a consumer health report is worth taking to a doctor or a genetic counselor rather than acting on alone.
Buy the pet test for the health panel. Breed percentages are the fun part and the drug sensitivity screening is the useful part. Knowing your dog carries the MDR1 variant before a vet prescribes a common drug is worth more than the whole kit, and it's included even on the cheaper tiers.
DNA Test Sale FAQ
The Bottom Line
Settle the data question first, because a cheap kit is only cheap if you're comfortable with where the results end up, and 2025 showed those databases can change hands. Then price the subscription rather than the kit, since that's where the money actually goes. Choose the service by database size if you want to find relatives, treat any health report as a screen to take to a clinician rather than an answer in itself, and buy the pet tests for the drug sensitivity screening rather than the breed pie chart. In the early Columbus Day window the human kits sit at list, with Ancestry at $99 and MyHeritage at $89, while Embark and Wisdom Panel carry their standing cuts, so buy the pet test whenever you like and hold the human kit for the run into Christmas.
