Raspberry Pi computers have remained relatively affordable over the years, even if that meant stock was limited at times. Unfortunately, most modern Pi boards are now going up in price due to AI-driven memory manufacturing costs.
You may have noticed that RAM pricing has skyrocketed over the last few months, partially due to manufacturers attempting to meet demand for industrial data centers , many of which are being built or expanded to handle generative AI workloads. A limited supply means higher prices, which now means that Raspberry Pi computers have to become slightly more expensive.
Raspberry Pi said in a blog post today, "today, to offset the recent unprecedented rise in the cost of LPDDR4 memory, we are announcing price increases to some Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 products. These largely mirror the increases that we announced in October for our Compute Module products, and will help us to secure memory supplies as we navigate an increasingly constrained market in 2026."
Most Pi boards are only going up in price by $5-10, but the 8GB Pi 5 is increasing by $15, and the most expensive 16GB Pi 5 is going up in price by $25. Here's the full breakdown:
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Pi 4 with 4GB:previously $55, now $60
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Pi 4 with 8GB:previously $75, now $85
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Pi 5 with 2GB:previously $50, now $55
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Pi 5 with 4GB:previously $60, now $70
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Pi 5 with 8GB:previously $80, now $95
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Pi 5 with 16GB:previously $120, now $145
The company also said, "The current pressure on memory prices, driven by competition from the AI infrastructure roll-out, is painful but ultimately temporary. We remain committed to driving down the cost of computing and look forward to unwinding these price increases once it abates."
There was an extended shortage of Raspberry Pi boards for home customers around 2022-2023 , which prompted more people to consider alternative single-board computers and cheap NUC-like x86 boxes. That might happen again with these price increases, but Raspberry Pi's competitors aren't immune from global economic factors. According to price tracking service Keepa , the Orange Pi 5 Plus 16GB went from $163 to $180 in November, and the GMKtec NucBox G5 with 12GB RAM leaped from $180 to $260 around the same time.
There is some good news, though: there's now a super-affordable 1GB RAM option for the Raspberry Pi 5. At only $45, that could be the best model to get if your projects don't require as much memory. It still has the same 2.4GHz ARM Cortex-A76 processor, dual-band Wi-Fi, and PCI Express port as the other Pi 5 models. It's available starting today from all the usual stores that sell Pi computers.
Source: Raspberry Pi Blog
