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The Raspberry Pi just got priced out of its own mission

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The Raspberry Pi just got priced out of its own mission

There was a time when telling someone the price of a Raspberry Pi was a punchline about how cheap computing had become. That time is over. The 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 now sells for $305, and no, that's not a typo, and it's not a kit with a keyboard and monitor bundled in. That's the price of the bare board.

A machine that was supposed to democratize computing has quietly turned into something you have to think twice about buying, and honestly, that should bother anyone who cares about accessible hardware.

The 16GB Pi 5 launched in January 2025 at $120, which already raised a few eyebrows because it was $40 more than the 8GB model for nothing but extra memory. Then the increases started coming, and they came fast.

By December 2025 it was $145. A February 2026 hike pushed it to $205, and then an April 2026 round added another $100 to land at roughly $305. That's more than double the launch price in about 15 months, on a board where not a single component or capability has changed. You're paying two and a half times as much for the same piece of silicon.

What makes this sting is how transparent Raspberry Pi has been about the reason. This isn't corporate greed or a redesigned premium product. CEO Eben Upton has repeatedly said the company is simply passing along memory costs it can't absorb, and he's called the whole thing painful for an organization that prides itself on being cost-effective.


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