The beloved Raspberry Pi small-scale was never meant to cost this much. But after multiple price hikes, including an $80 increase announced today, the 16GB RAM model of the Raspberry Pi 5 now costs $385. If you’re hungry for some depressing RAM-driven sticker shock, that’s more than triple the $120 this same configuration cost when it launched in January 2025. Is this the worst timeline? It’s certainly not the best.

CEO Eben Upton blamed “a lack of alternative supply for 16GB DRAM, compounded by other ongoing component shortages” for the latest price hike in a blog post published Monday. Alongside the $80 price increase for the Raspberry Pi, the SBC (single-board computer) maker added that it will raise the cost of 16GB Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 variants by $40. Upton said the company would hold steady on other 16GB systems such as its Raspberry Pi 500+ keyboard computer.

” To understand why, you have to look at the kinds of deals the major memory makers have been drafting lately. There are three major producers of DRAM, or dynamic random access memory: Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix. In its last few quarterly earnings reports, Micron has talked up multiyear contracts it has inked with major tech brands. And there is no relief to be found among the competition. Nascent Chinese memory makers, including CXMT , have strayed from making deals with the largest gadget brands, including Apple . Instead, they are focused on producing high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, to fuel China’s AI buildout, despite reportedly low manufacturing yields.

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