Raspberry Pi 5 16GB Now Costs $385, More Than Triple Its Launch Price, After an $80 Memory-Driven Hike

Economic Warfare & Trade Policy › Tech & export controls

Raspberry Pi raised the Raspberry Pi 5 price for its 16GB model by $80 to $385 on Monday, Nov. 2, blaming a shortage of 16GB memory chips. The Cambridge, England, company also lifted 16GB Compute Module 5 prices by $40, leaving its flagship board at more than three times its $120 launch price.

The increase took effect immediately, according to a post on the company’s blog by co-founder Eben Upton. The company said it is holding the price of the Raspberry Pi 500+, its keyboard-style desktop computer that also carries 16GB of RAM.

Raspberry Pi 5 price: what changed on Nov. 2

The 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 now lists for $385, up from $305. The 16GB variants of the Compute Module 5, the version of the board that companies build into their own products, each rose by $40, with new prices posted in the product brief on the Compute Module 5 page. Other memory sizes were not part of this round.

Upton wrote that “a lack of alternative supply for 16GB DRAM, compounded by other ongoing component shortages,” forced the change on the company’s highest-density products. He said Raspberry Pi has tried to avoid blanket increases across the product line and is qualifying alternative parts to gain flexibility in sourcing.

The company called the increases “unavoidable” and urged buyers to make sure they are “not paying for more memory than you need,” pointing to lower-memory boards, older models and software memory optimizations. It also warned that “a few bad actors” are exploiting the shortage to sell Raspberry Pi products at inflated prices, and it advised customers to buy through approved resellers.

By the numbers: from $120 to $385

When the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 launched in January 2025, it cost $120, Tom’s Hardware noted. By The Boston Report’s calculation, Monday’s $80 increase is a 26.2% jump in one step, and the board now costs $265 more than at launch, a rise of about 221%, or 3.2 times the original price.

The cumulative climb happened in stages. The board had already reached $305 before this week, meaning $185 of the increase, about 70% of the total, came before Monday’s move, by TBR’s math. Smaller boards have been hit too: about a month ago, the 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 each rose $12.50, to $67.50 and $77.50, according to Tom’s Hardware.

For perspective, the original Raspberry Pi line was built around a $25 to $35 price target, a level meant to put a programmable computer within reach of students. The 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 now costs about 11 times the $35 ceiling of that historic range, by TBR’s calculation, and is priced closer to an entry-level laptop or mini PC than a hobby board.

Why memory prices keep rising

The root cause is the AI build-out. Data centers that train and run artificial intelligence models need huge amounts of high-bandwidth memory, and the three dominant DRAM makers, Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron, have shifted production toward those higher-margin chips. Gizmodo reported that SK Hynix expects demand for RAM to outstrip supply through 2030, with long-term agreements already covering more than half of its 2027-28 output.

That squeeze has been good for the chipmakers. Samsung recently reported record quarterly profit above 100 trillion won as its AI memory sold out, and South Korea’s October exports nearly doubled on AI chip sales. For makers of small, low-cost devices, the same trend means higher component bills with little room to absorb them.

The squeeze is reaching mainstream computers as well. Apple’s new touchscreen MacBook Pro starts at $2,899.

What buyers and makers can do

Tom’s Hardware reported that some hobbyists are already moving small projects to cheaper microcontrollers such as the Raspberry Pi Pico or ESP32 boards and shifting heavier workloads to mini PCs. Raspberry Pi itself recommends lower-density variants or earlier models for projects that do not need 16GB of RAM, and it pointed users to guidance in Raspberry Pi Official Magazine and on its forums.

The Verge reported that the 16GB Compute Module 5 variants now cost $375 to $415. Upton’s post closed with a promise: “the current memory landscape is difficult but ultimately temporary, and we look forward to rolling back our price increases when memory costs fall once again.” The company did not give a timeline.

Sources

• Raspberry Pi: Price rises for some 16GB Raspberry Pi products (Nov. 2, 2026)
• Tom’s Hardware: 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 hiked to $385, more than triple its launch price
• The Verge: Raspberry Pi 5 16GB price hike
• Gizmodo: A Raspberry Pi just got 26% pricier