Prices for high-memory models of the Raspberry Pi, known as an affordable single-board computer, are surging. On November 2, 2026, Raspberry Pi announced price changes for some products with 16GB of memory. The 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 goes up by $80, bringing its official price to $385. The 16GB Compute Module 5 (CM5), aimed at embedded devices, also rises by a flat $40 across all configurations. Lower-capacity models and boards from other generations are not included in this round of changes, and the Raspberry Pi 500+ desktop PC, which also has 16GB of memory, stays at $410.
This round of increases is concentrated on the 16GB memory configuration rather than the whole lineup. As a result, the price balance between products has shifted, with the gap between a bare board and a complete desktop becoming extremely small. Not only hobbyists but also companies that use Raspberry Pi in embedded devices now need to take another look at how much memory they need and what it costs to source.
How the Price Changes Concentrated on the 16GB Models
The biggest impact of the November 2 announcement falls on the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5. This increase alone adds $80, lifting the official price from $305 (calculated from the earlier increases) to $385. That puts it in a very expensive range for a bare board within the company's lineup.
For the Compute Module 5, designed for industrial equipment and embedded systems, every model with 16GB of memory rises by $40. CM5 comes in several configurations depending on whether it has wireless functionality and how much onboard eMMC storage it includes (none, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and so on), but the increase is the same for all of them. Meanwhile, the lower-capacity memory configurations from 1GB to 8GB are not listed as subject to an increase in this announcement. What stands out is that the changes are focused on the specific 16GB memory capacity.
In contrast, the Raspberry Pi 500+, a desktop PC with 16GB of memory, stays at $410. The product is a complete system with the computer built into a mechanical keyboard enclosure and includes a 256GB SSD. This leaves the price gap between it and the standalone 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 at just $25. Even with the same memory capacity, the changes have been handled very differently from product to product.
Note that all of these are manufacturer list prices in US dollars published by Raspberry Pi. Actual retail prices in each country, including Japan, vary depending on the pricing of Approved Resellers, exchange rates, taxes such as consumption tax, and shipping costs. The official prices cannot be treated as the purchase price in Japan.
From $120 to $385: A 220.8% Increase in About 11 Months
The $80 increase alone does not fully convey the surge in the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5's price. Looking back over the past year, the model's price has been raised in stages, and by large amounts. A product that cost $120 before the December 2025 revision now costs $385.
The first major increase was announced on December 1, 2025. Citing rising memory costs, Raspberry Pi raised the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 by $25, from $120 to $145. On February 2, 2026, a price revision based on memory capacity followed, making the 16GB model another $60 more expensive, for a calculated price of $205. On April 1, a further $100 increase was announced, bringing the price to $305. Then the $80 increase on November 2 brought it to the current $385.
データを表で見る
| Official/calculated price (USD) (USD) | |
|---|---|
| Before Dec. 2025 | 120 |
| Dec. 1, 2025 | 145 |
| Feb. 2, 2026 | 205 |
| Apr. 1, 2026 | 305 |
| Nov. 2, 2026 | 385 |
Compared with the price before the December 2025 increase, the rise over roughly 11 months comes to $265. That is about 3.21 times the original price, a cumulative increase of 220.8%. Raspberry Pi has revised the prices of its 2GB and 4GB versions in the past and introduced new capacity configurations such as 1GB and 3GB, but repeated increases as large as those for the 16GB model are unusual. For users who need a large amount of memory in particular, the price appeal of the Raspberry Pi 5 has changed significantly.
| Date / product | Configuration / change | Price before | Increase | Price after | Price type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec. 1, 2025 | 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 | $120 | +$25 | $145 | Official announcement |
| Feb. 2, 2026 | 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 | $145 | +$60 | $205 | Calculated from announced increase |
| Apr. 1, 2026 | 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 | $205 | +$100 | $305 | Calculated from announced increase |
| Nov. 2, 2026 | 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 | $305 | +$80 | $385 | Official announcement |
| Nov. 2, 2026 | 16GB Compute Module 5 (all configurations) | Each model's previous price | +$40 | Previous price +$40 | Official announcement |
| Nov. 2, 2026 | 16GB Raspberry Pi 500+ | $410 | $0 (unchanged) | $410 | Official announcement |
What this price history makes clear is that the Raspberry Pi lineup as a whole is not becoming more expensive across the board. Lower-capacity models have also seen price revisions, but for the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5, the rising cost of sourcing high-capacity memory has had an especially large effect. Now that a configuration once available for $120 requires $385, choosing more memory than necessary carries a far greater cost burden than before.
High-Density DRAM Shortages Behind the Increase
Raspberry Pi cited a lack of alternative sources for 16GB DRAM and continuing shortages of other components as the main reasons for the increase. Even for a company that has spread low-priced computers widely, absorbing the higher cost of sourcing large-capacity memory has become difficult.
To make its supply chain more flexible, Raspberry Pi has traditionally sourced compatible components from multiple manufacturers and qualified each of them for use in its products. However, for DRAM that achieves 16GB in a single chip or high-density package, the company says the available alternative suppliers are limited. That leaves little room to hold down rising procurement costs by switching to another manufacturer's parts. The company has not disclosed which manufacturers' DRAM is in short supply, how unit procurement prices have moved, or a cost breakdown based on the bill of materials (BOM).
The background is likely a shift in the supply-and-demand structure of the overall DRAM market amid growing AI demand. A research report published on September 30, 2026 by market research firm TrendForce pointed out that DRAM makers are prioritizing advanced-process manufacturing capacity for high-performance products for AI servers and HBM (high-bandwidth memory). As production capacity shifts toward server products, the supply allocated to consumer and mobile DRAM is reportedly being squeezed.
However, the tightness of the overall DRAM market should be distinguished from the procurement costs Raspberry Pi actually bears. TrendForce's research analyzes industry-wide trends and does not reveal the individual contract terms or delivery records between Raspberry Pi and its component suppliers. There is also no public data to determine how much of the $80 and $40 increases is due to higher DRAM purchase prices, and how much is due to other component shortages, exchange rates, logistics costs and so on. Growing demand for AI memory is important background that is changing supply structures across the industry, but how much it is reflected in Raspberry Pi's product costs is unknown.
Just $25 Separates It From the Raspberry Pi 500+, Affecting Product Choice
The most striking effect of this increase is the price gap between the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 and the Raspberry Pi 500+. The standalone Raspberry Pi 5 board is now $385, while the complete desktop Raspberry Pi 500+ stays at $410. Although the two products serve different purposes, they carry the same 16GB of memory and are separated by only $25.
The Raspberry Pi 500+ comes standard with a keyboard-integrated enclosure using mechanical key switches, a cooling system and a 256GB NVMe SSD. By contrast, using the standalone Raspberry Pi 5 as a desktop PC requires separately preparing a power adapter, a cooling fan and case, storage such as a microSD card, a keyboard and a mouse. If you use an SSD, depending on the configuration you also need expansion parts such as an M.2 HAT. The cost of these peripherals easily exceeds $25, so for building an ordinary desktop environment, the Raspberry Pi 500+ has a large price advantage.
That said, the Raspberry Pi 500+ is not a substitute for the Raspberry Pi 5 in every use. The standalone Raspberry Pi 5 offers a high degree of freedom, including access to the 40-pin GPIO header, expansion over PCIe, and integration into custom enclosures and various devices. The Raspberry Pi 500+, on the other hand, is designed with desktop usability in mind and is limited for custom hardware development using GPIO or PCIe. Installation space, power specifications and weight also differ, so the two cannot simply be swapped just because the price gap is small. This price revision arguably makes it even more important to choose a product according to the intended use.
For industrial uses, the higher price of the Compute Module 5 is a more direct problem. According to the product brief from September 2026 (DS-11), the base price of the 16GB CM5 ranged from $335 to $375 depending on storage capacity and whether wireless is included. Applying this $40 increase puts the calculated price range at $375 to $415. For companies that have adopted CM5 in their embedded device designs, the material cost per unit goes up.
データを表で見る
| Base price (USD) (USD) | |
|---|---|
| Pi 5 (16GB) | 385 |
| Pi 500+ (16GB) | 410 |
| CM5 Lite (16GB) | 375 |
| CM5 top config (16GB) | 415 |
Raspberry Pi says it will continue producing Compute Module 5 until at least January 2036. However, this long-term supply commitment is a promise to keep manufacturing the product, not a guarantee that selling prices will hold steady. Being able to source the same hardware over the long term is a separate matter from being able to buy it at a fixed price. Companies developing embedded devices need to review their BOMs for each configuration they adopt, including memory capacity, eMMC storage and wireless functionality, rather than treating CM5 as a single item.
Raspberry Pi itself advises users not to buy more memory than they need. Its official announcement lists options such as switching to lower-capacity models like 8GB or 4GB, adopting previous-generation Raspberry Pi boards, and optimizing the memory usage of applications. Rather than choosing the maximum capacity to leave room for the future, as has been common, determining the memory actually required for the use case is now important for keeping costs down.
However, for uses that actually require 16GB of memory, simply reducing capacity is not an option. For example, when running large language models locally, or in real-time video processing that uses large buffers, running short of memory can directly affect processing performance and stability. In development settings, it is necessary to measure peak memory usage and performance at runtime and verify whether configurations of 8GB or less can meet the requirements. Now that the 16GB model has reached $385, the choice of memory capacity has become an even bigger factor in product cost than before.
Raspberry Pi also urges caution about price gouging and counterfeit products in unofficial sales channels. To avoid expensive resales that take advantage of the high-density DRAM shortage, it recommends buying from Approved Resellers around the world. For companies that need continuous component procurement in particular, the reliability of the supplier and the stability of procurement are important considerations alongside the purchase price.
In this announcement, Raspberry Pi said it views the current memory supply shortage as "ultimately temporary," and stated its intention to reverse the increases if memory costs fall again. However, it did not indicate the specific cost conditions or timing for lowering prices. Given that the price of the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 has risen more than threefold in about 11 months, product selection and procurement planning will need to assume the current price level for the time being. Going forward, the focus will be on DRAM supply conditions as well as when, and starting with which products, Raspberry Pi will cut prices.