Raspberry Pi 5 16GB Model Surges to $385 Due to RAM Crunch

The 16GB version of the Raspberry Pi 5 now costs $385. That price is more than triple what the board cost when it debuted less than two years ago.

Rising costs for computer memory are driving the dramatic price increase. Data centers around the world are consuming large amounts of the global RAM supply. That heavy demand has created an artificial intelligence-powered crunch that makes cheap memory hard to find.

The Raspberry Pi 5 launched in 2023 with a 4GB variant starting at $60. The 16GB version later debuted in January 2025 for $120. It is now more than 300 percent as expensive as it was at launch.

Other hardware in the lineup has also seen price bumps. The slim Pi Compute Module 5 16GB went from $335 to $375. According to CEO Ebon Upton, the company is trying to avoid raising prices for the Pi 500+ PC-in-a-keyboard, likely because the company sells fewer of those units than regular Pi devices.

High demand for these boards has also caused shortages, with scalping problems making the hardware even harder to find at a fair price. Addressing the wider market conditions, Upton stated that the current landscape is ultimately temporary. The manufacturer expects to roll back the price increases when memory costs eventually fall again, though no clear timeline has been provided.

Summary

The Raspberry Pi is famous for being a cheap, open, and easy-to-use project computer. Global memory shortages driven by data centers have pushed the price of high-end models up significantly, though the manufacturer hopes to lower prices when the market improves.