Raspberry Pi has announced yet another round of price hikes, this time adding $80 to the cost of its 16GB Pi 5, which now sells for more than three times its original launch price.
The latest bump, announced by Raspberry Pi boss Eben Upton, takes the 16GB Pi 5 to a whopping $385. The 16GB Compute Module 5 variants are also getting $40 more expensive, although the Raspberry Pi 500+, which packs the same amount of RAM, has escaped this particular round.
Upton blamed a familiar culprit: soaring memory costs, worsened by a lack of alternative suppliers for 16GB DRAM and ongoing shortages of other components.
"Unfortunately, a lack of alternative supply for 16GB DRAM, compounded by other ongoing component shortages, means we now need to make further price increases on some of our highest-density products," Upton wrote.
It's becoming an expensive habit for Raspberry Pi customers. The 16GB Pi 5 cost $120 when it launched in January 2025, which seems almost reasonable now. Raspberry Pi added $25 in December, another $60 in February, and a further $100 in April. With today's $80 increase, buyers are being asked to cough up $265 more than they were less than two years ago, a price hike of 221 percent.
And it's barely been a month since Raspberry Pi raised prices on its 2GB Pi 4 and Pi 5 models by $12.50 apiece, taking them to $67.50 and $77.50 respectively.
The repeated markups come despite Raspberry Pi reporting record first-half results in September. Revenue jumped 90 percent to $256.9 million, while gross profit rose 79 percent to $59.4 million. Gross profit per board climbed 53 percent to $12.20, helped partly by memory purchased before prices went through the roof. That stockpile advantage has since largely disappeared.
For customers unwilling to pay nearly $400 for a single-board computer, Upton advises buying something with less RAM, using an older Pi, or optimizing applications to make do with less memory.
He also warned that some sellers are exploiting the shortages by charging inflated prices or offering products that aren't what they appear to be, urging customers to stick to approved resellers.
“We’re aware that a few bad actors have been taking advantage of the current memory supply circumstances to sell Raspberry Pi products at inflated prices or shift products that aren’t what they seem,” he said.
There is, apparently, some good news, as Raspberry Pi continues to insist the increases are temporary. "As we've said from the beginning, 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," Upton wrote.
That could be a long wait. Micron has previously warned that memory shortages could drag on into 2028 or beyond, so anyone hoping to see a $120 Pi 5 again probably shouldn't hold their breath. ®
