Summary

  • RAM costs rose, forcing Raspberry Pi to raise Pi 4 and Pi 5 prices.
  • Pi 5 16GB jumps $25 to $145; Pi 5 1GB is now available at $45.
  • Lower-density Pi 4, Pi 3+, and Pi Zero unchanged; CM5 16GB up $20.

It's no secret that the price of RAM has skyrocketed in recent weeks. If you ask an expert why, they'll likely point to the adoption of AI and the demand for hardware as the primary cause, although not everyone will believe it. Regardless of the reason, the truth is that RAM has gotten expensive, and this has put pressure on companies that sell pre-made hardware to either take the financial hit or up their prices.

As for Raspberry Pi, the foundation has taken the latter route, as it has now announced a price increase across its Pi 4 and Pi 5 models. And, I'd hate to say it, but the price increases aren't exactly so small you can shrug them off.

The Raspberry Pi 5 16GB is now $25 more expensive

As announced on the Raspberry Pi blog, the foundation laid out some good news and some bad news. The good news is, we now know how much a Raspberry Pi 5 with 1GB of RAM will cost. You can snap one up right now for just $45, which seems like a solid price.

The bad news is that existing Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 products are getting a price increase. As you can imagine, the more RAM the product has, the loftier the price hike. This ranges from a $5 increase for the Pi 4 with 4GB of RAM to a nasty $25 increase for the Pi 5 with 16GB of RAM.

Here's the full rundown, including the new 1GB Pi 5 variant:

Product

Density

Old price

New price

Raspberry Pi 4

4GB

$55

$60

Raspberry Pi 4

8GB

$75

$85

Raspberry Pi 5

1GB

–

$45

Raspberry Pi 5

2GB

$50

$55

Raspberry Pi 5

4GB

$60

$70

Raspberry Pi 5

8GB

$80

$95

Raspberry Pi 5

16GB

$120

$145

Raspberry Pi also confirmed that the Compute Module 5 16GB variants will also see a price hike, with an extra $20 added to the cost. Fortunately, the foundation did confirm that "The prices of lower-density Raspberry Pi 4 variants, of Raspberry Pi 3+ and earlier models, and of Raspberry Pi Zero products" will remain untouched, so you don't have to worry about those.

As such, while it is bad news for people getting into the SBC hobby, it's not like the older Raspberry Pi boards are so outdated that they cannot perform any modern-day tasks. In fact, it's always a good idea to do some research and find a Pi that fits the job you want it to perform to prevent shelling out for hardware you won't properly use. If you don't believe me, check out these projects we've already built with a $15 Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, which was released in 2021.