Raspberry Pi has announced a price increase for several of its single-board computers to counteract the rising costs of memory. Effective immediately, the price hikes affect models including the Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5, with increases ranging from $5 to $25 based on the specific model and RAM configuration. Notably, the 16GB variants of the Compute Module 5 will see a price increase of $20, now priced at $140.
CEO Eben Upton commented on the situation, stating, “The current pressure on memory prices, driven by competition from the AI infrastructure roll-out, is painful but ultimately temporary.” He expressed optimism about eventually reversing these price increases once the market stabilizes. Raspberry Pi has a long-standing commitment to making computing affordable, and Upton reassured users that efforts to reduce costs will continue.
In a parallel move to maintain accessibility, Raspberry Pi is launching a new 1GB version of the Raspberry Pi 5 model at an appealing price of $45. This upgraded model features a quad-core 2.4GHz Arm Cortex-A76 processor, dual-band Wi-Fi, and a PCI Express port, catering to a broad range of users, from hobbyists to educators.
Raspberry Pi is not alone in navigating these challenges; companies like CyberPowerPC and Maingear are similarly grappling with increased RAM prices. As demand remains high, the limited supply of memory has caused some retailers to adjust prices dramatically, reminiscent of earlier fluctuations seen in GPU pricing.
The adjustments made by Raspberry Pi reflect both the current industry challenges and the company’s resilience in maintaining its mission of affordable computing. Looking ahead, there is hope that these prices will stabilize as market conditions improve, allowing Raspberry Pi to revert to its historically accessible pricing.