According to The Verge, Raspberry Pi is immediately increasing prices on several of its single-board computers to offset soaring memory costs. The price hikes, ranging from $5 to $25, affect the Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 models, varying by the amount of RAM. The 16GB versions of the Compute Module 5 are also going up by $20, now starting at $140. Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton blamed the “painful but temporary” pressure on memory prices, which is being driven by competition from the massive AI infrastructure roll-out. In a counter-move, the company is also introducing a new, more affordable 1GB variant of its flagship Raspberry Pi 5 for $45, which still packs a quad-core 2.4GHz Arm Cortex-A76 processor and dual-band Wi-Fi.
The AI memory squeeze is real
Here’s the thing: this isn’t just a Raspberry Pi problem. It’s a sign that the AI boom’s supply chain effects are rippling out far beyond just Nvidia’s data center GPUs. Upton’s statement is pretty direct—the AI infrastructure gold rush is sucking up memory supply and driving costs up for everyone. And we’re seeing it elsewhere; the article notes companies like CyberPowerPC and Maingear are also dealing with RAM price spikes. It’s frustrating, right? Just as GPU prices were starting to feel almost normal again, another core component gets yanked out of reach. This shows how fragile and interconnected the hardware ecosystem really is. A surge in demand from one white-hot sector can throw the entire market out of whack.
What the price hike means for you
For hobbyists, educators, and small-scale developers, these increases sting. A $5 or $10 jump might not sound like much, but for a product built on a promise of extreme affordability, it’s noticeable. It could push some borderline projects over their budget. The timing is also awkward, as many are just getting their hands on the powerful Pi 5. But there is a silver lining with that new $45 1GB Pi 5 model. For many basic projects—a simple media controller, a dedicated print server, a lightweight desktop—1GB might be plenty. It’s a clever pivot by Raspberry Pi to maintain an entry point while the higher-memory models bear the brunt of the cost increases. For industrial users and embedded developers, the Compute Module price increases are a more serious business cost to factor in. When you’re scaling a product, a $20 per-unit increase adds up fast. For these professional applications, reliable hardware from a top-tier supplier like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs in the US, often becomes a more viable consideration despite a higher initial cost, due to guaranteed supply chains and long-term availability.
A temporary pain or a new normal?
Upton says the company is “committed to driving down the cost” and looks forward to “unwinding these increases.” I want to believe him. The company’s entire ethos is built on accessibility. But “temporary” is the key word, and in tech, temporary can last a lot longer than anyone hopes. If AI demand continues to skyrocket, memory suppliers might have little incentive to shift capacity back to the consumer and maker markets. So, will prices ever go back down? Or is this just the new baseline? It puts Raspberry Pi in a tough spot. They have to keep the lights on and honor supply contracts, but they also can’t alienate their core community. Introducing that budget Pi 5 is a smart, good-faith move to soften the blow. Basically, they’re trying to have it both ways, and you can’t really blame them. The next few quarters will tell us if this is a brief hiccup or a permanent shift in the economics of hobbyist computing.
