Raspberry Pi has announced yet another price increase, this time for most models with 16GB of RAM. The Raspberry Pi 5 16GB now sells for $385, an $80 increase compared to the last price hike in April, and the Raspberry Pi CM5 system-on-module gets a $40 increase, starting at $375 for the Lite model without wireless.
The “good news” is that the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard PC stays at the same price, starting at $410. I suppose they can afford it on that model, because it’s already richly priced and the demand must be lower than for single board computers and compute modules.
Here’s the updated price list for the Compute Module 5 16GB variants.
| Part number | eMMC | Wireless | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| CM5016000 | 0GB (Lite) | No | $375 |
| CM5016016 | 16GB | No | $400 |
| CM5016032 | 32GB | No | $410 |
| CM5016064 | 64GB | No | $410 |
| CM5116000 | 0GB (Lite) | Yes | $380 |
| CM5116016 | 16GB | Yes | $405 |
| CM5116032 | 32GB | Yes | $415 |
| CM5116064 | 64GB | Yes | $415 |
Interestingly, the price is the same whether we get 32GB or 64GB eMMC flash.
I still remember people complaining about the $120 launch price of the Raspberry Pi 5 16GB. That was less than two years ago, and that price would feel like a bargain today. Of course, Raspberry Pi isn’t the only company impacted by high RAM prices this year. Here’s a recent list of price hikes for popular SBCs and SoMs:
- April 1, 2026 – All Raspberry Pi boards with 4GB RAM or more get a price increase. The Raspberry Pi 4 3GB is launched to compensate somewhat.
- July 22, 2026 – NVIDIA increases the price of Jetson modules and devkits by up to 101%
- October 1, 2026 – Raspberry Pi 4/5 2GB boards aren’t immune and also get a price hike.
- October 19, 2026 – The Arduino VENTUNO Q now sells for $399 instead of $299. In all fairness, the latter was an introductory price, so the higher retail price was expected.
Of course, all other vendors like Orange Pi, Radxa, Hardkernel, Banana Pi, and so on, also had their own price increases, just not as broadly advertised across the web.
So when will this all end? It’s hard to know. Micron expects the RAM shortage to last at least until 2028, and SK Hynix thinks it could only be resolved sometime in 2030. On the flip side, the stock prices of memory vendors have cratered in recent months, as investors worry about the sustainability of profits, which could signal cracks in the current cycle. Some of their customers also struggle to get financing as the price of tokens keeps collapsing, and the profitability of AI is put into question. The war in the Middle East is also a wildcard, as critical materials (e.g., helium) required for the manufacturing of wafers and chips could also experience shortages. We’ll have to wait and see.
Thanks to TLS and Anonymous for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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