Just two months after the last price increase, your slice of Raspberry Pi just got a lot more expensive and AI is squarely to blame.
Writing in an official blog post, Raspberry Pi co-founder and CEO Eben Upton shared the bad news that price rises have accelerated and the cost of some parts has more than doubled over the last quarter. That means that the current flagship Raspberry Pi 5 and the older flagship Raspberry Pi 4, along with their Compute Module variants with 2GB or more memory, are seeing up to a $60 price increase, on top of the previous increases.
The general theme is that no matter the product (Pi 4 and 5, Compute Module 4 and 5), each memory density will see a price increase. So a Raspberry Pi 500 would now cost $130 from Adafruit. The Raspberry Pi 500+, with its 16GB of RAM goes from $220 to a whopping $280 at Adafruit!
Memory Density | Price Increase |
1GB | 0 |
2GB | $10 |
4GB | $15 |
8GB | $30 |
16GB | $60 |
We've gone through the price increases and illustrated the original retail price, the December 2025 price, and the new price. The Raspberry Pi 5 16GB has gone from $120 to $205, quite frankly an eye watering sum of money. But the most expensive Pi is the Raspberry Pi 500+, which jumps from $180 to $259, nearly $80!
Model | February 2026 Price | December 2025 Price | Original Price |
Raspberry Pi 5 1GB | No change | No change | $45 |
Raspberry Pi 5 2GB | $65 | $55 | $50 |
Raspberry Pi 5 4GB | $85 | $70 | $60 |
Raspberry Pi 5 8GB | $125 | $95 | $80 |
Raspberry Pi 5 16GB | $205 | $145 | $120 |
Raspberry Pi 4 4GB | $75 (based on table in blog post) | $60 | $55 |
Raspberry Pi 4 8GB | $115 (based on table in blog post) | $85 | $75 |
Raspberry Pi 500 (8GB) | $119 | $99 | $90 |
Raspberry Pi 500+ 16GB (MicroCenter) | $259 | $180 | $180 |
Raspberry Pi 400 | No change | No change | $59 |
There are some models of Raspberry Pi that are not impacted. The Raspberry Pi 400, Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero 2W, Raspberry Pi 3, and older Pi products, along with 1GB models of Pi 4 and Pi 5, remain at the usual price. But Upton writes that "We don’t anticipate any changes to the price ..." so it's not entirely out of the question.
The $45 Raspberry Pi 5 1GB, introduced in December 2025, is there to keep the original low price of the Raspberry Pi (which was $35 back in the early days) and to set a low-cost point of entry into the Raspberry Pi ecosystem. It has the same Arm CPU as every other Raspberry Pi 5, just not the RAM. We didn't review the 1GB model, but the 2GB model was plenty for emulation and general computing. The 1GB model, though, is keenly priced, but it won't offer the best experience if you crave a desktop replacement.
So what's to blame for this price rise? Artificial Intelligence. Specifically, the rising cost of LPDDR4 memory, which is being squeezed out of fabs in favor of more lucrative AI data infrastructure revenue streams. The impact of AI has already increased the price of the best CPUs, RAM, and SSDs, and Raspberry Pi is not immune.
As per the last paragraph of Upton's blog post, 2026 is shaping up to be a challenging year for memory pricing. Upton is keen to point out that the situation is temporary, and "we look forward to unwinding these price increases once it abates." But who knows when that will be.
The Raspberry Pi, once a low-cost entry to Linux, robotics, electronics, and general computing, is now almost as costly with more powerful x86 mini PCs. Yes, the Arm CPU is more frugal with electricity, but the x86 CPUs have greater horsepower and a greater choice of operating systems.
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