The Raspberry Pi 5 16GB now costs $385, more than triple its launch price

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Thanks, AI: The Raspberry Pi is a widely popular platform for custom computing devices and other DIY projects. Unfortunately, the UK company is making some of its most successful products more expensive. A Raspberry Pi 5 now costs significantly more than when the device was first introduced.

Earlier this week, Raspberry Pi co-founder and CEO Eben Upton announced another price hike, this time affecting the 16GB variant of the Raspberry Pi 5. The company's highest-capacity single-board computer will cost $80 more, bringing the final price to $385. A "puny" SBC now costs more than a complete mini PC, although Upton hopes the increases can be reversed eventually.

The latest increase follows a long list of hikes announced over the past year. The original Raspberry Pi 5 launched in 2023 at $80 for the 8GB model, while the 16GB version debuted in January 2025 at $120. The latter is now one of the most expensive products Raspberry Pi has ever sold.

Upton said the company was essentially forced to raise the price. It still lacks a suitable alternative source of 16GB DRAM modules and, like the rest of the IT industry, is dealing with several component shortages. At least Raspberry Pi is trying to avoid "blanket" price increases across its entire product line.

The Pi 5 is one of the company's most popular SBCs, and the 16GB model is its top configuration, which means Raspberry Pi is going through a lot of supply chain trouble to keep bringing new boards to customers. The 16GB Compute Module 5 is also getting a $40 increase, while the premium all-in-one Raspberry Pi 500+ stays at its current price despite packing 16GB of RAM.

Either way, the new increases will be felt by DIY enthusiasts and custom device manufacturers alike. The change was "unavoidable," Upton said, but existing users can try to avoid spending more by optimizing memory use or moving to lower-density Pi variants in their projects. Developers can also ask for help on Raspberry Pi's forums, where the company's engineers often answer questions directly.

Upton described today's memory market as extremely complex and difficult, but said the problem is ultimately temporary. Price hikes could eventually be rolled back if and when memory chip costs normalize, hopefully in the not-so-distant future.

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The Raspberry Pi 5 16GB now costs $385, more than triple its launch price

 

[yRaz]

I was getting into SBCs and ARM for awhile but it's just too expensive for the compromises you have to make now. I really want the new Radxa Q8B but they aren't even avalible right now at any price. I see one pop up on ebay every couple weeks and it'll be like $600+ for the 4GB model. I really want the Q8B 32GB but outside of like 2 youtube reviews, I haven't even seen one listed. I had a project I wanted to do where I needed an ARM chip with an Ardeno GPU, but these SBCs are getting so out of hand expensive due to the ram problem that it's not even fun anymore. I can justify spending $200 on some project that will take up a few weeks of my time, I can't justify spending $2000+ for the same thing.

 

[VitalyT]

You can buy a much more powerful and useful used laptop for such money. But this is for people who understand where the value is, and used laptop market offers the best value.

 

[yRaz]

You can buy a much more powerful and useful used laptop for such money. But this is for people who understand where the value is, and used laptop market offers the best value.

I was a big fan of the Dell 5520's for awhile because I could get them for under $100 just a year ago and they would be a perfect computer for someone who just needs a basic computer. They're hard to get for under $300. Still provides a lot of value for $300 even in this market but it still sucks. Those 11gen i7 systems gave a lot of bang for you buck and could even do some light gaming because they were using the XE cores that were being put into the Arc graphics cards. Not saying they were a great experince but they were perfectly fine as a fortnite, skyrim or MMOs.

 

[Aolish]

Its a perfect time now to get your hands on all those Win10 PCs that are being thrown out by corporations all over the world lol. 2nd to 7th gen intel desktops are still great for all the DIYers that still want to get into their projects done. I manage to get myself several 6th gen as well as a couple of 4th gen HP and dell desktops.

 

[RudyBob]

They used to be cool and have a purpose. No longer

 

[demonicmaniac]

Used laptops have always been the only sane way to buy them - but times have changed there as well. Used to be able to get 3 year lease returners swamping the used market for less than half their new price but nowadays they first get stripped of ram and flash before being sold as used - so if you get an 8gb 256gb ssd used laptop you still need to throw another 200+ for more ram and storage, especially dualchannel if you want to do any gaming on the igp. There's also hardly anything post 2022 on the used market for prices sub 500 - talking about business lease returners not consumer/gamer models. Finding a laptop with 32gb ram even 6 years old is likely to cost 500+ nowadays

 

[Axeia]

I can never really find a use for a Raspberry Pi, there's cheaper options every time I consider one.

Need GPIO pins and low power draw?
ESP32 and its successors/variants might be far less powerful but so is the power draw and it's a fraction of the cost (I got some for like €5). Any home automation stuff works great, can even drive decently sized displays.
(or Nordic nrf52840 for really low power draw).
If you still want to support the Raspberry Pi Foundation get a Pico Pi I guess.

HTPC?
Rather lackluster in codec support and not powerful enough to bruteforce the modern ones on higher resolutions/bitrates.
For Kodi etc, just get an Android TV box off Aliexpress and flash it with OpenElec or a clean Android TV rom. It's cheaper, looks better, uses less power, etc etc.
If you want to watch Netflix and stuff, get something like a Xiaomi TV Box if you don't want get to shafted on wildvine support - still cheaper and more power efficient to boot.

Router?
Lacks the hardware to handle many wireless connection so you end up connecting it to an actual router anyway so why not have one less device and just run OpenWRT directly on a router, could be a cheap one or could be the Banana Pi.

Simple computer/NAS?
I'll just dust off an old system or get a used one super cheap on eBay/Facebook marketplace.
Cheaper, more powerful.

Feels like the Raspberry Pi is in a nowhere land to me, jack of all trades - master of none and expensive to boot. The first one was cool because the really tiny boards lacked power and the Pi itself was affordable, but those glory days have passed.