Raspberry Pi 5 16GB price increase: the board now costs $385
Raspberry Pi raised the price of the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 by $80 to $385 on Monday, November 2, and added $40 to every Compute Module 5 with 16GB of RAM. The company blames a lack of alternative supply for 16GB memory chips. It's the latest in a series of memory-driven price rises on its boards.
What changed
The increase took effect on November 2, according to a blog post by Eben Upton. The 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 goes from $305 to $385.
The 16GB Compute Module 5 variants each go up by $40. The updated product brief lists them from $375 for the Lite model without onboard storage or wireless to $415 for the wireless version with 64GB of eMMC storage.
One 16GB product is spared. Raspberry Pi says it is holding the price of the Raspberry Pi 500+, its all-in-one desktop computer built into a mechanical keyboard, which also has 16GB of RAM. Its product page lists it from $410.
Why prices went up
Upton writes that memory prices have risen steeply over the past two years and that the company has already made selective increases on the products most affected. He says the company is qualifying alternative parts to widen its sourcing, but a lack of alternative supply for 16GB DRAM, along with other component shortages, forced another round of increases on its highest-memory products.
The company says it avoided raising prices across the whole lineup. It also says it expects to roll the increases back once memory costs fall, though it gave no timeline.
Watch out for inflated prices
Raspberry Pi warns that some sellers are exploiting the memory shortage to charge more than official prices or to sell products that aren't what they claim to be. It points buyers to its list of Approved Resellers, which sell at official prices.
What it means for you
If you were about to buy a 16GB Raspberry Pi 5, check whether you need that much memory. Raspberry Pi itself suggests lower-memory models, older boards or memory tuning in your software as ways to pay less.
If you do need 16GB in a desktop, the Raspberry Pi 500+ now costs $25 more than the bare 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 board, and the computer comes built into a keyboard. Businesses building on the 16GB Compute Module 5 should budget for the extra $40 per unit and can contact Raspberry Pi about memory optimization.
Buy from an Approved Reseller and be wary of listings priced well above the official figures.