Raspberry Pi 5 16GB price rises to $385 amid DRAM shortages
Raspberry Pi says constrained 16GB DRAM supply has pushed the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 to $385, while the Raspberry Pi 500+ avoids a rise.
Raspberry Pi has raised the price of its 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 by $80, taking the board to $385 from 2 November. The company says a lack of alternative 16GB DRAM supply, alongside wider component shortages, has made the increase unavoidable.1
The change is limited rather than a blanket rise across the range. Raspberry Pi says 16GB Compute Module 5 variants are also increasing by $40, with updated prices listed in the product brief on the Compute Module 5 product page.1 The company has held the price of Raspberry Pi 500+, its 16GB all-in-one desktop computer built into a mechanical keyboard.
Why the price is rising
Raspberry Pi says memory costs have risen sharply over the past two years and that it has already made selective increases on the products most affected. It says it has been qualifying alternative parts to keep costs down, but cannot find enough alternative supply for 16GB DRAM in this case.1
The company describes the current increases as temporary and says it hopes to roll them back when memory costs fall. That is a company expectation rather than a promise with a timetable, so buyers should treat the $385 price as the current position rather than assume a near-term reduction.
Raspberry Pi is also encouraging customers to avoid paying for memory they do not need. Its suggestions include choosing a lower-density variant or an earlier model, and optimising memory use in software. Those options may help some projects, although the right choice depends on the workload and the availability of each model.
What buyers should know
The announcement does not set out UK or EU pricing, so the dollar figure cannot be converted directly into a local retail price. Raspberry Pi also warns that some sellers are exploiting the memory shortage to charge inflated prices or move products that are not what they appear to be. It recommends buying through its official network of Approved Resellers.1
The price rise matters because the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 is aimed at projects that genuinely benefit from a larger memory pool, rather than being a universal replacement for lower-capacity boards. Anyone starting a new build should compare the workload with the price difference before choosing the top-memory model.
Our opinion
A $385 Raspberry Pi 5 is a difficult proposition for casual tinkering, but the explanation is more specific than a vague shortage surcharge: Raspberry Pi is pointing to constrained 16GB DRAM supply and says it has protected other products where it can. The sensible response is not to treat 16GB as the default. If a project does not need it, the cheaper variant is now the more compelling buy; if it does, the extra capacity may still be justified, but the price makes that decision much harder.