Raspberry Pi Raises Prices Again: 16GB Pi 5 Approaches $400, New 3GB Pi 4 Launched
Raspberry Pi Raises Prices Again: 16GB Pi 5 Approaches $400, New 3GB Pi 4 Launched
Arrived at the third round of price increases in less than five months, Raspberry Pi has announced today new hikes across a large part of its catalog, introducing at the same time a new model: the Raspberry Pi 4 with 3GB, available immediately at the price of $83.75 (approximately 90-100 euros in European stores, VAT included). The announcement was made on April 1st, but the official blog explicitly stated that it was not an "April Fools' joke."
The Cost of LPDDR4 Has Skyrocketed
The reason behind these increases is the same that led to adjustments of the price list from December 2025 to February 2026: the cost of LPDDR4 memory used in Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 5 has risen sevenfold over the past year. The demand for production capacity in memory foundries from AI infrastructures has created unprecedented pressure on the market, driving spot prices to levels that make it impossible to keep the price list unchanged. Looking at previous rounds: in December 2025, price increases reached up to $25 for individual models, followed by a second intervention of approximately $60 on some variants in February 2026, which had already set off alarm bells.
CEO Eben Upton reiterated that the foundation is not looking to increase its margins but is simply having to transfer some of the additional costs to final prices. When the DRAM market normalizes, prices will return to previous levels: a commitment made before and confirmed again this time. "2026 is shaping up to be another difficult year for memory prices, but we are working to limit the impact," Upton wrote in the official post.
What Increases and by How Much
Today's increases affect all variants of Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 5 with 4GB or more of memory, the entire Compute Module 4, 4S, and 5 family, the Development Kit for CM5, the Pi 500 and Pi 500+ models, and the Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 2.
For Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi 5: there is a surcharge of $25 on the 4GB variant, $50 on the 8GB, and $100 on the 16GB (only Pi 5). For Compute Module 4 and 4S: the increase is $11.25 on the 1GB version, $12.50 on the 2GB, $25 on the 4GB, and $50 on the 8GB. The Compute Module 5 follows the same scale as CM4/4S for shared densities, with an additional increase of $100 on the 16GB version. The Development Kit for CM5 rises by $25. The Raspberry Pi 500 (unit and kit) increases by $50, while the Pi 500+, both in the standalone unit and kit versions, faces a significant increase of $150. Finally, the Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 2 increases by $50.
Anyone looking at these cumulative numbers with the 16GB Pi 5 as a historical reference can get a concrete measure of the magnitude of the problem: summing the three rounds of increases (December 2025, February 2026, today), the flagship model has accumulated over $185 in total price increases. In Europe, retailers who have already updated their price lists quote the Pi 5 16GB between €375 and €380, VAT included. Those who still find lower prices on comparison sites are likely drawing from pre-increase stock.
The New 3GB Pi 4: A New Intermediate Size
The most interesting move of the announcement is the launch of the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 3GB of RAM at $83.75, equivalent to about 90-100 euros at retail in Europe with VAT. This is a non-standard memory configuration for the ARM architecture and likely arises from pairing two dies of different densities (1GB + 2GB) on the dual RAM position already available on the PCB of the Pi 4. The positioning is aimed at those who find the jump between the 2GB and 4GB variants—now further increased—too steep and need more headroom without wanting to pay the premium of the higher tier. Upton himself introduced it as part of the engineering work to "expand the range of memory density options."
What Remains Unchanged
Raspberry Pi has kept the price of the Pi 400 with 4GB at $60 and confirmed that the 1GB and 2GB variants of Pi 4 and Pi 5 remain between $35 and $65: the Pi 5 with 2GB, which can already be found in European stores around €75-76, remains the most affordable entry point in the current range. The foundation explicitly advises to evaluate whether their application really requires more than 2GB before proceeding with the purchase. In other words, this is a "right-sizing" approach, and for the moment, it is the main (if not the only) lever in the hands of the consumer to manage expenses.
Completely exempt from the increases are all classic models: Raspberry Pi Zero, Zero W, Zero 2 W, Pi 1, Pi 3, Pi 3B+, Pi 3A+, Compute Module 1, and CM3+. These boards use LPDDR2 memory, of which Raspberry Pi has substantial stocks, and will continue to be produced and supported with software updates.
Raspberry Pi continues to reiterate that the situation is temporary, but does not provide time estimates. The promise of price reversibility remains in place, but the trajectory of the last few weeks, which has seen three rounds of increases in less than five months, does not suggest an imminent reversal.